What a pallarva! On arrival in Morocco we had officials on the boat choosing presents they would like from us. The authorities stored our drone and spear gun for four days and then when we go to check out state that they need paying for this. Only cash and only local currency. If they had told us beforehand we would have kept back some money rather than spending our last money on a haircut for me. The marina then said that because we have been delayed beyond midday, they would want additional money. We were delayed by an hour by the office! That doesn’t materialise and to be fair, the guy at the marina went to the bureau de change and changed my fifty euro note for two twenties and some morrocon currency.

So our overriding impression is wonderful place with wonderful people only tainted by the bureaucracy at the beginning and end. As we leave, there is a frantic call from the dock since we haven’t given back the pass keys for the gates. He hops into his rib while Maria pirurettes round the marina, not personally but gets Mariadz to do it – now that’s printed. Mental picture. When he arrives I am able to safely throw the cards into his boat before we set off.

Anyway, the wind looks good to push us down to the canaries, a trip of over 620 miles. Interestingly, the ARC require that you complete a 500 mile sail in the year prior to doing the ARC. We have arguably logged this when we ran from Sicily to Spain, with an overnight anchor in Sardinia but this trip definitely qualifies.

As we checked out there was a catamaran in front of us that are also going to the canaries. Let’s see if we catch them up….

The initial part of the trip has the wind and waves just forward of our beam and quite strong. I try to reassure Maria that everything will change when we start running with the wind but despite all her experience of exactly this situation, she is dubious. After a short while it is engine off and running under half a main with 25 knot winds. A further turn puts the wind almost directly behind and we decide to put out some headsail and sail good winged for up to 18 hours if we are lucky!

I have picked up a bug in Morocco somehow and feel quite washed out and grateful to have a toilet close by. Let’s hope I can get my rest and let Maria have hers. Dinner for me is two pieces of toast and some water. Try and keep the energy levels up without eating anything that is going to aggravate it.  About twelve hours after my initial symptoms, Maria is also starting to feel unwell so we will be nursing each other through the night watches. To do this we decide not to have long watches but to have short one hour watches and alternate with some sleep which makes it an unusual system for us. The night seems to be very long for this reason as to some extent we are awake for most of it and cat napping when we can. This may be a sign of us being unwell but it also feels very cold and we are both changed into long trousers, long sleeve tops and our lightweight sailing jackets, whilst sleeping under a warm blanket! That won’t continue for too long i imagine. 

We have been making good progress so far but the wind is almost directly behind and to maximise the sail out we are goosewinged but this only works within a very narrow band of wind direction. It effectively means that we are steering by the wind direction through the night adjusting as the wind changes. As the night develops the wind dies down even more and we are now moving at a very slow three or four knots.

The next morning the winds are a bit steadier at 10-12knots which with the wind direction is helpful as it is back on our beam. We are now running with full sail out and making really good progress again, even if we are heading slightly too far east. 

We are at the end of our first day, 130 miles,  it could have been a lot better if we hadn’t had the complete drop off in winds. Then the moment that we both enjoy, a pod of dolphins come over to play with mariadz which really lightens the mood. They are not with us long but are so beautiful. 

It’s mid afternoon as we start our second day of sailing (i.e 24 hours after we left) which starts with a complete drop of wind to 4 Knots, we are effectively drifting at two or three knots. Our forecasts are showing that the wind is offshore and the flat spots are adjacent to the Moroocan coast. We have also noticed that our batteries are down at 40% which isn’t ideal either. We could run the generator to charge them or use the big alternator on the engine, as fixed (with help) by yours truly.  We decide to run the engine and try and take the opportunity to get more off shore and try and find some wind.  As evening sets in, we are back sailing and our batteries are sufficiently charged. Looking at our track, you would think we are drunk as it meanders around our planned course with us chasing the wind! You will see that at the end with the video.

