We have had a good nights rest and having done a lot of tidying up the night before, we don’t have much to do to get ready to depart on our return to our home port of Brindisi. The various weather predictions are showing either 5 knots or 10 knots of wind from behind us so at least we aren’t beating into a bad sea, but it looks like we will be under engine for the whole time back. We will get sail up with any excuse but I suspect that this may be an exception with no wind across the boat.

Brindisi is 130 miles from Mljet almost south, we would normally hope to do it a bit quicker but under engine, and we are nice to our engine, this will probably take about 20 hours which gives us an arrival time early in the morning after dawn. Our rule is not to approach an unknown port at night and although we have been into Brindisi before, and it is well lit at night, we are not taking any chances.

As we head off from Mljet, it feels like the end of the holiday although we have nearly a days worth of sailing left to do. We have to skirt the island and then it is 122.5 miles on the same heading. The sun is blazing and the wind is on the nose, most of it from our own forward movement, but we will see what happens once we get away from the island and it’s funnelling of the winds.

A little later there has been some shift and we decide to get some sail up although the sea is flat and there isn’t much wind. It gets us less than half a knot but at least it is work the engine doesn’t have to do. Maria is keen to see dolphins again but we haven’t seen any on this break or in this part of the Mediterranean so we are not hopeful.

A little while later and the wind on the beam has strengthened to about ten knots, all our sail is up, the engine is off and we are bombing along at seven knots. Maria prepares lunch and has decided to go full Italian celebrating our return with bolognaise and bruschetta.

Unfortunately the wind only lasts a few hours before it drops and shortly before dark we have to drop all sail as our wind indicator does a complete 360 showing the wind coming from all directions. It is close to the end of the daylight and it has been very hot so we decide to have our showers which of course have to be taken in shifts. Maria goes off first and comes back ready for after sun to be applied having caught a bit of colour during the day.

She then takes over watch while I go to the shower. A cold shower at the end of a hot day in the sun is very welcoming but maria frantically shouting for me wasn’t. I stop the shower, grab a towel and soaking wet run up to the cockpit to see what the problem is….. they came, they came. A pod of about twenty dolphins is playing off the bow of Mariadz and Maria has the biggest smile on her face. After a few minutes, my heart rate is returning to normal – I had no idea what the problem was when I ran up top. I return down below to dry the floor from the bathroom through the saloon and get changed. It was lovely seeing the dolphins but maybe a calm call of “Dolphins” next time rather than “Adam, Adam, quick, quick….” Which makes me think there is something wrong. 🙂

Maria continues her Italian theme with a carbonara for supper which we eat quickly before sunset and now all navigation lights are on and the instruments are turned down to their night mode to preserve our night vision so we can keep a good watch. That said over the last ten hours we have seen two sailing yachts and that is it, the closest of these was two miles away and the other nearly four. There is nothing on AIS so we are prepared for a quiet night.

This evening we will be alternating rest and trying to get a couple of hours at a time. Maria has been yawning so I suggest she gets the first bit of rest. However, at ten o’clock I notice a few splashes near the boat that are not our wake clashing with the swell. The conditions are very benign, having settled down to a 4 knot north westerly with a gentle movement of the sea, so I go to the bow to investigate and it is true we have more dolphins. As I return to the cockpit wondering whether I should wake Maria, she is upright having seen I wasn’t in the cockpit. I said “we have dolphins, come and see” (see that is how you do it!). The sight at night is even more amazing than during the day. As you look down into the darkness, you can see plankton seemingly hanging in the air and what appear to be flying dolphins. Only when they break the surface do you get the impression of water. The display lasts a good fifteen minutes with them playing in our bow wave. however, now Maria is awake and won’t go back to sleep so I suggest at 11pm that I get some sleep.

At 1am Maria is getting tired so we swap over again, this time I have something interesting. Two large cargo ships coming straight at us on exactly the same course as each other. When I check we go straight through the middle of them and they will be past in 30 minutes so all is good. As we approach Italy, there is a need for a sharp look out for the remainder of the night, especially after last years encounters with small unlit fishing boats off the North Sicily coast. For extra security I put the radar on. We are getting close now and can see the lights on the land, soon enough the night and the holiday will be over.

The moon is well and truly up now which provides additional light and the stars look amazing. If I’m not scanning the horizon on these night watches I am looking into the sky at the millions of stars you can see when there is no light pollution.

