We continued to lie to our anchor, just south of the Marina Dalmacija. My ankle is very, very, slowly showing some improvement, despite falling as I tried to hop over the door sill into the heads in the early morning on Sunday. Having stubbed my good right toes, I fell very very painfully in a heap in front of the head. I've finished the book, and finally got into Leslie Thomas's 'Dangerous by Moonlight'. It was quite drole in a way. The higlight of Monday was a trip ashore so Mo could go to the Pharmacy for me and buy some supplies. The wind is fresher from the south east, and we have swung on our scope so that we are nearer the marina. This has brought a man with a whistle out, who peeped and signalled at Mo, but unfortunately she did not have her glasses on. Later, a rib came out with a couple of chaps and they asked us to move 50m further away, to which we complied. I tried fitting the LED bulbs Peter brought out, and discovered I'd ordered some 24volt ones by mistake. I hope Ultraleds will do the decent thing and take them back off me for some 12volt ones.
It reached Wenesday, and there being no improvement, rather up and down with periods of considerable pain, we decided to revisit the hospital in Zadar, and arranged for Dennis to pick us up from the marina gates. We could land nearby at a makeshift landing point. They were very good, and as we were prepared this time with passport, I did not have to pay for the consultation or injection, and there was also no charge for cashing the prescription they gave me at the Pharmacy. On the way back, Dennis asked us if we minded diverting for a very nice German family, so we picked them up from their hotel and dropped them off at the ferry berth in Zadar. Dad spoke excellent English having trained for two years as a sound engineer on the Holloway Road in London. We also picked up gas from the depot in Bibinje. Refilling 3 cylindeers cost 72 Kuna: compared with UK prices this paid for the taxi!
We decided that I was sufficiently mobile to risk breaking out of our bay. So we tidied up the boat and by midday we were ready to set off. First we went into the marina, and topped up on fuel and petrol for the outboard, then at 1215 we were on our way. We originally planned to go to the island of Molat, but the F3 wind was on the nose. We enjoyed a nice beat all the way, but we could fetch the island of Vir at the end of one long long tack, and so decided to stop there. We anchored west of the main town and harbour in a pleasant bay. Supper was on the way when a fisherman arrived and indicated that we were just where he proposed to lay his nets. He chuntered off into a corner of the bay and started to deploy the nets, so to avoid conflict we decided to move into the next bay close to some moorings. This time a friendlier fellow came and explained he had laid some nets outside us, but would be back at 0500 to recover them. We said we'd be glad of any fish if he caught any. Unfortunately the bay was a little noisier, there being a number of holiday homes with attendant jetski and speedboats.
As my ankle had reacted to the rigours of a 30m beat, so we decided on a quieter day. There was no wind, so we set off around the island of Vir, aiming for an anchorage off the old town of Nin. Vir is very much a holiday island. The north coast has some small beaches, and is wooded and relatively unspoilt, but unfortunately the north east facing coast has been developed with a large number of rather tacky looking houses. The island has a bridge connecting it at the southern end with the mainland: the channel between is narrow and shallow. On our port side, we had the island of Pag, which for the most part was desolate with a lot of bare rock. We anchored off the brickworks, south of Nin, and spent the rest of the day relaxing.
We first of all decided to visit Nin. Nin was a very old settlement, and one of the original towns of Croatia. It lies in a shallow lagoon, with a long approach over sand. Our Croatian pilot suggested that there was 2m at the quay, but 0.2m would be more like it! There certainly isn't much water in the approach. When we got there, I managed to crock along to the nearby cafe bar, while Mo set off with the camera to see what she could find.
