Zaklopatica, Lastovo – Monday 18 July 2018

Well, it has been a day of ups and downs.  We got up fairly early with a view to leaving with the Luries at about 9:30.  However we decided to stop for fuel on the way so we left a little early.  When I took up the anchor I was not surprised by the mud and weed, but I was surprised by what I first thought was a log lodged in the anchor.  However when I tried to shift it I discovered that it was a metal rod!  It was entwined in the anchor and we couldn’t shift it even with a boat hook. So we decided to leave it until we stopped at the fuel pontoon.  I wasn’t sure that I would ever get it off, but with an effort I did.  The blooming thing weighed almost as much as the anchor itself!  But having dislodged the thing and go filled up with fuel we set off happily with the Luries just behind us.

At first the wind was quite good and we started to sail really well.  We were going at over 6 knots at one point.  But good things don’t last long.  The wind kept giving up on us.  Between us and Jonnie we competed all day putting the sails up and then taking them down when the wind died.  On the way we ate the avocado I bought at fast expense yesterday and already started to go off.

We got to Zaklopatica at about 3pm.  It seemed empty and there were at least 4 restaurants that were offering free mooring, electricity, water and WIFI.   We were trying to decide where to go when we hit the problem. Despite there being only one or two boats here they all said they were fully booked for the evening. Eventually we found one place which said they could berth one of us and the other could go on a buoy.  The Luries kindly offered to go on the buoy so we started to moor up and that is when the disaster struck.  We managed to get the mooring line caught by the bow thruster!  With the help of one of the staff they got the line untangled from the prop of the bow thruster, but after that it would not work.  It turned on and spun, but had no pull.  We can only think that the safety pin has broken. There is no one here who could repair it and on looking at the instructions it is a major job involving taking the engine for the thruster apart.  So we are up a creek.  The boat is nearly impossible to manoeuver at low speeds without the bow thruster and we will need help to moor up in most places.  It is really a problem and has depressed me terribly.  

All afternoon I have been trying to get in touch with Korcula marina to see if they can find someone to repair it.  I can’t get through on the telephone and they haven’t answered my email.  So this is putting the kybosh on our itinerary plans.  All we can think of is to go back to Korcula marina tomorrow and see what they can do for us. If all else fails we will have to make our way somehow to Dubrovnik where the Luries have given us the details of an engineer that sorted out their bow thruster.

We had a swim after the disaster and then met up with the Luries to go to Lastovo, the local village that is supposed to be beautiful.  It was a longish walk up hill, but it is rather lovely.  So after a look around and a cold drink we returned back to the boat.  Finally the restaurant said that the Luries could move on to the pontoon.  So they did that and we had a very nice meal in the restaurant.  We did manage to fill the boat with water and are ready to go.  We just have to fix the bow thruster!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Venice - Thursday 24 May 2018

Well, we are still here in Venice and it doesn’t look like we will be able to leave before Sunday (though Saturday is still a possibility).  The weather has been hot and sunny and is getting to me. I fell asleep twice today! The saga of the works goes on.  We waited most of the morning for anyone to turn up and then walked the ½ mile to the office to find out what was happening when we were told the engineer and rigger were on the way to the boat.  So Richard rushed back to the boat and I loaded up the Times on my ipad. The only internet here is in the hotel so we have to come down to do anything. The upshot is that the water pump has to be replaced for a less powerful one.  The engineer is coming to do that tomorrow morning. Will we be charged for this twice?!  We can see another argument looming. The rigging in another problem.  After he put the main up Richard found that he could not rig the reefing lines.  We have had problems with them and had asked for that to be loo
Read more

Shengjin (Albania) – Thursday 28 June 2018

Image
Well our plans to check out of Montenegro didn’t quite go to plan.     We woke up to the alarm at 6am and went to deal with customs and the immigration police at about 6:45.     The customs office appeared to be closed, but when they heard us at the door they opened it and took our piece of paper from the Harbour Master.   However when we got to the police they told us they do not open until 7am and we had to bring the boat around to them.     By the time we did all this it was about 8am before we left Bar harbour.     The weather forecast was better but there were still problems.  The wind has dropped but there is nearly a metre swell in the sea.  I took a pill before we set out in the light of this.  With the sea state and the late start we abandoned the plan to go straight to Durres and headed to Shengjin instead.  In fact the journey was not that bad.  The sea settled down after a couple of hours.  The main problem is that it became very cloudy and cold. I had to put on long t
Read more

Luke Polace, Mljet – Tuesday 19 June 2018

Image
Well we have had another day that hasn’t gone to plan.     I never got though to Korcula marina. So we had to make some decisions.   The weather forecast for going back to Korcula was bad.     There were predicted to be 20 knot winds on the nose.     Also going to Korcula would mean going north when we want to go south.     So for all those reasons we gave up on that idea and decided it would be best to make our way to Dubrovnik where Jonnie had the details of an engineer who fixed his bow thruster earlier in the season.     So first Jonnie spoke to the engineer who said he could help us if we contacted him when we got to Dubrovnik. Then we made reservations to go into Dubrovnik marina on Wednesday and Thursday.  So today we would go back to our original plan of going to the island of Mljet where there is supposed to be a lovely bay.  There we could go on a restaurant pontoon if not too crowded or windy so we could manoever without hitting anything, or go on a mooring buoy or anch
Read more