Maria and I alternate resting through the night and before long it is light again and we are only a few hours from Brindisi. As we approach, we start to see other boats, a couple of yachts, large container ships anchored to the south of Brindisi and some faster motor boats. One goes across us seemingly heading South but before long has done a wide turn to approach us from behind. It is grey with guardia du finanza on the side, they ask us to come to a halt. It’s all very polite and professional and they have put out fenders on the side to avoid rubbing against us. They ask to check our papers, which should be in order having been checked several times in Italy over the last months, never mind Montenegro and Croatia. This takes some time which is surprising. After about half an hour, they have papers for us to sign and it appears we have been checked in to Italy. They ask us if there is anything to declare and we say no but they ask to inspect down below. The whole stop, papers and search takes about 45 minutes but eventually they let us go and at least we now don’t need to go into the port offices.

So we have been away from Brindisi and we are returning on the weekend of the Brindisi – corfu annual race. We have no idea if the marina will be full or empty! We call in and I use my faltering Italian to explain we are returning to our berth and would like some assistance. This is no problem and we continue on approach to the marina. Our helpful member of staff is there to help us and takes both our stern lines after maria expertly reverses into our spot. He then passes us the lazy lines for the bow and we are done, the end of a great holiday.

So after City’s glorious victory in the FA cup despite the best endeavours of the officials on the pitch and in the VAR room, it is half way through our holiday and time to start thinking of heading back south east and eventually towards Brindisi.

Our destination for today is Uvala Poplat on the western side of the island of Korcula. Of course the winds are blowing in from the south and east because that is the direction we are heading! The west facing bay looks really nice but getting there is going to need us to tack a little.

We are the end boat on the pontoon so our exit is easy with Maria making the boat go sideways away from our companion and then going straight ahead. We also use the lines to help with this, releasing the stern line nearest to the other boat which helps us to shift away. Drop the two lazy lines on the bow and walk slowly back aft while those lines sink to the bottom so we don’t get one wrapped our prop. Finally release the last line on the stern and we are already on our way.

There are quite a lot of boats out today, none of them going in the same direction as us mugs though. We do see one beautiful square rigged cruise ship, Sea Cloud, but when Marina checks it out, it is about £9,000 for a week. Maybe will stick to our own mini cruise ship.

After a big tack, we are now heading directly into the bay and as we get closer it is time to get the sails out.

Mariadz has in-mast furling and we are generally pretty good at getting the sail in and out without any problems. The trick for us is to keep tension on the sail using the outhaul while the continuous line brings the sail in. On this occasion, however, the continuous loop gets caught in a handle bar in the cockpit under the winch and locks itself tight. We look in disbelief at the beautiful knot under tension with the sail still mostly out and now our means of getting it in blocked. I can’t even move the furler to free mode which would remove the tension and allow us to undo the knot. After a few minutes of thought we decide to try and wedge a flat head screwdriver to ease the knot a bit. Miraculously, this works after a little time and we are able to free the knot, carefully make sure that the continuous line doesn’t play with anything else it shouldnt and get the sail in.

We arrive in Uvala Poplat and there is one other boat in the anchorage. Their position means we need to drop and anchor and attach to a tree but we are confident of this and interestingly after we have finished they do the same on the other side of the bay.

As mentioned we have an anchor buoy to let us know where the anchor is which proves very useful. It has 20 metres of line on it which is doubled at the moment because we generally anchor in less than ten metres and it means it is close to the anchor. Today we think it will be ten metres depth so I attach it and deploy the anchor to see the buoy bobbing a metre under the water, drat it must be eleven metres! We lay out some chain as I get prepared with our three lines combined, y shaped mooring line ready. As Maria holds station, I attach the line to the boat and then off to find a strong tree. I climb the rocks to get to my chosen tree, having remembered to pull out the ribs anchor, attach it to the boat and launch it at the rocks so that the rib doesn’t float away. I have just finished tying the knot when I notice that the line is underwater and has an angle in it. It is clearly snagged on an underwater rock. By now my bowline around the tree has been pulled taut and I can’t get enough slack in the line to undo it. Frustrating isn’t the word. So it’s back to the boat, get the boat hook to unsnag the line. Nope! I get to the line but can’t shift it because it is under tension from both sides. Right! I now have to go back to the boat, undo both lines at the stern, gather in the line until I get to the rock, unsnag it by driving away from the rock before putting it all back together again. That works so it is back to the boat again being careful with the lines and making sure they don’t get caught in the prop. I successfully tie on the first line however the other mischievous line that I want to tie to the other side of the boat has snuck out of the rib and immediately wrapped itself around the prop, stalling the engine.

