Learning Adriatic winds the hard way, 3 December 2023

Winter is finally here with temperatures ranging from 3 to 10 degrees Celsius. Today, went to Rovign, probably the most touristic place in Istria (see see previous post). The wind was blowing at gale level from the west-south-west, with occasional showers. It is interesting to note that there is still a lot of fishing going on in Rovign at this time of year.

Looking out to sea to the west is not very impressive on the picture, but I can confirm that it is difficult to walk in the streets of Rovign when the wind is blowing in your direction! This is either the Pulenat or Lebić wind, both coming from the west/southwest and reaching gale force.  Quite an impressive wind!

The Pulenat wind is known for raising the sea level in the harbours along the coast. 

Below is the forecast for Windy. Yesterday at 16:00, southwest winds were gusting to 24 m/s (86 km/h). Today, the forecast is for northeasterly winds gusting to 22 m/s. Quite a pair of slaps in a few hours!

At the beginning of November, while I was working in Egypt, the storm Ciaran reached the Istrian coast with some force and completely tore apart the canopy of Belisama. A lot of sewing to be done A lot of sewing to do before the next season starts. By the way, we already have a reservation for a berth in the San Giorgio harbour, the best located in Venice, for 3 nights at the end of May 2024! 

For the rest, the season is good for spending time in the bars, the oil bars of course, as there is a festival in Vodnjan to celebrate the new oil harvest! Quite an interesting learning and tasting experience.

In addition to the new oil festival, Vodnjan is also known for its church of Saint Blaise.

Saint Blaise church, Vodnjan

The church has an amazing collection of mummies and relics that you would not expect to find in a small town of 3000 inhabitants! The reason for this is Napoleon, who in 1797, while fighting the Austrians in the area, supported the Venetian revolutionaries to overthrow the Republic of Venice. As a result and to avoid looting, the holy (fake) relics from the Venice Cathedral were moved to the Church of St. Blaise in Vodnjan, in the southern part of Istria,  where they are still kept. 

The church houses a copy of the shroud used to wrap Jesus' body after his crucifixion, which is kept in the Cathedral of Turin. Although radiocarbon dating indicates that the original in Turin dates from the Medieval Ages, it is still revered as authentic by most Catholics. And any copy of the shroud that has been brought into contact with the original in Turin has the status of an 'official' relic. There are also two a thorns from the crown of christ and a drop of his blood among many pieces in the collection.

Finally, a year after having ordered a pellet stove for our house, we got it installed last week. The chimney had to go through the living room roof under the newly built terrace, where for 2 years, we have had water leakages whenever it was raining through the opening that I asked to construction worker to keep and close.

Very nice feeling now, with "quality" heat in the heart of our place. This corresponds to the end of the works that we initiated after buying the house four years ago in Štinjan.

Lot of of km under our wheels, lots of miles under our keel since September... 15 October 2023.

 We left you in Alexandria, Egypt, a month ago, as I was working there for WHO to setup a health emergency information centre. Still ongoing... <on the way back to Pul, through Vienna, we encountered a few wine yards ready for late harvesting. But could not taste!

On the highway to Croatia, we got surprised by a Gaudi inspired bathroom gaz station toilets. Not so common and quite remarkable!

Further south, we encountered a sun with two sundogs on the highway, reminding us of our northern sailings in the Baltic sea...

Then we made it to Pula and enjoyed the end of the season every evening along the coastline at the sunset.

At the same time, like every years, we prepared additional fermented food consisting of lemon, tomatoes, beet root, cornichons, cabbage and coleslaw. Yummi winter!

On October 13, because of a forecast of dark bura obscuro, we all sailed back to shelters.

Funny animals in the water along the coast. They are many and as you swim, you can feel them in contact with your skin. They are many but not as disturbing as you would feel, In any case, anyone would feel better without them along side. 

This Saturday evening, strong Bura Obscura, the one coming with rain, is announced for the following Saturday/Monday afternoon. We noticed lots of fishing bats getting out on Saturday evening, probably anticipating on the forecasted Bura. Let´s see what will happen ... 

Finally, the new location of Belisama in Marina Polesana for the winter, We are very happy that the place is no longer directly exposed to the Bora and other Jugo strong winds, but better protected from them all. Nice landing and looking forward enjoying lot of good mooring time here! 

Alexandria, 20 September 2023

I am on a work trip to Alexandria for a few days. It is one of the cities that played a significant role in the advancement of sailing in the Mediterranean and the world during its time.

The Alexandria coast, stretching over 40 kilometres!

For centuries, Alexandria was the largest city on the Mediterranean coast.

