A month later, more of the same! What a mushroom season around here!

It is now November in Istria and we continue visiting our numerous mushroom spots in turn, first for the interesting walks in the very nice forests, and then for the incredible recipes that we are eating everyday based on all sorts of mushrooms. This time, we have been exploring the areas around the airport of Pula, just a few kilometres from home...  

And we found another untouched spot, probably too close to the city for having attracted the mushroom lovers looking for unexplored forests, as there is a fierce competition for foraging...

End of sailing season, September 2024, start of the mushroom season, October 2024!

Back to the blog for an update! The sailing season is over for us this year, after 570 nautical miles around Pula. This is not much compared to previous seasons, and can be explained by the number of friends and visitors we had over the summer, with whom we tended to sail locally, relatively bad weather in June and September, and a lot of work on top of that!   

Anyway, we are Mediterranean sailors now, used to the tricks of mooring in any port under any conditions, even if we still miss the Baltic!

Pula to Cres Island, 7-11 July 2024

The Polesana Marina where resides Belisama is very close to the Pula arena, one of the best preserved Roman Arena in the world. Any visit to Pula starts with a tour of the Arena, and if you are lucky, you can attend to operas and concert during summer months, alternating with gladiator fights. 

Pula arena

Not to be missed! But more is to be seen along the coast...

Back to Pula, 25-26 June 2024

After almost three weeks wandering around the North Western coast of Italian Adriatic I was left with the task of bringing back Belisama from Rimini to Pula. Seventy-five miles, all together, so not such a big deal. Except that the weather forecast was most unclear...

Out of Rimini marina, waiting on anchor for a favourable weather window...

In theory, it is a a simple task to plan a cruise given the performance of the weather forecast nowadays. Except that they still have problems to take into account the very low scale coastal effects!

Departing tomorrow!

After a completely crazy year working as mad for the Middle=East WHO Office, we are finally departing tomorrow for Venice and an exploration of the northern Adriatic coast. It took a full week to replace the windows on the canopy after the Bora exploded them earlier in the year, Besides, the final days got devoted to slow cooking food and making sure we have enough provision of fermented goodies.

Fermented goodies

Ready to depart now!

Getting ready for the season, May 2024

After a year in the Mediterranean, Belisama experienced the high UV levels that led to the destruction of our tender by explosion! and the blowing of the main sail cover and the canopy during a severe episode of Bora winds (see specific post...).

Start of the 2024 season!

22nd February, water-borne again, en route from Marina Polesana, Pula, the new homeport of Belisama, to Marina Veruda, the largest marina in the area, and where the annual service of the hull can be done. First winter sailing, under still quiet Yugo (south) wind with temperatures around 10°C. Luckily, the sea is quiet. We struggle to reach 4 knots with engine running at 2200 rpm and heavy turbulences in our wake, indicating that something is holding us back in the water...

Let's see...

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.