Everything we do which should be simple is having unwanted issues. I lift the engine clear the line, tell it off for going out without permission like a naughty child and lower the engine. I attempt to restart and there is nothing, grrrh. So I wonder if there is a cut off I need to check. Lift the engine, take the top cover off engine, take a look, nothing obvious and lower engine. Why won’t it start, maria suggests checking the safety cut off, yes it is in place just below the ignition but it is a fair ask since we first got the boat there have been engine start issues that have been exactly that. However, the gear stick is still in drive where it was when the engine stalled which will stop the engine starting. Into neutral and Connie starts first time and purrs in tickover. I can now tie off the second line onto Mariadz. As I finish this, I look back to the tree and the line is caught under another underwater rock. This one is closer to shore, shallower and easier to clear. Having done this and back on board Mariadz, I can now tighten the chain a little to straighten the boat and get the shore line holding us.

We are sitting pretty, at last. Something is telling us today is a day for problems.

Another boat comes in, a bavaria 37 cruiser which is often a charter boat. They go around the entire bay, which is quite large, before deciding that their best place is about thirty metres from us. Still it’s a front row seat for the show. We see their dinghy doesn’t have an engine on and the man has to row it to shore having thrown a very long line into it. The guy goes onto the rocks in bare feet (ouch), that doesn’t look nice. He also has a very long line which seems to be completely tangled together now. You can feel his frustration, somewhat similar to my own an hour previously. It takes ages to untangle the line but eventually he gets the line around a large boulder and drops the rest back into the dinghy. However, he is struggling to row the boat and pay out the line. After a few minutes watching his pain, we call across to offer some help which after initially being refused, is gratefully accepted. So I am back in the rib, avoiding all lines and heading to join him near the rocks. I attach a line to his dinghy and start to tow him back to their boat as he pays out the line. On board he is able to tie it to their cleat and my work is done. All done for now and they invite us over for a drink as a thank you for the help. A little later we pop over and meet a really nice Slovenian family. They are having a reunion family holiday with their 35 year old son and 29 year old daughter. They speak excellent English and correct all of pronunciations of the places we have visited 🙂 so we are starting to learn a little more about Croatia.

On our return to Mariadz, Maria makes up a nice dinner with pork chops and a little pasta and then it is off to bed. As we switch the lights off their is a strange ticking noise we can hear. We start taking up floor boards desperately trying to understand the cause of this noise before the ticking noise is traced to pistol prawns outside of the boat. During our search, we see some water in the aft bilge and quickly hoover it up. Being lazy, I put the water down the toilet. Maria is worried she didn’t just hoover up water…. Why was I so lazy as to not dump it overboard. We now have a blocked toilet. I am hoping that whatever it is has got through the toilet and been caught in the joker valve which would be easier to fix. So of course it isn’t that. A job for when we stop next.

The next morning we set off early to sail to Lastovo on our back to Mljet. As usaual the wind is coming from over the Lastovo island so similar to yesterday there will be a tack required. We are actually making reasonable time and the southern tack is quite fast.

Tonight we will be docking on the sea wall in lostova, the restaurant, Konoba Aragosto, has had good reviews. We are on approach it looks a pretty well protected bay. As we get in, we can see one other boat outside of the restaurant as i finalise getting the fenders and stern lines on. In quite a strong cross wind, Maria gets Mariadz going backwards onto the dock. Someone is there to help us and as they often do he is keen to give me the lazy line straight away. I ask him to tie the stern lines first so that Maria can power the boat away from the deck held by these. I get them ashore, those distant memories of messing that up are hopefully behind me.

Once we are settled we can set to fixing the toilet or at least understanding what is wrong. Firstly we need to know where the blockage is, a pretty horrible thought when you are talking about toilets. I recheck the back of the toilet. There is nothing in the non-return joker valve and water in the pipe so I next go to the diverter box (which allows us to go from the sea to the holding tank. When I open this up, it is full of calcium so I clean it up. So I have now gone right the way to the through hull which when wide open doesn’t let water into the boat. It is blocked and we can clear some out but the right angle bend at the top of it, stops us getting it all. Ave attacked it quite hard and we are now able to get water coming in but there still seems to be a problem with the emptying of the toilet – one for tomorrow when we aren’t in a dock and I can go under the boat and try and clear the outside part.