I am starting to feel a bit better but Maria is feeling really washed out so my responsibility is trying to get her as rested as possible so she can recover. We have a steady wind, are seeing surprisingly many ships considering our position is over seventy miles off the coast of Morroco. Everyone is playing very nicely though and leaving a wide berth which is helpful.. tonight we have both dressed as we did the previous evening and I’m not sure if this is a sign I’m getting better but now I feel warm whilst Maria is really wrapped up. Hopefully, if she is following my timeline, she will feel better in the morning. I will try and go back to our more normal watch system, which stresses rest for Maria, especially as she isn’t well. However, by 10pm she is fast asleep and so I let her have an extra hour. 

A few hours later, the wind has picked up and we have been steadily going at 6-7 knots. I was obviously very tired since I didn’t hear my alarm and Maria also let me sleep in. That probably wasn’t the best idea since she is the unwell person now who needs her rest. I’m woken with a start because the sails are flapping a little and Maria wants it sorted. We make changes but it isn’t perfect in a rolly sea , I get her to go to sleep – hopefully that will help her to get better. In the morning we should be straight downwind to the canaries. This will give us a perfect opportunity to get the twin headsail rig going again. Most importantly remember how to do it after four years!

Maria gets a solid rest but it hasn’t been the cure we hoped although she does feel better. I am feeling a little better all the time but this is not a 24 hour and done unfortunately. My diet for two days has been two pieces of toast and water. I was hoping that would reset my body quickly but we will see.

It is daylight when Maria wakes and, having given some time to acclimatise, we set about putting up our twin headsail rig. The second headsail has been on the port bow for some time – partly to remind me which side it needs to be raised. Readers may recall that we had a great time with this rig in biscay but had some chaffing and damage. I wanted to test the great advice we got at the time. 

It’s a little complicated especially as we haven’t done this often so we take our time, make our mistakes and correct them as we go. I have extra blocks to fit to run the lines better to the winches, another lesson learned from last time. Mariadz has colour coded lines which really helps us generally and lines for the pole, which recently bit me back, have black lines running through them (and some of my blood). We decide to get the pole ready first, with a preventer tied to the bow to stop it going back onto the mast. There is a line to hold it at the right height and the third line that makes it work is the sheet from the sail, which is a dedicated line in the bag with the sail. This headsail has a small fuller, which has been a bit problematic but attaches to the stainless on the bow well. It is then a question of using our red port spinnaker line to hail up the sail. This was a lesson taught in Vigo, the red line comes from forward of the mast so it isn’t blocked by anything else so we shouldn’t find it chaffing as we did with our starboard green spinnaker line. We run it all the way to the stern onto a turning block before it goes to the big sheet winches. Port side done, it is time to pole out the main headsail using the boom. I have a new block for the boom and one of the soft shackles created by the fantastic rigger in Vigo from the core from our repaired lines. This keeps the block clear of everything and hopefully resolves the secondary chafing issue we had in Biscay. This is all quite complicated as we again need a preventer to the bow to stop the boom going backwards, we have the main sheet, which will stop it going forward and of course the topping lift for height. In amongst all this is the sheet for the sail which turns from the boom, to the deck and then into the starboard winch. As you are threading all of this together you are trying your best to make sure you thread it properly – and of course you never do! But eventually we get it so that all lines are clear of each other. Getting the boom out without a sail out is much more difficult than we remember, maybe worth having the sail out to start with rather than me having to push it while Maria tightens the preventer. It takes some time, we are taking our time and checking our steps but the wind is nowhere near the twenty odd knots we had in Biscay four years ago. By the afternoon, the lack of wind is causing problems, as we roll with the sea, the wind falls out of the sails – and Maria does not like a flappy sail. Our solution is to stick with our second headsail which is in the port side getting the wind and roll away our standard headsail. We can then get the main out on the other side and hopefully catch the wind quite well. Later in the afternoon, it gets worse when the wind drops to very little and we have batteries that need charging so it is on with the big iron sail and off we go. While we wait for the batteries to get up to a healthy level, the wind has shifted slightly to the North and strengthened so once again we live in hope that once the charging is complete, we can sail as we would like. 

