We decided to run into town by dinghy, as it looked a rather long walk. We were not aware that it was a national holiday, so were surprised to see a lot of braid and swords about as we passed the naval base on the way in to the harbour. There were two large naval vessels resembling small carriers dressed overall, in addition to a number of smaller vessels. We were greeted by a 21 gun salute, but suspect that it was in honour of someone on the following naval launch. We managed to secure a top-up for the mobile phone before everything closed at 1pm, collected some cash ready for the battery delivery on Monday, and enjoyed drinks and a light lunch at a pavement cafe in the town. Returning to Fuga, we were caught out by rain, so arrived back on board somewhat dampened.
The best of intentions, to start to work on the generator, foundered, and we spent the day mostly relaxing.
We spent the day hoping and expecting delivery of the batteries, as well as the solenoid valve for the generator. John decided to take out the saloon forward seating to gain better access to the generator. He located the missing lead to the glow plug trapped by the exhaust manifold, so it was probably disturbed when the manifold was fitted in Almerimar. He then tackled making good the housing for the control panel, etc. which had deteriorated to the point where the control panel had been held in with duck tape. Some layers of glass fibre ribbon and polyester provided a key for self tapping screws to hold the panel. It was at this point the marina guys turned up with the hoped for solenoid, and once this was fitted the generator was soon running again. Later in the evening we were surprised to receive another package from Bartolini, namely the replacement Sterling advanced charge regulator. We went to bed on a 'high'.
We were expecting delivery of batteries from Mastervolt. These were 'cash on delivery' so we dared not leave the boat. After a lot of pondering, John decided to chop the leads to the Sterling regulator, and put in the new one, making sure the connections were good. Initial tests looked good. Mo meanwhile managed to finish off two pairs of shorts that she had been working on for some time, mastering the art of making buttonholes on her machine. There was a lot of excitement, as there is to be a major race from Brindisi to Corfu, starting tomorrow. Speeches and then live music, and loads of people... pretty girls in not much modelling the latest Ford.
John spent some time trying to contact the local Bertolini depot, then Mastervolt, trying to get our batteries delivered. It became necessary to threaten to leave without them (they had not been paid for), but eventually these efforts bore fruit, and the van turned up around 1330. The rest of the day was spent loading the new batteries using halyards as cranes, extracting the old ones, fitting the new batteries that needed their lifting handles shaving off some 3 mm to fit, and disposing of the old ones. None of this would have been possible without Mo's involvement in helping to shift the beasts In the midst of this we found time to take the dinghy out to the start of the Brindisi Corfu race, with over 100 entrants.
As we had been confined to the boat for 3 days awaiting delivery of the batteries, we had run short on some groceries. We set off into the town by dinghy, and raided the supermarket close to the quay that we had found on our first visit. A number of visiting yachts had berthed there, but the large naval vessels had left. Mo was suffering badly with a stiff painful neck, the consequence perhaps of helping manhandle the large heavy (70kg) batteries out of their 'rack' and then getting the new ones into place. We paid our dues, filled up with water, and then at 6pm went to the fuelling berth and filled up with diesel. After that we anchored just outside the marina, to simplify the getaway in the morning.
We got up smartly as soon as we came too with daylight showing, and we were away from the anchorage shortly after 6 am. Unfortunately at that point fog came down, reducing visibility in the harbour to 3 or 4 hundred yards. Mo was taking it easy coming to with her painful neck, as we made our way out of harbour using the plotter and radar. There was no wind, and we had to motor. It was some time before the warmth of the sun, still hidden behind cloud, lifted the fog. The coastguard were broadcasting gale warnings and warnings of thunderstorms for most of the sea areas around Italy, which did not appear to square with the forecasts we had over the internet: certainly the wind was variable and so light we did not even attempt to raise the main at first.
Once again we had another AIS-assisted close encounter: this could almost be predicted from the AIS traces on the chart plotter when the vessel was 12 miles away. At about 3 miles, I tried calling the Belize City (V3XT), who was overtaking us from our starboard quarter: our courses (he was on 318 doing 18 kts and we were on 348 doing 7 kts) were converging and it was too close to call. There was an unintelligible response from someone, and I repeated our name and callsign, and failing to establish his intentions I unilaterally announced an alteration of course onto 318 to run parallel with him and avoid crossing into his water. This brought on an over-enthusiastic coastguard (presumably) who thought we were broadcasting a request for help. It took some time to reassure him that we were not in trouble. Meanwhile another vessel crossing us both altered course and came down port to port, so that Fuga was sandwiched between them. As Belize City drew alongside, we resumed our course and crossed under her stern, noting as we did so that neither of her radars were running (in limited visibility)! So if you enounter this vessel on your travels, present our regards, but don't expect a reasonable standard of watchkeeping!