This glorious, messy and smelly exercise takes me pretty much to dinner, especially by the time we have cleared up the boat and me. Shortly before that though, two people in uniform come to the boat and tell us we have to pay a fee for entering the national park so we get stung for €40 for entering the national park. We go to the restaurant for dinner and and have a mixed starter of meat, cheese and gherkins, a John Dory fish which we share and a pancake and ice cream pudding. With some wine and sparkling water, our bill comes to €160. The most expensive meal we have had. It was nice but not the best we have had. A few nightcaps on board to finish the night and it’s off to bed.

In the morning the two boats either side of us are making lots of noise at 8am, so that means we will be up then! Our plan to go to vucine bay on the mainland of Croatia before going to mljet tomorrow. The winds should be ok but it will be tight and potentially like the last few days with some tacking going on

We are thinking of leaving but need one of the boats to move ideally since we are squeezed tight. We have nearly had one problem with our kedge anchor protruding proud of the rest of the boat and we don’t want a repeat. There are ominous black gloves to the west of us and just as one of the boats is thinking of leaving, a huge storm blows in with strong winds and rain lashing down, nobody is going anywhere for the moment. It’s a good wash for the boat but we have the mesh sides up which allow some rain in! So all of our cloth covers are wet. However, this is all coming in from the west completely against any of the weather predictions. Although I guess as this heads south then those winds will come in as predicted.

An hour or two after our intended departure time, the outside boat leaves and we are ready to go too. It means we won’t arrive at the anchorage until gone 4pm, late for us.

As we get out of the bay, it is an easterly wind of 12-14knots. We will motor sail with most of the main and the stay sail so we don’t heal over too much. Mariadz, and Maria, don’t like that. We want to head east and it would take a very long time just sailing and tacking there. Maybe if we had more time. We start heading north east towards the island of korcula that we have visited already, actually our heading is pretty much straight at korcula town on the far side of the island. Rather than two tacks maria would like to break it up a bit more into four tacks which also gives us some options if the wind changes direction, I guess. As we finish our final south eastern tack we have lost a bit of time but the wind has shifted south a little which allows us to aim directly for our destination as the sun comes out to dry our stuff and make Maria happy.

We are about half an hour out when I see a yacht with sails down with a motor boat in attendance. The motor boat seems fine but the yacht is on a collision course. We are sailing on a starboard tack quite close to the wind and in the groove and it looks like that sail boat will pass just behind us. Until I notice the tow rope between the two of them when they are about half a mile away. Ah. Maybe we will go behind the sailing boat then… it’s a quick diversion and we are soon back on our course.

We approach the beautiful bay of Uvala Vucine and there is one other boat who are right where we wanted to anchor, at least we are good at choosing spots! We anchor a little south of them but in a good spot in 8 metres of water. The water is so clear you can see the chain all the way back to the anchor and when we float past it the anchor too.

The water is fantastic and clear so we have to go for a swim and use Maria’s new personal watercraft which goes at 4.3km hour. It’s really good fun and a lazy way to swim. I go and check the anchor and do a quick tour of the boat.

We also fly the drone again to get some great views of the bay and mariadz in it. It is beautiful. The drone landing is still very stressful but no damage done so a result.

A Sunsail boat full of brits comes in. We all watch the glorious sunset and then eat our bbq dinner on deck drinking some very nice wine that we bought from our favourite enoteca in San Michelle. A little taste of home since we are going back soon. At the end of the meal, Maria decided to feed the fish the left over bread, they are going wild for it.

In the morning we are woken by bird song and the sun shining full on my pillow. We decide to have another swim before leaving without about 100 fish. Then it is on our way to Mljet with no wind. As we depart our friends that we met in Mljet, Annie and flinn say they are coming to the bay and will arrive during the morning. Such a shame that we have just missed them.

It’s a scorching day with what little wind there is offsetting the wind that Mariadz is making by driving forward. It is reminiscent of the coast of Africa last year when we watched Christian reading a book with sweat dripping off his face, must have been a raunchy book.

We have messaged the Maestral restaurant, brother and sister Tim and Linda, and told them we will be there at 1pm, and we arrive in the bay at 12:58. Linda comes to help us with the mooring buoy which was nice and we settle down. There is a 50 foot cat on the other buoy and we seem quite close, we are also close to the “roundabout” of rocks in the middle of the bay.