We are now about half way having made reasonable progress but not great time of 130 miles on day one and 145 miles on day 2, fingers crossed for day 3.

The good news, as go into our third night at sea is, for the moment, we have a good wind. Even after charging the batteries by running the engine, we only lost a knot or two switching the engine off and we continue at 7.5-8 knots, let’s hope this spells a change in our weather luck. {probably read forward three paragraphs to get the answer to that!}.

We are reverting to our normal watch system as Maria gets some rest straight after dinner, I’ll be on watch until 10pm and will get a couple of hours rest before taking on the post midnight watch. When Maria wakes before dawn, she will take over and I will get some more rest. Friday seems to be a particularly hard work day for me as everyone tries to get things done before the weekend so it looks like I will be below deck for several hours tomorrow which of course puts more pressure on Maria for looking after the boat. So her rest is important.

Who needs to wait for any update on the weather. Thirty minutes later, and a lot less than three paragraphs, and the gusts are gone and the wind strength is down to 11-12 knot region. Going into night that is probably preferable so you are safe but our speed has cut down to 6 knots. A long night beckons. The moon is up and closing on full and bright but tonight for the first time there is a lot of cloud. We are currently 78 miles from shore so there is no chance of seeing land but on the horizon appears to be a string of white lights. I think these are caused by the reflection of the moon on the waves but happy to be corrected. We are past Casablanca so it will be interesting to see if this is a common phenomenon or some completely made up junk by my poorly mind. Some things to throw in the pot, we could only see it for about five minutes, there was no glow in the sky that you get around a big city covered in cloud, even when we went to mountainous Montenegro, we would only see land about thirty miles away and finally I don’t think we’re that far away when I saw the “famous” cruise ship – Rock of Gibraltar! Oh and the light is right under where the moon is. A little later the clouds part and we can see the moon, we can also see similar “lights” on the water closer to us – so anyone wanting to correct me will have to do a lot better than Charlie the ChatGPT, a close personal friend of Maria by the way… 🙂

I have had my two hours rest with the odd interruption and Maria has been diligently following the wind which is sending us a bit westward. This was deliberate to help me sleep but as we swap we need to change that and get back onto a course that gets us closer to Lanzarote. It takes about half an hour to unpick the main so we can get across the boat and set it up effectively on the other side. Our course is pretty much directly at Lanzarote which is great and 90% of the time we run beautifully. Then some large rogue waves hit us and the boat sways from side to side removing the wind from the sails and causing them to flap… and we all know Maria’s view on that.  After another half hour of constant tuning I am able to find a line that balances the wind direction with the waves including the ones that come in from a different angle.  It is then that Maria is comfortable to go to sleep.

As I have said Friday is a busy day for me and i need Maria to be rested or my calls and work will be a disaster. So she will now get four hours of sleep to hopefully set her up for the day. I let her sleep in until 4:30 but she hasn’t had a great rest and isn’t a happy bunny. I lay down to some sleep but the balancing of the sails is tricky and Maria is struggling so the sails are flapping and she is swearing. Not a combination conducive to sleep. Over the next few hours I mix trying to get some sleep with adjusting the course to match the waves – this has been tricky since there seems to be waves coming in from multiple directions. When one hits the side on we get caught in a roll taking the wind out of the sails, making them flap and Maria angry again.

The day progresses, I do some work and we make some progress towards Lanzarote. There is very little to report, what shipping there is seems to have heard we  are a plague ship and are taking the long way round so we occasionally see ships on the horizon but that’s it.  As we finish our third set of 24 hours, we have recorded a much more respectable 169 miles but of course some of this would have been on engine as we charged our batteries.

During the afternoon, we have run the engines again to keep the batteries topped up, worked out that the engine room fan seems to use a lot of power, somewhat undermining the charging – it ran for eight hours after the engine stopped so I will adjust the thermostat again.  Towards, the end of the afternoon, I switch the engine off and we start to get some sail out. We haven’t done much when some dolphins appear right next to us. They are part of a pod of about 30 dolphins that stay with us for about 15 minutes playing and swimming around. As they go off it looks like they are feeding but it is enough to lighten the mood. As we return to the cockpit, the wind is low and variable. Maria is tired, not feeling well and just wants to get there so we put the engine on for more time until the wind hopefully arrives later in the day. 

