Coleman Sailing Trip 2018

We were up fairly early and set out to Trogir, which Richard has chosen as the place he wants to be on his birthday tomorrow.     It is an ancient town on an island which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.     It also has a couple of nice marinas.     So we set off and there is a bit of a breeze.     We put up the mainsail but initially we are motoring.     But it isn’t long before Richard shuts off the engine and puts up the Genoa.     For a change the wind is behind us.     To start with there is only 8 to 10 knots of wind and we are only doing 3 knots.     I am concerned that it will take us so long to get to Trogir that the marinas will be full. For the last few days we have seen loads of boats and the charter boats are out in force.     I had suggested that we reserve a space in the marina, but they charge extra for that and we hoped it wouldn’t be necessary.     But now if we are goi...

After I posted my blog last night the weather deteriorated badly.  The lightning was so frequent the sky was almost as light as daylight at times. The thunder was constant and sometimes seemed to be just above us.  By the time we got to bed it was raining quite hard.  We didn’t know what we would do today and thought we would play it by ear as the day progressed. The rain got worse.  At about 1am I was awakened by a huge clap of thunder that shook the boat.  By 6am the rain was torrential and showed no signs of stopping.  So we just went back to bed and waited to see what would happen.  Eventually at about 10am the sky started to clear and it was dry. There seemed to be a bit of wind, so we decided to be brave and go.  This was a lovely stop, but we really didn’t need another day. So at 11:30 we set out. Richard thinks he found a free anchorage just 20 miles away.  That wo...

As planned we woke up early and just had coffee on board.     We then went to the bakery and bought pastries to eat as we waited to catch the 9am boat to the National Park. The boat ride there was very pleasant.  Private boats are not allowed to enter the park, so this was the only way to get there by water. It was a trip up the river between cliffs part of the way and reeds on other parts.  It took about 25 minutes to get to the park landing stage. When we got there it was a short walk to the first set of falls.  They are very good.  These are not just one large fall over a cliff.  They are like a stairway of falls going all the way down a valley. So there are dozens of individual falls with a lot of water coming down them.   We were told that the thing to do is to take the path that goes along the waterfalls which is about 2k. The path turned out to be easy to follow and very well pre...

We were up fairly early and therefore left our berth a bit earlier than planned.     Again the weather is sunny with some cloud and no wind.   So we didn’t pretend to sail.   Another motor job. We are headed to a port that we would never have chosen on our own, but we were particularly recommended it by the couple we met in Venice who berthed here for a time.  The town is inland up a river from Sibenik.  It is also on the fringes of a National Park which is supposed to contain excellent waterfalls (though we don’t expect them to be a patch on Niagara, where we were only a few weeks ago). The journey at sea was past dozens of islands.  When we got to the mainland and went into Sibenik port I assumed we were nearly there, but in fact we were nearly 2 hours away.  That is how far up the river this town is.   The scenery on the way was very good with cliffs and vegetation abounding.  We finally got...

We conked our early last night, from doing nothing?     So it was not surprising that we got up fairly early.     We had breakfast, filled the water tank, paid the bill and went.     The weather is much improved over yesterday with hardly any cloud at all.     There also at first seemed to be a bit of wind, but in the end what little there was, was on the nose.     Later when the wind moved around a bit it never got above 4 knots, so we made no attempt to sail.     We motored along at 5 knots on an almost glassy sea.     We went along the Kornati National Park.     We decided not to stay in the park (other than in the marina on its edge) because frankly we don’t understand what all the fuss is about.     It is two large and dozens of small islands with little vegetation. It doesn’t seem worth the cost of the permit to stay in it. We got to Karpije at about 2pm. It is a pleasant little vil...

There really isn’t much to say.   We just stayed put.     It rained over night, but the weather during the day wasn’t nearly as bad as feared.     In the morning it was bright and sunny.     We went for a walk around the bay and then came back hot and had a swim.     This afternoon it did cloud over and we could hear thunder in the distance.   We did have about half an hour of rain after lunch, but then it improved a bit. So we just took it easy. After all we have weeks to go and are in no rush.  We had dinner at the marina restaurant which was nearly empty unlike last night and despite there being at least 17 boats on the pier. I would just comment on one thing. Language.  There is very little English here.  Most things are translated into German and Italian, both countries being well represented among the tourists. But there is not always English translations especially with menus. ...

We were uncertain what to do today.     Brbinj is a strange place.     The shop referred to in all the books remains closed.     There is even an advertised souvenir shop which is also closed.     We did get up a bit earlier than expected, but then I did collapse into bed early last night.     I think it was the terrible wine I drank with dinner. So we decided to walk around to the other bay and the other Brbinj.  There was not much to see.  There are a lot of houses and they all had vegetable gardens.  The ferry runs to the other town, but other than that and two advertised restaurants there was nothing there.  There are lots of cars so there must be a petrol station somewhere and the inhabitants must go somewhere to buy food, but we saw nothing like that. So back to the boat hot from our walk and we had to decide what to do.  We are still concerned about the weather report for ...