Smooth Sailing

After a rather windy and sleepless night 2.5 crew members made it up in the morning in time for the swing bridge opening at 9am. Alex took the helm for the tricky passing with Jamie and Shaunagh manning the sides ready to push with a stick as the section through was narrower than expected.

After passing through without incident, Alex and Jamie captained us across our first bit of proper sailing through rather windy conditions to an anchorage at Dolfin Island. Shaunagh and Scott tried to catch up on some sleep, though they must have been getting catapulted around their cabins!

Having dropped first anchor, we set about inflating our lilos and going for a swim to cool off. Jamie and Scott took the opportunity to take to the high seas and answer once and for all who was the best inflatable lilo warrior. Scott had an impressive display of speed whilst Jamie showed his cunning side! However it was Scott who came out victorious.

After weighing anchor Shaunagh took the helm as we made our way around Dolfin island onto the approaches for the historic town of Rab for a stay in the Marina which brought about a new set of challenges...Mediterranean Mooring!

Within minutes of being in the Marina the crew were being hurried to a berth without having prepared ourselves physically or emotionally, so it was a seat of your pants mooring. Adding to the challenge was the fact that our boat hook (used to pick up the mooring ropes from under the water) had gone for a tumble overboard. This meant we had to use a much shorter hooked ladder to catch the ropes instead.

We had dinner at a restaurant near the marina and then went for a walk around the pier. Croatia were playing in the World Cup and there were massive crowds of people gathered round big projector screens. Scott joined the crowd to watch as they went into the penalty match, and judging by the response of the crowd they won... car horns started blasting, Vuvuzelas started sounding, fireworks shooting and one distress flare let loose!

The next morning Alex tracked down a new boat hook and we were off back to sea. In the low winds Scott decided the dinghy looked like it would serve a more relaxing reading spot, so we reeled him out behind the boat with his book in hand.

We took a more leisurely sail down the coast of Pag until we spotted a good cove to stop for lunch. After anchoring up, we used the dinghy to shuttle ourselves 2x2 to the beach where we had ourselves a BBQ, managing to light a small fire with the single match we had onboard. After lunch we went for a wee swim to cool off, before heading down to Novalja for the night

Once arriving in Novalja the crew chose a quiet anchorage again for the night, now a dab hand at picking up mooring buoys! Thoughts quickly turned to food and once again our dinghy hit the water for Scott and Jamie to paddle over to the Marina in search of some pizzas and other vital supplies...toilet roll!

After some card games everybody turned in for the night to get some rest in before the next stint of our Cruis-atia adventure.