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Tuesday, August 28th, Starigrad, Hvar, Croatia
In over two years of living on our boat, we
have had remarkably few maintenance issues, and none that have forced us to stay
somewhere we didn't want to be, waiting on parts or mechanics or anything else.
This has been extremely fortunate since everyone knows that the definition
of cruising is "working on your boat in exotic locations." Our lucky streak came to a sweaty, groaning end
with the death of our windlass last week. I have nothing good to say
about hauling up a 66 pound anchor and 200 feet of anchor chain by hand.
Luckily, we only had to do that twice, and Chris Pratt and François were there
to help us the first time. Joe spent many hours toiling over the finicky
motor, successfully resurrecting it for a dozen ups and downs, but it finally
died completely one beautiful morning, anchored in 45 feet of water at the east
end of Ciovo island.
Completely unsuspecting, ever confident in
Joe's impressive mechanical abilities, we awoke to a spectacular sunrise, a
kaleidoscope of colors peeking through, around and in between the clouds,
amplified and repeated in the smooth surface of the sea. A pair of
dolphins swam, lazily feeding in the waters nearby. Our plan was to
hook up with Cenou and Twice Eleven in Split later that day. As if we needed
more incentive than the crystal clear water to take a dip, we also knew we wouldn't be swimming for the next couple of days
while anchored in the city's harbor where the water would surely be unfit for
such activities. We had seen other kids jumping from a nice little spot,
albeit not so picturesque, so the three Zia kids went for an early morning
thrill.
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Back onboard, we readied ourselves for the
short trip to Split, a mere two and a half miles away. Here is where our
blissful day ended and our torturous trial of waiting on the windlass began.
Commencing the ritual of raising the anchor, the windlass motor started slowing
down immediately until it finally died completely within minutes. Joe
managed to get it working long enough to haul up most of the chain while I got on the phone with Cenou, who was at the marina in Split, to make
sure there was room for us. We wouldn't be anchoring again until we had a
reliable windlass.
Lady luck was still with us. It was
Monday morning and we had avoided the mad house of the charter boat change over
that happens every Friday. The marina and harbor both fill up to capacity
while boat loads of sailing vacationers return from a week or two of cruising
the Dalmatian Coast and new crews eagerly arrive to take their places. It
is total chaos. Everyone mills around the fuel dock first, filling up their
depleted tanks before heading into the marina, only to be shouted down and often
turned away by the marina staff. Happily, on Monday afternoon, the
dockhands cheerfully helped us tie up to one of the outside slips. It was
not an ideal location with lots of surge keeping us off balance, but we didn't
complain. We didn't plan on being there for long.
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Split marina seen from the top of the bell tower, with the east
end of Ciovo Island in the background.
When the boat doesn't work right, Joe is
miserable. Although neither the crew nor the boat were in mortal danger,
the captain's nerves put us all in harm's way. He takes his responsibility
of maintaining the boat very seriously and hates to be defeated by the repair on
such a crucial piece of equipment. Realistically, our windlass must have
tens of thousands of hours on it between all the anchoring we have done as well
as the wear and tear put on by the previous owners. We suspect Scott had already had the windlass
motor rebuilt once, since the former boat name "Willy Flippit" was written on
the inside rim. In other words, it was just its time to go. No
brilliant mechanic or modern day remedies could do anything for it. We
were going to need to order a new windlass motor.
Asking around at the local chandlery and
mechanic shop in the Split boatyard, Joe just got a lot of shrugged shoulders.
Realizing that we were in a pretty large charter boat base, he had the brilliant
idea of tracking down the guy who runs the charter fleet. They have
hundreds of boats, each and every one of them with a windlass on it.
Surely their mechanics would have the experience and the resources to help us.
Sure enough, within thirty minutes, Zeljko was onboard taking off our motor.
He would take it back to his shop and take a look at it to see if it was worth
resurrecting. If not, he had a replacement motor in stock.
Hallelujah.
It was time to explore Split and reconnect with
our friends on Cenou. They had left us in Siracusa, Sicily at the end of
July and we were all looking forward to catching up after more than three weeks
apart. They had been in Split already for a week or so and knew the lay of
the land. They led the way to a great restaurant for the evening.
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Although Croatia seems like a long way from
Italy in culture and history, in reality many of the same rulers and conquerors
left their imprint on these lands. Split grew up around the Roman Emperor
Diocletian's retirement palace. The ancient Roman town of Salona, where he
was from, was a few miles away and he had an immense palace constructed for him
nearby in 305AD. When the Avars sacked Salona in 615, the surviving
population sought refuge in the palace, which had since been converted to
administrative offices and the governor's residence. Over the years the palace
was destroyed and the city of Split emerged from the ruins.