After several days, we have decided that we can’t keep on not eating and Maria has prepared a cottage pie and vegetables for us – let’s hope that “lands” well! 

In the early evening , the wind starts to pick up so I get the main and staysail out since it is slightly astern but partially on our beam, nice if it stays and strengthens a bit. We can motor sail for a bit and get Maria happier we are closer to our destination. It seems sensible to just get in we are both ill, sleep deprived and in need of a good rest. If we can get in and have a solid sleep on Saturday night we will set ourselves up hopefully.

Originally I had planned to follow our usual watch system but this is ruined by me putting my head down for five minutes and waking up two hours later. Maria let me sleep but is herself shattered so I persuade her to take some rest and we will adapt our schedule.

Unfortunately every night through the med and on this trip, at a certain point in the evening, we are subjected to idiots playing on channel 16. This is the calling channel on VHF where you initiate contact with other ships and authorities and is key to good communication between ships. We have idiots pretending to be cats, playing music and singing. This is exacerbated for us because there are two of us and you could be required at any time, so we are sleeping in the cockpit. Turning the radio off means anyone hailing you won’t get through. It is beyond frustrating what these people are doing, I assume because of boredom. That said, most boats are on AIS and there isn’t anything within thirty miles of us. It doesn’t stop us having to keep a sharp watch though, especially for fishing boats that may have switched theirs off to preserve the privacy of their fishing grounds. Today there aren’t even any of those.

At 11pm you have it – the ARC requirement for a 500 nautical mile qualification passage in the twelve months prior to the ARC is achieved. Arguably we had already done it but there can be no questioning this now!.

Thankfully Maria has a long rest and for the rest of the night it will be two hour watches. Maria laughs that I go out like a light when I’m off watch and she takes some time to settle – which is also part of the reason I want her to have longer breaks. Anyway sailing wise, we are still motor sailing and will arrive in Lanzarote late on Saturday evening. The swell is still not good and the wind hasn’t picked up much which of course still gives us the problem we raised before of the sails flapping as we roll. My solution is to stop downwind sailing and trying to find that sweet spot of wind and waves. We will sail across more on a broad reach, gaining speed and cutting through the waves. This works well and for quite some time as we head over to a point above Lanzarote, we are really going well. While I am down on my break, there is a wind shift which means Maria needs to alter course a little more and when I return I have to adjust a little more but we are still doing well. At 6am when I finish this watch we will take in our staysail and start heading towards the Eastern coast of Lanzarote.

Before midday we see our first sight of land, one of the small islands to the north of Lanzarote. 12 miles out and Starlink and our phones kick back into life without using ocean mode on Starlink. That’s good. We are motoring now. We have about 10 knots of wind directly behind and a reasonably big swell that just causes the sails problems if we head direct. We have decided now is no time to play and we will just make our way into port. 

We can now properly see land but of course everything seems to slow down when you get to the end of the trip. Lanzarote is about the same size as corfu so 30+ miles long but of course in a sailing yacht that still takes a few hours to do. We are past Arricefe quite quickly dodging ships and negotiating anchored cargo ships. As we get to the south of the island we turn sharply towards the port.

The team at Rubicón marina are very efficient and friendly and we tie up under the bar at the entrance, a perfect spectator spot to see people mess it up – not today, Maria brings Mariadz in beautifully, elegant and slow. One of our audience feels they have to get up and come over to tell us how beautiful Mariadz is, that was nice and you can see Mariadz sitting there looking gorgeous even if she is dirty after five days at sea. We check in to the marina but apparently the police don’t work weekends so we will need to pop in to their office on Monday to finalise the admin. The guys tell us we have a prime berth on the other side of the marina designed for 40m boats. As we get Mariadz in and settled she has lots of room and funnily enough our neighbours are another ARC boat who are part of the cruising association and we had been speaking to earlier in the day . Oh dear this could get messy!