It is really hot and we decide to go for a swim giving Marina another opportunity to play with her James Bond toy. It also gives me a chance to check the distance to the shallows and also to review the holding weight at the sea bed that we are attached to. Actually the bay is quite deep until you get very close to the central rocks and we are attached to a three foot cubed lump of concrete. Mariadz is safe. While we are swimming there are three large yachts that come into the bay and go back out, maybe they were hoping for our mooring buoy.

Our dinner is booked early at Maestral but we are grateful that we booked since they are full of boats and people tonight in contrast to the other restaurants in the bay who have 3 and 4 boats on their docks.

It is time for dinner and we are looking forward to this, we checked the menu when we were here last week and it looked lovely. Maria has seen the five course tasting menu which looks good but like a lot of women, just wants to change a few things on it… we are decided and also take Linda’s advice on Croatian wine, this is a white from the Dubrovnik region, which is excellent. I’m sure if we were going back we would buy a few bottles of that.

The meal and view, including Mariadz gloriously sitting in the middle of the bay, are perfect. At the end, they offer us a choice of liquors but again Maria can’t choose and we have both. This is the most expensive meal we have had on holiday but it was fantastic.

We had decided to have an early sitting for food, so we could chat to the siblings a little but it also meant we were back on the boat shortly after West Ham started playing for their first European honours in forty plus years. It’s another victory while we have been away and we know Kristy, Stu, Isabella and bump will be happy.

A quick nightcap and off to bed to get a good nights rest before the long journey back to Brindisi.

After a great night’s sleep, we awake early on Saturday morning to another glorious day in Uvala Smrka. Today it will be a short sail to the town of Milna and our first Marina in Croatia. Maria has coincided this with the FA Cup final so that we may watch it in a bar, even though we have the technology to watch it on board if necessary.

First off we are going to explore the bay and the submarine pen. The bay is pretty and we have some nice pictures of Mariadz anchored but the submarine pen is basically a large cave, I had in mind all sorts of James Bond villain underground engineering. No one is going to take over the world by refurbing that!

We return to the boat and decide today will be the first proper flight of our new drone, bought using the contents of the £2 jar. We get a number of shots of Mariadz and a video. Of course the most stressful part is bringing it in to land when there are lots of lines and protruding bits of stainless steel to break its fragile props. We decide to land it on the cushions on the aft sun bed and this works well until the breeze flicks up a towel just enough to catch it. Still everything seems to be ok but note to self no towels on sun beds for next flight.

Again, this will be about an hour and a half with no wind so no sails up 😦 we are basically just going around the island of Brac and the entire journey is uneventful. As we approach Milna, we radio the marina as advised in the guide books. There is no reply, a couple of more attempts and still nothing. Eventually I telephone the marina to be told by a lovely young lady that someone will be waiting on the pontoon for us.

It’s lazy lines again and he is putting us on the outside berth of the outside pontoon. There is no one else on there but apparently they will be full later. Maria brings Mariadz in and I throw the lines and then take them back so we can adjust ourselves from on board. He then passes us two lazy lines for the bow. He gives us a bit of advice to keep the stern lines loose while we tighten the bow but this isn’t our first rodeo! Still nice of him to give the advice. Bow lines on we then tighten them up further by tightening the stern lines and bringing Mariadz in close enough to the dock that we can step off the swim platform. She will not be moving.

We get off with the boat papers to check into the office and are greeted by a very friendly lady and we have a lovely chat while we check in and pay our fees. We get back to the boat where we now have power so Maria decides she will do some washing while we go off for a swim in the sea and then a shower in the very clean facilities. The coast of Croatia has been quite rocky and so we need swim shoes to get in and as we walk to the beach area, there is a bronze statue of a man fishing using a net from shore. This is just below a picturesque fish restaurant, bargo, which could be somewhere we can try later depending on how the day goes. The beach is rocky, like a lot in Croatia, but the sea is very clear if a little cold for us at 20 degrees.

We have our showers which is in lovely soft water great for Maria’s hair so she is happy. We then get back, tidy up and hang out some washing before heading into town a couple of hours before kick off of the FA Cup final.

It’s hot today and a lovely stroll into a nice little town. As we look back at Mariadz, it looks like the gypsies have turned up hanging out their washing! In town, there is a large sailing boat tied up on the quay and a bar just after that with a very nice outside area for eating. We ask them if they are going to show the game and they are afraid it isn’t on a channel that they subscribe to. However, there is a bar called Vox around the corner that will definitely have it. We quickly nip to Vox to confirm they will have the game and we are all set.