End of the sailing season in Croatia? 15-20 August

Today we went to Rijeka to discuss with the Furuno representative the repairs needed on Belisama to change the autopilot display and reset the network, which has been down for a couple of weeks now, forcing us to sail with Navionics on the mobile phone. Much to our surprise, Furuno told us that they would not be able to work on the boat as they close after the 15th of August to give their staff a rest at the "end of the sailing season"! No problem, we can wait another 2 weeks. 

But is it really the end of the sailing season?

First boletus of the season in Učka National Park area

First sign that boletus can grow nicely in Istria. What else...?

Fort Munida and Uvala Conki, 21-23 August

For the past two weeks we have been exploring the small bays around Pula, escaping canicular days (and work at home) by swimming in the sea all day. For the last three days we have anchored in Fort Munida, less than a mile from the marina and Uvala Conkli at 1.8 nm! I cannot resist showing you another one of the incredible sunsets we get here, as we left in the late afternoon for a sunset dinner on board in Fort Munida.

Sunset at Fort Munida, on the way to Uvala Conki.

But the place has much more to offer...

Rovinj, not to be missed, 9-12 August 2023

Our first destination in August is the town of Rovinj (pronounced "Rovigne" in French, [rǒʋiːɲ] in phonetic spelling, and forget about native English speakers as there is no "nj" at the end of words in English), 40 km north of Pula by car, 17 nautical miles by boat.

Sunset in the bay of Rovinj 

This is certainly one of the most beautiful places in Istria and attracts many tourists in the summer. We sailed there on the 9th of August, probably one of the worst periods due to the large influx of tourists. Let's have a look...

Exploring our new sailing basin, Stinjan, Stoja, Polje, Banjole, 8-31 July 2023

This is Belisama in her new home marina in Stinjan, an area of Pula, a few hundred metres from our house. We are very happy to have her here, few minutes biking from home.

So, lately, we have made a few sea excursion in the bays around Pula...

Red sunset, Jugo or Canada fires? 26 June-2 July 2023

Almost 10 days since we reached Pula at the end of our odyssey. I finished the last post with the sunset below, which looks surreal. However, I did not use any "effect" to enhance the colour or saturation. The sunset was just that red!

Sunset over Brijuni island from our terrace in Štinjan 

A few nights later, after reading about it, I realised that the colour of our sunset in the Adriatic was influenced by the smoke from the forest fires in Canada, which crossed the Atlantic and southern Europe, and which we experienced in the northern Adriatic this week...

To Pula, 23 June 2023

Well, there we are. Yesterday Belisama arrived safely in Pula after an odyssey of 6,500 nautical miles (12,000 km) spread over the last 4 seasons. In total, the conveyance will have lasted 247 days, an average of 26.3 nm per day, corresponding to 5 hours' sailing every day. 

It sounds tough when expressed in raw numbers, but it has been a pleasure all the way through amazing waters with fantastic support from 19 crew friends who joined on different legs, some more than once. Thanks to all of you! I have to admit that I slowed Belisama down in the last few miles so as not to arrive in port too suddenly.

In Uvala Przine, 22 June 2023

We spent the day very quietly in Uvala Przine as the forecast was for no wind at all until the middle of the night. I started diving with my tank to remove the piece of rope tangled in the propeller that I had noticed yesterday. There were a lot of saddled sea-bream around the boat and they were very curious about me. These seabreams (Orada) are small but delicious and I managed to hook one with a piece of bread on a hook, using the Rusquet technique from Marseille!

This done, given the exceptional level of heat around here, we spent the day on the water trying to cool down!

To Uvala Przine, 21 June 2023

Lavdara to Ilovik has been a 44 nautical mile trip along the islands of Dugi Otok, Molat and Premuda. We are still experiencing high pressure weather with winds predictably driven by the sun, resulting in light land breezes at night and weak sea breezes during the day, requiring extensive use of the engine to keep our schedule ahead of the announced bora episode next Saturday.

 Our dinner guest in Lavdara...

An additional few encounters along the way...

To Lavdara, 20 June 2023

Today, on our way to Pula, we sailed 34 nautical miles to the north-west. For the last few days the temperatures have been very hot and the winds have been "solar", meaning low intensity and coming from the direction of the sun all day. When you are under time pressure, you have to rely on the engine to keep up in such circumstances.

Such a long period of hot temperatures can only lead to an episode of bora, as the high temperature of the sea water calls for some cold winds to come down from the surrounding mountains as katabatic winds, called bora in Croatia...

Split to Šibenik, through Uvala Vinisce, 18-20 June 2023

We left Split around 14:00 after a crew change for Uvala Vinišće, a 22 nautical mile trip from Split given the tacking. After a very quiet night there, we continued north-west to Šibenik, with a swim and lunch stop in Primošten, a 28 nautical mile trip.

On the way, we will have other interesting encounters...