We have had a lovely few days in Gibraltar, done some sightseeing, gone to the casino twice being up despite losing sixty pounds in three rolls of the roulette wheel at the end!

It is now time to run the gauntlet of Orca and ships in the straits of Gibraltar. It is only a short run across to Morocco and Tanger Bay Marina where we have decided to stop. There is a strong wind from the East which will help us but crossing the shipping lanes will be “interesting” due to the vast amount of large cargo ships that go through this area.

We plan to leave early in the morning which will mean we will arrive in Tanger early afternoon although we have heard horror stories of four hours to check in and difficult customs searches where items get “liberated” mostly alcohol, cigarettes and cash. We try to radio the authorities to tell them we are leaving Gibraltar but despite several attempts on two different channels, we can’t get through to them. We eventually do and they provide advice as to what ships are coming in although we have already checked every ship near our path and found most of them to be anchored. Maria is concerned when she hears one ship complain that a sailing boat is impeding them. Surely that can’t be us, they would know our name and could have contacted us directly. Shortly afterwards we hear that the culprit has been spoken to and no one contacted us so there is some relief. Maria’s luck with dolphins continues as we see a pod of about twenty jumping and swimming quickly across our bow but they decide not to come any closer.

As we head out, I am starting to look at the Chartplotter with all of the ships identified. It looks busy as we head parallel to the shipping lanes trying to choose our point of crossing. In open water, the larger ships have consistently wanted to have at least a mile between us and them and I am seeing a lot of relatively fast moving ships moving in a line. We have sails up and the engine running to ensure a safe crossing. Eventually I decide the time is good. There is a cargo ship off our port quarter, slightly behind us but by the time I have turned to go across the TSS, we will go harmlessly behind him. However, being decide, I decide to call them on the radio to let them know what I am doing and that I have seen them and will pass astern. A couple of attempts are made but they are clearly not listening to the radio and don’t respond. It is time to make the move but before we do, we take in some sail, the wind is blowing over twenty knots which directly behind us is one thing but right on the beam would be a little more uncomfortable. We pass behind the slow moving freighter and are 1.5 miles ahead of the next ship – the first direction has been safely negotiated. Like coming out of a junction in a car, you have to look both ways and can’t just sit straddling the lane with a 200 metre cargo ship bearing down on you. I have selected a good gap on the other side but with two reasonably fast moving freighters coming at us abreast. We should be fine missing them by a similar distance to the one we have just avoided. There is the slight complication of two fishing vessels going round in circles right in front of us. Eventually they sort themselves out and head off in the direction of the oncoming vessels – an interesting decision but we are past them and heading to the safety of the end of the TSS. We get there and turn back towards the west but keep an eye on the fishing vessels which seem to have belatedly seen the two large cargo ships – they have turned and running to safety ahead of them. I assume this is what they do all day if they fish inside the TSS. We are running down the Morocoan coast and the wind is picking up towards the mid twenties. Again no real problem when it is behind us but something to consider when we make our turn towards the marina. The sails are goosewinged with our headsail on one side and the main on the other which works well as long as the wind stays in the same place or you alter course appropriately. A short time later we are taking sail in for the last turn and the few miles to the marina. The turn goes well and we are half an hour to the marina setting up lines and fenders before taking the sails in and motoring in. The staff are friendly and helpful and wave us onto the waiting pontoon where they will help us through the check in process. It only takes a couple of hours although we are forced to surrender the drone and Maria’s spear gun. The later causes some questions – are you sure you only use this for fish? Err yeah, we haven’t killed anyone with it yet…

The customs team come on board and check for any passengers and what we have onboard. This is quite quick while I am away from the boat although the boat is a little lighter when they leave…

The wind has picked up and the marina staff decide that they want us to move the boat the next morning. This sounds sensible although we do have a midday train to catch for our weekend holiday in Casablanca.