However, now we need to get some food and we agree to go back to the first bar, Bargo. They have a fish platter for two that sounds good and Maria is worried there won’t be enough food and so orders some calamari too. When it arrives we have two tuna steaks, large prawns, prawns on skewers, muscles and other shellfish with a huge plate of calamari. You know your fish platter is going to be filling when there are two tuna steaks! The food is great and we have a lovely view across the bay with me in the shade and marina in the sunshine. That is until the mini cruise ship, Princesza Diana, comes in and docks right in front of us. Oh well, we will be leaving shortly to watch the football.

We arrive at Vox next it quite full of Mancunians who are staying at a local hotel with their brightly coloured wristbands. There are some city fans but more United fans who are very quite noisy for 13 seconds until city score their first goal. Unfortunately, they get the opportunity to be noisy again later but city finally quieten them down with a winning goal and twenty seconds after the final whistle they have all gone!

After watching the trophy lift, that will be two out of three now (hopefully one more to go before this holiday finishes), we return to the marina to find the pontoon is filling up quite quickly. We had seen on our outside camera that somebody had come in next to us, glad we decided to put all of our fenders on that side and the rib on the other side.

We are just pottering now, tidying up the now dry washing when a nice lady comes up to us and asks us if we would like to eat in their restaurant this evening. After our large lunch we don’t expect to be too hungry but this is the place we looked at earlier and it looked very nice.

We arrive for our table a little later still not feeling too hungry but take a look at the menu. It is a really nice menu, designed like a newspaper with little articles dotted around describing the history of the restaurant and the husband and wife owners. We decide to eat a light supper, a scorpion fish and she persuades us to have the fish pate to start. As we have found with all of the food in Croatia it was very tasty. At the end we have had enough but I enquire about desserts. We are offered a tiramisu, my favourite Italian dessert. We didn’t come to Croatia to eat a dessert which would be immeasurably better in Italy, but the wife mentions that she is Italian! Oh well, that changes everything… one of those with two spoons please!

This marks our furthest point north and tomorrow we will start the slow journey back towards Italy.

After a lovely evening, we decide to get up early because we have six or seven hours of travel with little wind. So it is six o’clock when the alarm goes off. We get up quite quickly, get the coffees and drinks together so that we can get on our way.

As we go past Korcula Town, it looks stunning and on the far side of the town is a large marina with a number of 50 metre motor boats, similar to Casanova. Clearly they have to get out early since about half a dozen of these leave at the same time as we go past. We need to be careful not to get in anyone’s way but we seem to be in the middle of a convoy of ships. This is fine for a while but the problem is that there is a little blue fishing boat in the way. As one of the big boats goes to avoid him, the electronics on our boat light up – he will hit us in two minutes! We give them a little room knowing they will return to their previous course when they get past him but better safe than sorry. The water is an absolute mill pond, so no sails for us today but we are enjoying heading in the same general direction with our escorts.

We take the opportunity of a bit of tranquility to clean up the boat. In particular, the seats for the rib have been stored for a year and are quite mucky and once this is done, we decide to focus on the stainless steel around the boat which has become tarnished. This is incredibly rewarding as it shines after we have put a bit of effort into it. Maria likes things shiny!

I go down below and randomly check the state of the batteries. Overnight they generally go down to about 70% but I had noticed they were only at 50% this morning. I am disappointed to see them at 36%. The solar is contributing but it is a little cloudy and the combination of navigation on top of everything else is pulling from the batteries. So why is our two year old hardly-used super-duper alternator not doing what it should. This was supplied and fitted by Ollie at Seapower who, as described previously, has done a fantastic job with the electrics on Mariadz. Firstly we check the voltage at the alternator which is reading the same as the batteries on our battery monitor. There is a regulator on the wall which controls the alternator and it flicks through its settings, confirming that the controller thinks it should be charging. Ollie thinks there is either a problem with the alternator or a problem with the “blue wire”. If it is a problem with the alternator there isn’t much I can do so fingers crossed when I check it later. We always have the generator to top up if we need.

We arrive in our chosen anchorage Uvala Tarsce which is deep in the middle but everyone anchors and then attaches mooring lines to trees and rocks on the side to stop them moving. Similar to med mooring without the docks and cleats – and you are a little bit further away from the rocks than the dock! This is a first for us, but an important skill to learn. Our first step is to prepare to drop the anchor, this will stop Mariadz going onto the rocks. Then the mooring lines are tied to a tree on the shore which will stop her moving around.

