Venice to Croatia and back to Greece – postcard from Mags

Returning to Pula in Croatia was a dream compared with the ride to Venice, and Uli who is usually one of the first to succumb didn't suffer at all. That shows the difference. We had a good time with P&U visiting some of the same places as with R&M but varying the bays and seeing just a little more of the country. They add to our trips by superb cooking and gentle pressure to do a bit more real sailing which wasn't that easy this time as there was little wind but we did have one superb sail when we used the drifter, only ever used once before.

Packing up the drifter

We liked Croatia. They are very geared up to chartering and in many bays instead of anchoring you pick up one of the buoys already laid and pay a small charge when the boat attendant comes round. He also takes the rubbish. There are some interesting towns to visit such as Pula, Split and Dubrovnik and some pleasant villages. One village we particularly liked, and revisited, was Bettina. Having said that, Croatian waters are not our favourite cruising ground despite the multitude of beautiful islands. We still prefer Greece and Turkey perhaps because we found the lifestyle in Croatia felt more European and the marine industry seemed to be weighted heavily towards chartering. There seems more incentive in Greece and Turkey to just potter about enjoying the differences in lifestyle and culture.

We dropped Petra and Uli off in Split and headed down to Dubrovnik where we stayed again at the splendid marina up the nearby river. It is well worth a visit with a wonderful swimming pool and a couple of restaurants and the approach up the river is more interesting than most marinas. Our next visitors were son Glyn and Katy who were arriving in just over a week's time in Cephalonia. However, we still had our auto-pilot problem and we needed to get back to Giannis on Corfu to resolve it. Barry had phoned the manufacturers in the UK and USA and been told, with great regret, that the new computer was not compatible with the old fluxgate compass and steering reference unit that form parts of the auto-pilot system, so we phoned Giannis before arriving and ordered these two new units. He swiftly installed them and in doing so discovered that the compass we thought he would be replacing was not at all the one. The real one is in our shoe locker. So the question now is what on earth is this other one? We have not yet found out. We were planning to set off from Corfu but found we still had a problem so took Giannis out for sea trials to demonstrate what was happening. He agreed that there was something definitely not functioning correctly and replaced our new course computer temporarily with one he had in his workshop. As we couldn't wait any longer we planned to return yet again to Corfu after Glyn and Katy had gone home.

Katy and Glyn on board

We got to Argostoli on Cephalonia only 4 hours before Katy and Glyn arrived on the quay. Phew! Just made it once again. Katy had never been cruising before so we were careful not to over-do the trips. We had a lovely time with them. Barry really enjoyed having Glyn on board and being able to spend more time with him and Katy threw herself in to boating with her usual enthusiasm. At the end of their holiday the wind got up as we sailed to Fiscardo so they took a taxi from there to the airport which saved us longish trips south and back and also meant we didn't test Katy's seasickness to the limits. We all agreed that it was best to end on a happy note.

Fiscardo - roped into dance - yes, even Barry!

So off we went back to Corfu. Giannis installed our new computer once more. Note that we hadn't had any problems with the replacement he had loaned us. We took him for another test sail when he unbent a little from a fairly gruff type to very pleasant company and at last we agreed that all was well with the steering. We shall never know what was wrong nor whether we really needed to replace the compass and the rudder reference unit. To research all this just seems too hard and we are happy to have a working auto-pilot.

We set sail again south towards the Corinth Canal. We stopped in the Gulf of Corinth first at Missalonghi. To get there you motor up a canal that crosses a salt marsh. We had visited the town (Barry says Byron died there) on our way north and had had a small adventure. Barry followed strictly the instructions in the book which said "At the entrance don't cut the corner but head for the middle of the basin to clear shallows on the E". Well, either the shallows had shifted or we had misunderstood, as we went gently on to a mud bank. With revving engine and me running from side to side on the stern we did eventually unstick and motored on to the quay. According to Barry there was a recent article in Yachting Monthly by some very experienced sailors who have written books about their exploits, describing how they did the same thing up this channel but were stuck for a week. They had to empty water tanks, take all heavy equipment off the boat and find a tug before eventually getting towed off. Thank heavens I hadn't read this at the time. As we came in this second time we followed a boat up the canal and blow me they did exactly the same as us and got stuck on the mud. As we motored up they waved frantically and told us we shouldn't go on as there was a depth of only one metre. We were about twenty metres away from them in seven metres of water. They were obviously planning to turn round and head back out to sea but seeing us pass they managed to slip off the mud and followed us in. Something is very wrong with the sailing directions and I shouldn't be surprised if it wasn't a local hobby to go and see if there were any boats on the mud.

Missalonghi

We next visited the island of Trizonia where we met a pleasant American couple off Windsong. We met them again at our next stop in Galaxidhi where we spent 4 days waiting for the wind to moderate. Here we had some pleasant chats over a beer or two with our new friends John and Karen, some American power boat owners and an Irishman, Peter. Our next-door neighbours Jan and Ray were good company and I felt myself starting to take root. It certainly was a very pleasant little community to spend time with waiting for better winds. The only fly in the ointment was the method of getting ashore. As there was ballast against the quay we couldn't get close enough to use our passarelle. So at first we stepped into the dinghy and climbed ashore up our rather flexible boarding ladder. It felt dodgy. The "harbour master", a gentleman we think is really a fisherman but has taken it on himself to direct boats and assist where he can eventually came along with a long scaffold board for us. However, walking this plank felt like "walking the plank" and we never did it without our hearts in our mouths.

Walking the plank

When we left it was nearly a flat calm and we changed our minds as to our destination and decided to head straight for the canal and try and go through the same day and get ourselves as far as the village of Korfos, Corinthia. We had berthed outside another Giannis' restaurant here and were keen to go back. We arrived at 8.00 pm. This is later than we would normally seek a berth but we were lucky. There was room, people to help us tie up and we stepped ashore to have our supper. We were quite shattered and went to bed pretty early.

Korfos