The berth they have allocated has a large bollard at the end which we would prefer not to have to negotiate so I request. Minor adjustment to our berth. The next morning the wind has reduced a little but builds quickly and we are having to move Mariadz in gusts of thirty knots.

In my head I have decided to bring her in astern at an angle to the wind but as I approach in forward to make the turn, the wind gusts are huge and we start to get blown onto the ships on the other side. I should have just come in astern the whole way. With a lot of power and some bow thruster, I extricate Mariadz from the situation and take her back into an empty berth further up. This will allow me to turn her around and come in astern. I haven’t told Maria what I am doing which is a little confusing before I make it clear. As we complete the turn and set up for the reverse into our berth, we have a good line. there are a few staff waiting to take lines and quite a wind stopping us so I still have quite a lot of power on as we enter the berth. Lines are ashore quickly, well done Maria and the guys get Mariadz tied on. We make some adjustments needing both the bow thruster and engine to move Mariadz against the wind – normally you can pull on lines but not today. Another tricky mooring where no one and nothing got hurt – success!

Mariadz is now settled for a few days until our next voyage to the canaries, which will take the best part of a week.

We don’t mean Dwayne Johnson but as part of our trip out of the Mediterranean we have decided to stop over at Gibraltar, the rock, to refuel and also use the funky bathroom that we used last time we were there.

We decide to head off on the Monday, immediately after the last lot of strong winds which would have helped us and before the next set. It will be dead calm but we only have 24 hours maximum to travel to Gibraltar and it doesn’t seem too much of a hardship.

We plan to leave between 10am and 11am but first have to collect our new fire extinguishers, fog horn and serviced life raft, continuing the final steps of getting Mariadz ready. Then pay for our stay before returning the hire car.

Even with the help of a lovely German couple, Aaron and Valentina, we aren’t ready to go before midday. Then we are on our way.

As expected, the sea is a like a millpond with no wind except what we make ourselves as the engine powers us forward. One upside with our timing is that we are getting a great push from the current which will keep going for another six hours and get us a long way there. At the moment it looks like we will arrive mid morning. We are once again staying at the Ocean Village next to the cruise ship converted to a hotel I understand. Maria has had good communication from them and calls them on the phone to confirm our arrival.

We are a few hours in when I see some splashes off our port side. I can see tina the tuna jumping and some dolphins also jumping. It seems ages since we had a proper dolphin encounter and two peel off to come and play on our bow – fantastic.

That is the first of several dolphin visits over the next hour or so which makes Maria very happy and excited.

It is then evening and time to think of food before we settle into our night watches. Today is Maria’s homemade chicken curry washed down with sparkling water – well you need some bubbly! Very tasty and by 10pm I am starting to settle down for some rest.

The plan is to get a few hours rest before relieving Maria from midnight to 4am. This is a short twenty hour crossing and we are motorsailing so achieving better than 7 knots. However, Maria is telling me she probably won’t get any rest and will go through – I may have been caught out in this way before. At 3am her energy levels drop off a cliff and she needs to rest and where I haven’t had any rest before then, it is problematic. While I rest, Maria continues to see dolphins playing around the boat and jumping out of the water nearby. I take over at midnight and hear all about the fun maria has had. On my watch, I don’t get any of that just a cruise ship that decides to aim straight for us! He passes within a mile despite my changing course a lot – very unusual especially with our AIS on so they knew we were there, even if they didn’t see our bright lights. I get a little rest after my four hours but we are making good time and are likely to be in Gibraltar by 8am, so it is a quick break as we ready for the entrance to Gibraltar.