As mentioned this was our first attempt so it took about forty minutes to complete. Firstly, I started to drop the anchor and then got Maria to drop the rest as she came back in astern towards the shore. When I went to the bow to check, I noticed that we only had twenty metres of chain out which wouldn’t even touch the bottom where we started so we had obviously been holding the anchor suspended above the sea bed until it got a little shallower, but the anchor wouldn’t be where we would want it. So start again. This time I do an initial anchor drop to the depth of the water and then leave it to maria to continue dropping anchor as we go astern. We are good now and sitting about thirty metres off shore. As for the aft lines. I have decided to go with a bridle across the two aft cleats, which should pin her better than a single line to shore from one cleat and share the load. I use our two shortest mooring lines and then join these to one of our longest. This all goes in the rib as I head to shore paying it out as I go. I am a few metres from shore when I run out of line! Back to the boat again and get another line, this is twenty five metres long but with a snubber. The good news is it reaches, the bad news is trying to do a bowline, quite an easy knot, when you are threading a large snubber through the knot is more difficult than you think. Eventually, and after several attempts, I get it done. Maria then suggest that I add fenders to the line so people know it is there. Now I am done and we are sitting pretty – anchor out and lines to shore.

This particular anchorage is famous for having a very good restaurant a five minute walk away. More of that later, but first let’s discuss leaving the rib….. the walk to said restaurant starts at the beach at the north west corner of the bay. That means we have to get the rib out and take it to the beach. Now for some reason we are always keen to lock up our property if we are leaving it and as we look at the beach it is clear there is nowhere for us to leave the rib safely. We come up with a plan using a disused rusty ladder and similar to what we have done with the big yacht, anchoring off this and then tying up to the ladder. I drop the anchor in the small bay, tie the rib up to the ladder and then let the rib settle on its anchor while we start the short walk, or trek, through the undergrowth to the restaurant.

When we arrive the restaurant is a little oasis, overlooking another bay. It’s quite busy with three front row tables all occupied. The owner is really nice and the menu is small but with lots of local favourites. We have an aubergine pie, similar to a meat-free moussaka, followed by a 50cm meat kebab, all washed down with the owners homemade, very tasty red wine. It was fantastic. We are also able to check on Mariadz via the remote anchor app that tells us she is exactly where we left her and the boom mounted security camera that shows the view behind her and the line to shore nice and tight. After the meal, the owner delivered a small bottle of carob grappa, that was very morish! We are a little merry after this for the walk back through the undergrowth. Connie the rib is sitting pretty in the middle of the small bay where the beach is. I pull her in to get on board, release the lock and the mooring line and drift back to the anchor. After retrieving the anchor I can run up to the beach where Maria is waiting with the camera bag and the beach bag.

Now, originally, we had to get Connie because of Maria’s inability to sit sensibly in a standard rib without proper seats. She would fall into these and end up lying face down in the rib for the journey with her bottom in the air. Connie solved this with her four seats which allow Maria to sit comfortably and ride elegantly. Or so we thought…… The bags are on board and Maria starts to climb in and then in slow motion falls backwards out of the rib grabbing onto the rib for just long enough to give her a long lazy fall into the sea. The group of girls on the beach tried, unsuccessfully to avoid laughing as Maria comes up soaking wet and giggling. This group of girls are staying on a yacht anchored about fifty metres from the beach but one is obviously a little tired and wants to go back to her friends, swimming just off the yacht. She asks for a tow! Having dropped her a line we gently set off. She says she is fine and wants to go faster, hmmm, barefoot water skiing perhaps. I give a few more revs and that idea disappears very quickly as she splutters to slow down. We settle back down and drag her slowly back to her boat. Her friends can’t see her and are wondering why I am driving the rib at them, until I turn and they see their friend waving. We drop her off, retrieve our line and zoom off back to Mariadz who is sitting exactly where we left her. But we already knew that.

On our return Maria is very “happy” and wants to dance on the bow, I suspect it is the loud group of boys playing music and laughing on the catamaran next to us. We also have a little swim and as I swim around to check the anchor, Maria decides to dive off the bow, with some encouragement from me… the bow seat is probably 1.5m over the water so maria did have second thoughts but still went for it and did a good dive in.