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. We were unable to sail, trying for half an hour to make use of the vestige of wind. On more than one occasion the autohelm did its party trick. Quite suddenly, it goes into a crash starboard turn, which can be interesting when powering at 7 knots under engine. On the second occasion we ran over our own fishing line, and had to cut the line away, which was already broken. Later we found that having got out of gear, the folding propeller would not deploy. A spell in reverse did however sort matters out, and we concluded that we had wrapped the line around the propeller. As the sun set, we could see dark clouds and lightning to the west. We had hopes that with no wind we might outrun the storm, but gradually the black shadow on the radar screen approached the centre, and as it did so, we started to get wet. Forked lightning, sheet lightning, rain, then hail. More lightning, very heavy rain and hail so that it was simply too painful to remain at the helm and take it. Alongside, the sea was whipped into a white snowfield. The wind, still mostly too light to be usable, veered and backed through 180 degrees, and occasionally gusted briefly to around force 5.
By the time Mo came on watch at 0130, the skies had begun to clear, and the occasional star and a planet had appeared, followed eventually by the moon. When John came back on at 0430, Croatia was in sight, and the sun rose into an almost clear sky. The wind remained obstinately light and variable, so that by the time we reached Korcula, we had dropped the main in sheer frustration. We were glad that we had filled up the fuel tank at Brindisi. In 27 hours the engine was recording over 25 hours running time.
On arrival we looked at the berth on the quay to the west of the town, and decided to play safe and enter the marina. On seeing our 'Q' flag, they sent us back to the quay, and so we went alongside. We were referred to the Harbour Master's office nearby, to which John set off with the boat's papers. The process was a long one, as crew lists were made out, insurance examined, and the cruising permit was stamped up. The police then had to be summoned, but were not at first available, so John had to wait feeling like a bit of a lemon. However, one of the chaps was quite friendly and made suggestions as to where we should go during our visit to Croatia. The police turned up, the passports were taken away, then the customs turned up. John was allowed to the bank to find 1765 Kuna - a sum made up of fees for the safety of navigation, for light dues, an administration fee, and for an information chart that is issued. At this point it was necessary to return to the police while another form, a personal registration for each of us, was made out.
We no longer felt the need for a marina berth, but headed instead to the nearby Uvala Luka, an inlet providing a secure anchorage not far from the town. The day was spent recovering, even doing some jobs. In the evening we went ashore and walked into Korcula. It is a most attractive walled town, and allegedly the birth place of Marco Polo, after which restaurants were named, and even where he is alleged to have had assignments with his lover. We managed to procure a Croatian SIM card for the phone, and then returned to the old town where we had a meal(on Mo's pension) at one of the more reasonable restaurants. 2 courses with wine and a beer for about 25 pounds for us both.
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We planned to make it to the Planeki islands off Hvar, a journey of some 35nm. There was a light westerly breeze, we thought, in the anchorage, so we set off early and motored out past Korcula town and up the channel. There was a stream of charter yachts motoring up behind us, while in the other direction came the typical two-masted tourist boats at regular intervals. As we approached the end of the channel, the breeze seemed to steady, so we set sail and began tacking towards our objective. A large ketch came out to play too, and for a while we kept her in sight, although gradually we drew away. The sailing conditions were delightful, but it was a long way to beat against the wind, so we decided to call it a day at Ulva Lovisce. Unfortunately a lot of others had done the same, and the anchorage seemed fairly chaotic, with swimmers, music, and boats moored in all directions, so at first we decided to continue on under power. As we left the bay, however, there was a small inlet to windward, so instead we dropped our hook just off the shore, and laid out the kedge in case the wind changed. It was as well, as overnight the light wind reversed and blew from the north east, but the kedge (Fortress 37) on warp held us off. We swam, and the only downside was the mosquitoes, that managed to get Mo under her shirt: it motivated us to fetch out the coils and we had no further trouble from them. We had to use the generator to top up our power, and initially it stopped a couple of times. There must have been air in the fuel supply: thereafter it ran for a couple of hours, although it did give us that 'Oh no, not again!' feeling.