As I wake, I can see another large “cruise ship” anchored in the distance. Checking AIS and it isn’t there which seems a little unusual but with my recent experience of cruise ships I am keeping tabs on it. It is only as we get a little closer that I realise that this is the rock of Gibraltar with a cloud “crown”. I had wondered why the cruise ship was only showing two red lights on its stern! The good news is that cruise ship or rock, I was always going to avoid it! The cloud soon clears to reveal the familiar silhouette. Approaching Gibraltar there are boats everywhere and they are manoeuvring without really making their intentions clear. One in particular is coming towards us before abruptly turning to port to come across our bow. They continue the turn until they are going to go across us again! This time they decide to pass just behind us. Despite these fun and games, we are soon at Europa point, the end of the road as far as the Mediterranean is concerned. As we look at the straights, it is wall to wall shipping on the motorway of the TSS (Traffic Separation Scheme) – that will be a problem for another day.

The problem for today is the ten large cargo ships in our way to the marina. This is complicated by a flotilla of police/military small ships that decide to come right across us as they go to provide an escort to one of the ships sitting outside of the harbour. They will bring this into the naval base but we didn’t know that at the time. There are several anchored ships and a few smaller boats coming at us but it is all safe enough as we turn toward the ocean village marina and our refuelling stop.

We spin Mariadz round so that the fuel tank is on the side of the hoses and the friendly staff help us to get the boat positioned correctly. The wind has been negligible most of the way so the engine has been running all the time unfortunately. The tank also wasn’t full when we left Almerimar, my guess is around 400 litres and Maria, the pessimist, suggests 530 litres of our 680 litre tank! 300 litres of cheap(er) fuel later and we are full so neither of us are very good at this guessing game.

We then need to get into the berth allocated by Ocean Village. They have told us we are in OV15 which we can see easily from the fuel pontoon. By coincidence this is exactly the same berth that we had four and a half years previously and very close to the Sunborn cruise ship permanently moored in the Marina.

Rather than attempting lots of difficult turns, I decide that we will come off astern (sideways to start) from the fuel pontoon and go straight back into the berth which has pontoons on either side! Coming off the fuel pontoon works fine, although not quite as well as we do from out side to, where the prop walk helps us. A few minutes later we are nestled up in the berth although it takes me far too long to adjust all of the lines to our liking!

Anyway, move on six months from our last attempt to go to Montenegro, with me working hard in two jobs at Manchester and Moorfields and Maria working hard at Avanos. We now need to get the boat out of EU waters if we want to keep our safety net regarding VAT on the boat.

In recent months, we have been joined on our pontoon by an amazing American family who are a pleasure to be around and have made every visit to the marina a pleasure. On the other side of our boat, the marina have recently added another boat that we do not recognise. As part of putting it there, the marina removed one of our lazy lines, replacing it with another line. That wouldn’t be so bad if they hadn’t been knocking into the side of Mariadz with their work boat whilst doing it leaving large black streaks on the hull.

As we prepare to leave, I need to check all of the systems. The electric toilet is not getting any fresh water, often this appears to be that it is stuck – it is a ten year old pump and there may be some rust in it. Normally a gentle tap unlocks it but today that isn’t working. I spend ages taking everything apart and it isn’t working properly and refuses to sort itself out. Eventually I decide to go to my stash of old pumps that have failed and been repaired. The faulty one is a Parmax 2.9, so reasonably powerful but I only have a Parmax 4.0, that will do! I swap the pumps over and the flush is working again and pumping a lot of water very fast – I think I may prefer it…

Finally, we are ready to go after another long day at work and saying our goodbyes. I am at the stern loosening off the lines and one gets caught as we leave our berth, fortunately our American friends are on hand to resolve the issue or we would have been still attached to the pontoon. It’s a tight exit with the two boats either side and Maria is inching forward.

I notice we seem to be caught on a line hanging back from our bow and as I walk to the bow I see to my horror that both the lazy lines on our bow are still attached. What was I thinking? Maria is valiantly trying to keep control of the boat as I let the lines go and watch them drop before giving Maria the all clear. Considering the issue, we got away without any stress and can go on our merry way. A close call and we were fortunate there isn’t too much wind.

That brings us to the weather. The Adriatic seems to have two types of wind wither it blows down or blows up and you can guarantee it is never the way you want it. We discovered this coming back from corfu a couple of years ago when it was incredibly lumpy getting close to Brindisi in the face of a quite strong wind.