More drinking, singing and dancing ensued. We even had a small boat come up to us selling local wine, olive all etc which of course Maria decided to buy before, even in her drunk state, she decided to make a spaghetti bolognaise for a snack dinner. It is lovely and eventually we fall into bed quite late.

The next morning we are up quite early, today we will be going to Hvar which we have always pronounced the same as Huzzah in the TV show, The Great! Today we will be going to a small cove at Jagodna in Hvar which has a restaurant that gets rave reviews. It will be our first time picking up a mooring ball this holiday and although the bay is a little open, the wind is not predicted to be high so we should be ok. Maria is having interviews today about a potential new job so we want to get there nice and early so we can get settled. But before we leave another boat comes alongside selling fruit, bread and croissants. It would be rude not to wouldnt it? We have some fresh bread and I have breakfast – maria doesn’t like to eat first thing.

However, before we can leave, it is onto the serious business of the non functioning alternator. Ollie has suggested that it could be the “blue wire” so I go into the engine room and check the wiring from the alternator. There is a blue wire that goes into a little black box and then out again. I check these for fitting and there is a noticeable click when I press on the blue wire in the black box. Could i be that lucky? I haven’t got the heart to get Maria’s hopes up so I remain calm as I fire up the engine…. 20A going into the batteries (a little more excitement), up the revs and 60A going into the batteries – he shoot, he SCORES!!! By the way darling, I have fixed the alternator, said as nonchalantly as possible. Maria is equally happy although we will all know that the real hero here is Ollie.

It’s only 90 minutes for us to cover the nine and a half miles to our destination and so before noon we are coming into the cove. I have booked a table at the restaurant in the evening and they described three black buoys which are all free. It is very picturesque with wooden gazebos with sun beds amongst the rocks and ladders down to the water. On closer inspection these black buoys seem remarkably close to shore for a 54 foot boat but we agree to give it a go.

Maria has great calls with the interviewers who clearly really like her and rate her. By the end of the day they have made her a good offer, reasonable salary but lots of extras that help to make it more palatable. While this is going on, I am distracted by how close we are getting to the rocks ashore. I decide to take advantage of the free buoy and tie our stern to the buoy nearest the restaurant, that will stop us swinging. It is successful at stopping the swinging but the gap between the buoys is about sixty feet and quite quickly the buoy attached to our stern starts banging on the hull, leaving a number of black marks, grhhhh. As Maria finalises her call, the wind and swell have picked up and the exposed nature of this bay is becoming apparent.

At 6pm, an hour before our table is booked, we make a decision. We are not comfortable here and we will find another bay that is protected. Opposite us is the island of Brac and we can see a really nice looking bay, Uvala Smrka, which has an old disused submarine hideout. It is six miles away and we have two and a half hours of daylight remaining so enough time. It will also require us to get a line ashore again, hopefully we will be quicker than the forty minutes and various mis-steps of the first attempt.

We head into the northerly wind and the fair amount of chop that we have already experienced within the bay, dragging the rib behind us. When we arrive, it is a gorgeous little bay with a couple of other yachts, one is anchored in the spot we could have gone and the other is anchored with a mooring line to shore where there are a number of established trees at the water line. We find our spot on the eastern side and I drop the anchor to twenty metres til it touches the sea bed. Maria then goes astern towards our chosen tree paying out more chain as I get the mooring lines and rib ready. Once again we will have lines from each stern cleat that will join a longer line that will go around the tree. Similarly to last time, I am a couple of metres short of line when I get to the tree but also the tide has taken Mariadz to be almost parallel to the shore. I get Maria to pay out more chain and come back towards me. At the same time, I decide to use my super human strength to pull the stern round of the 25 tonne boat. Needless to say my efforts don’t do too much, apart from pull muscles in my shoulders that will hurt for months, but Maria is doing well at getting her closer to shore and at the right angle. I can now tie around the tree and do a pretty bowline knot.

As I return to mariadz, the mooring line is laying in the water doing nothing and the anchor is angled straight down meaning it isn’t pulling us either. I decide to initially shorten the bridle at the stern in the first instance. Which helps a little and then a bring up a little chain and Mariadz straightens up and sits very nicely in her spot. It’s now getting a little late so we will leave exploring the bay until tomorrow morning.

Dinner is a couple of burgers that we were going to do on the barbecue washed down with an Italian red and then, for the first time this holiday, we switch on the TV and watch one of our programmes, a comedy called The Great, huzzah!