Uvala Kasjuni to Marina Kastela, Split, 16-17 June 2023

Uvala Kasjuni is a very good anchorage in Split, with winds from the north and east. There is a bit of rolling due to the frequent ferry traffic, but it gets quiet at night. There were about 10 boats in the bay when we arrived at 15:30, but all but one had disappeared by sunset. All in all, a very good place to enjoy the Adriatic before heading to one of the 100€/night marinas for a crew change. The Uvala Kasjuni anchorage does not appear in either the Imray pilot book or in Navionics. Only Navily provides input from sailors who have used it in the past and recommend it.

Kasjuni bay from Belisama deck...

A quiet stopover before Split? Well not quite...

To Uvala Sesula et Uvala Kasjuni, 15-16 June 2023

In Pakleni, the Jugo caught us well and today we experienced the rain and thunder that Jugo traditionally brings. We were fine there at anchor, but the forecast was for the Jugo to fade away around 17:00 to give way to the sun, and for the land and sea to breathe again.

We left at 17:00, but this did not happen...

To Pakleni under Jugo, 14 June

The weather changed, dramatically! We started the week with the normal summer wind orientation in Croatia, which results in very predictable winds all day long, and ended it under the Jugo influence, bringing rain, thunder, humidity and waves all over the Adriatic! Jugo is the Croatian name of the Sirocco. Look back at my postings on Croatian winds here and there to further understand what I am talking about...

Belisama (and Lilla Belisama) being chased by Yougo clouds! 

This is what Jugo looks like in our tracks as we head north-west along the Croatian coast.

To Lastovo, 13 June 2023

Departure from Lopud at 7:00 am, heading for Lastovo, 26 nautical miles today.

Lopud anchorage

What an interesting day of sailing!

To Mljet, through Loput, 11-12 June 2023

 On the 11th of June I changed crews and came on board with Ebba and Theo, who will accompany me to Split. They are both experienced sailors and it is a great relief to have such a good crew!

In Dubrovnik, 8-10 June 2013

Dubrovnik has so much to offer! At first you might be suspicious of such a reputation. But it only takes a few minutes to understand why Dubrovnik has it. It is simply everywhere, beautiful and right, as an absolute balance of impressions.

Let's go around the city and share our experiences...

To Uvala Lapad, 7 June 2023

Today we went from the bay of Cavtat to Uvala Lapad, through Dubrovnik. It was magical and moving. Cavtat Bay, where we moored yesterday, was founded by the Greeks in the VIth century BC and was called Epidaurus. It was plundered and destroyed by the Slavs in the VIIth century. The inhabitants of Epidaurus fled to Ragusa, which became Dubrovnik.   

Uvala Lapad, in the Northern outskirts of Dubrovnik

This is our first experience of sailing in Croatian waters and we are surprised to see how few boats there are around us. We feel lonely in the moorings we have been using lately. So what is the sailing season in Croatia?

To Cavtat, 6 June

On 6 June, we leave Molunat and sail North, along the coast for the bay of Cavtat where we anchor for the night. Look at the place! 

Picture by Marion

To Molunat, through Brindisi, 3-4 June

On the 2nd of June we left Otranto for Brindisi, where we changed crew. We stay overnight and leave at noon on the 3rd to cross the Adriatic to Molunat, the first shelter in the south of Croatia. We took advantage of the broad reach south-easterly wind to sail the 110 nautical miles under spinnaker.

The image below shows the moon rising on the night of 3 June. The "impression rising moon" was moving, although this iPhone image shows the limits of night photography with such equipment.

To Otranto, 2nd of June 2023

 On the way to Otranto, we came across an interesting cloud formation involving mammatus clouds, as we had already witnessed in 2016. These clouds are always very impressive to see.

And when you see them, you start thinking about what is going to happen to you in the next hour?

To Leuca, 1st June 2023

Today we leave Kroton for Leuca, the heel of the Italian boot. It is a 75 mile ride through the Gulf of Tarente. Beautiful weather and favourable winds allow us to launch Code Zero for the first time this year. But not for long as the wind picks up to 20 knots. 

To Kroton, through Rocella, 29 May 2023

On 28 May we left Messina to cross the Strait of Messina.

A swordfish boat can be seen in the picture below. This remains as an amazing picture where you can see the pilot steering the boat from the mast and the spearman in the front galley.

Sword fish fishing boat in the Messina strait. 

Amazing Messina strait..

To Messina through Charybdis and Scylla, 27-29 May

 We leave Lipari for Messina in the morning of 27 May. On the way we greet Sea Cloud II moored in the Bay. She has been following us since we crossed the Bonifacio straight en route to La Maddalena.

Sea Cloud II anchored in the bay of Lipari

But the adventure of the day will be the crossing of the Straits of Messina, falling from Scylla into Charybdis, under the strict guidance of Homer!