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There is the 'smallest cathedral in the world' there, and various old churches, and other archaeological mysteries. She found a market and bought some fresh fruit, so became a bit encumbered, and was then limited in how far she could travel sightseeing. Meanwhile I was finding ordering drinks quite challenging: every attempt to get a long, large coffee resulted in a small puddle of expresso in the bottom of the cup: the size of the puddle varied. When Mo arrived back, I switched to beer and she chose white wine. This resulted in two large beers, but eventually one was substituted for a white wine spritzer (we thought). The bill, however, was only 44 Kuna. We had lunch back on the boat, and then set off. There was a gentle F2 from the south west, and so we sailed with a number of gybes through the lakes that separate the island of Pag from the mainland, aiming for the 30m bridge over the channel leading to the Velebitski Kanal. On the other side of the Kanal, there is a range of high mountains (1500-1700m high), that drop right down to the Kanal itself, which is very deep. When the conditions are right for the Bora, the cold wind drops down off the mountain side, and blows from the NE across the Kanal, attaining F12 in wintertime. As a result, Pag, which lies on the opposite side, is largely desolate where it is exposed to the wind.
We set off reasonably early, as we had some distance to travel, and no discernible wind. We continued up the Velebitski Kanal, and picked out what we thought would be a suitable spot for lunch. As it turned out, when we got there we discovered that we had picked out the ferry terminal. A couple of miles further up, however, there were some other likely looking bays, although the chart detail was a bit scant. We settled for the most northerly and deepest, Uvula Svetojanj V., and anchored to the south by a rocky island in 6m. and backed up within a boat's length to the rocky shore. The bottom was sandy, although how thick the sand was and how good the holding might be questionnable: the Rocna did not find its way in although we were limited in how hard we dared pull it! There were a number of motor boats there enjoying the place, and the incredibly clear water, with us. Where we were lying, the bay was totally enclosed and sheltered from the Velebitski Kanal. Mo had got out some smoked salmon, so we had a very pleasant lunch, washed down with cool white wine, and were reluctant to move on. When we did, we had to motor again across the Paski Kanal, and entered the channel between Rab and its offlying island of Dolin. The channel was busy with motor boats, while at Rab there was also traffic entering the marina and harbour. We anchored up the U. Sv. Fumija, beyond the town, off one of the coves on the south western side of the bay.
We spent a while looking at the chart, and made a plan for some limited exploration of the nearby islands rather than try to get to Pula on the Istrian Penninsular. When we got there we would have little time to explore, and would potentially be under pressure to get back south. After this, we set off in the dinghy to explore Rab town. I dropped Mo at the end of the harbour, and returned to the entrance where there were some shoreside cafe bars where I could await her return.
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Mo had managed a quick excursion around some of the churches towards the back of the town, overlooking the entrance to the harbour and our bay. She also found a supermarket and some market stalls set up in the wooded park area behind the town. When Mo returned we made our way into the town a short distance, and found a restaurant. We enjoyed our meal, served by a guy who had worked on ships and for Disney in America. Mo enjoyed a steak again, with chips as always, while I had some Pag cheese as a starter, followed by shark. Not exactly cheap, but very reasonable and very good. Afterwards, we rturned to the boat, relaxed and swam. Then, for the first time this season, I got out the paper, pencil and paints, to try to capture the buildings across the bay with Rab and the mountains in the background. Must practice more and try harder..
We made a leisurely start, and set off towards Cres. The wind was variable, but mainly on the nose, F3 to 4, so progress was fairly slow. By 1530 we were hungry, Mo having planned bacon sandwiches, and so we made for the small island of Tistenik on which there is a lighthouse and nothing much else. The 'anchorage' was a bit dodgy: depths reduced from very deep to not much, and the bottom looked as if it was rock with a smattering of gravel on it. We put down the Rocna and plenty of chain, but did not have a lot of faith in it. It sufficed, however, to get the bacon cooked and in the sandwiches. Afterwards, we decided to motor the remaining 2/3 miles, and anchored om a deep (north east facing) bay known as Uvula Ul. This was fine while we had the westerly wind, but the Split Radio was showing on the Navtex warnings of wind gusting gale force from the NE (the Bora) in the Velebitski Kanal. So having started to settle, we decided to move around to Pogana, in a south east facing inlet. This proved to be quite a popular anchorage, and seemed very pretty. We did not go ashore: the pilot suggested that the only shop was in the naturist camp!