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We got the sad news the next day that our
windlass motor would not be emerging from the mechanic's workshop.
Furthermore, all of the motors Zeljko had in stock wouldn't fit with the rest of
our windlass. He would have to find another one and have it shipped in.
By Tuesday night he had confirmed that the motor he had located in a small town
two hundred miles north would work, and they would "overnight" it to us the next
day. We should have it on Thursday, but it was possible, since it was
coming from a small town, that it would take an extra day to arrive. Of
course, it took an extra day to arrive. By Friday morning, we were chomping
at the bit to get the thing installed so we could get out of the marina and
start cruising Croatia. The minutes crawled by all morning long until we
finally got confirmation that the motor had arrived early that afternoon.
Then it was a matter of waiting on the mechanic to show up to install it.
Of course, it was Friday. The great charter boat fiasco had begun and
showed no signs of letting up. We were plagued by the creeping certainty
that our charter company mechanic was somehow caught up in the drama. When
he promised to be there in 15 minutes at 5 o'clock, we knew we would be at least another
night at the marina. As the clock hit 9pm, desperation set in. Just
as Joe was giving up, Zeljko showed up at the boat. The new motor,
actually, did not fit our windlass. He would have to modify it using parts
from our old motor. He promised to get on it first thing in the morning.
I'll spare you any more of the boring details, but we finally had a rebuilt and
functioning windlass on the boat by 2:30pm on Saturday. After five days at
the dock, we spent an hour and a half getting the boat ready to go and finally
slipped the lines at 4pm. We made straight for Lučice on the southern
coast of Brač where Cenou had been since Thursday.
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The stress and anxiety of the ordeal seem
inconsequential now, as I am sure you have already thought to yourselves.
After all, we had lots of time to explore the wonderful city of Split. We
took advantage of the summer sales to stock up on all sorts of new t-shirts and
tank tops for the girls. We finally got a Croatian cell phone.
Without the ripe smell of raw sewage floating up to our nostrils from the
shimmering surface of the harbor, it all seems much less oppressive.
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Three days later, we have had the opportunity
to explore the area a little more. It is amazing how much the Dalmatian
Coast reminds me of the Virgin Islands, but on a much grander scale. There
are tons of islands and anchoring spots within a short sail's distance.
There are also tons of charter boats vying for each and every one of those
anchor spots. We got lucky and picked up a 100 kuna ($20 dollar) mooring
in Lučice, on the island of Brač on Saturday and Sunday nights. Our next
anchorage, south of the island of Hvar was a little more challenging.
Fourteen miles and a couple more hours on the engine later, we entered the
designated anchorage. It was chock full of boats. One of the large
motor boats decided we had passed too close and the captain started yelling at
us. We did our best to apologize for startling him, but he just kept it
up. I wonder if his charter guests were impressed. By then the
anchorage looked pretty unappealing so we u-turned and continued around the
corner. The charts showed an anchorage in the channel between two small
islands. We dropped the anchor and backed up towards the shore. I
jumped in the water and swam a stern line to a tree on land while Joe kept us
off the rocks and the other boats around us. It is a relatively simple
maneuver but any time you do something like that for the first time, it is a
little challenging. We had just settled in, tied off a second line to
shore, and were sitting back congratulating ourselves when, to our horror, we
watched a charter cat drop its anchor and proceed to drag it backwards for a
hundred yards, right across our bow. Naturally, when he pulled up his
anchor after failing to get a hook, he dragged ours up with it. So much
for relaxing. With a lot of help from Claude, we finally re-anchored and
re-tied to shore. We even put out a second anchor just to be safe.
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After a blissfully quiet night despite being
anchored 12 feet off the rocks, we motored another 14 miles and are currently on
a mooring ball in Starigrad on Hvar. Twice Eleven and Cenou are both here
with us. We've got a date for cocktails on Twice Eleven to celebrate Rike
and Tamsin's birthdays, which both fall on the 29th. We'll eat ashore with
the crowd. We'll soon be going separate ways but know that we will be
seeing each other again soon. It is wonderful to have friends out here
whose company we enjoy and whose cruising programs are similar.
In other news, we did start school yesterday,
like most of you back home. So far it has been relatively painless and it
is nice to be back into the routine. Cenou has also started school so all
four girls are highly motivated to do well, otherwise they miss out on the
afternoon of playing together. I hope everyone else's back to school went or goes
well too! Drop us a line and let us know.
Next Entry >>>>>>>>>>>
Many thanks to our friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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