It has been windy for a few days but we agree we have the opportunity, with a British bank holiday weekend, to get over to Montenegro. There is a northerly based wind, and if we are to go to Tibet in Montenegro we need to head north and although there is some west in the forecast we will be close to the wind for most of the trip waiting for the wind to die changing course to north and heading in. The trip back could be problematic with, typically, the wind turning 180 degrees and strengthening for our return. However, the forecast changes and now it looks like we have a window to return in.

We have got over our little snags coming out and as we enter the outer harbour we don’t think twice about switching the autopilot on. We start to head towards Montenegro, aiming a little further south than usual so we can use the wind to give us some additional speed as we motorsail. I am down below when the alarm goes off and maria shouts down that the autopilot has switched itself off…. We check and everything seems to be ok and we reengage with some trepidation but for the moment there is no repeat.

The wind is tight on the bow but we can adjust our course and sail so we decide to get the main and stay sail out. I go to the main outhaul winch and press the button and nothing, the other winch is working fine. I check the two large sheet winches and only one of those works also. This is going to be fun. I have a winch handle in hand when Maria asks me if I can use the working winch so with three quarters of a wrap around the non functioning winch, I lead it to the working winch on the other side of the coach roof and get the main out, although we do need to head to wind to tighten the sail up properly. The stay sail outhaul uses the functioning winch so that is fine. It looks like another call to Ollie’s remote support service and maybe some more parts being shipped over!

A further few hours out of Brindisi and we are making good progress, the sails are keeping us out of the troughs of the waves and we are sailing nicely at about 7knots. Not necessarily in the right direction but we know the wind will go and we can correct the course and arrive earlier than if we were thrashing into the wind and waves. After a couple of hours, Maria is playing around with Navily, the tool we use for recommendations for harbours and anchorages. Instead of Tivet where we went to before why don’t we go to Bar? It is closer and on the exact line we are currently sailing. The reviews seem positive, we can refuel and the check procedure seems quite slick. So a change of plan but not of course. Regular readers will not be surprised. Maria and Adam heading to (the) Bar? You are probably more surprised that we hadn’t thought to go there before, especially when the marina is called the Marina Bar! It must be fate!

We continue on our course and it is soon going to be sunset which seems to be often when we see dolphins. This time I haven’t radioed in beforehand (see previous blog!), but they do arrive. Unfortunately they seem to be more preoccupied with feeding than playing with Mariadz, so we go past as they splash and jump out of the water. Maria is a little disappointed but is still smiling after the experience of seeing them.

We are into the night with a quarter moon so not much light but it is quite uneventful with most of the action on AIS being resolved well before we are near anyone and the odd fishing boat not showing their AIS, to hide their fishing grounds from competitors, so well lit as to be seen from a distance and easily avoided.

The sail over is going well, as I try to catch up on some work I haven’t got done this week and Maria keeps lookout or rests, we both get a few hours sleep but at the end of a hard week of work, a very early start to get to Italy followed by another crazy day at work, we are pretty exhausted as we start to see land on the other side of the Adriatic, maria is resting as I avoid the stationary large fishing vessels, zigzagging between them and keeping my distance in case they have nets down, soon we are through these and it is getting lighter. Unusually for me this is the first time I have taken the remote for the autopilot out of its cradle, and it dies immediately! After ten years the battery has given up…. These things are like consumables 😉. Another thing to add to the list…. Ollie!!!!!

Montenegro seems an amazing country with both parts of it we have seen being huge green hills/mountains plunging into the sea with lots of hillside villages. Very picturesque. As you approach Bar, the left hand side of the approach is very like this but the right is a commercial area with a headland covered in what look like large gas cylinders. Such a shame as you imagine it was quite beautiful before this was done.

Our timing is perfect as we arrive at Bar shortly after sunrise, allowing Maria to get the sunrise shots above the hills as we approach,

We head into Bar and straight into the commercial area of the harbour where the customs dock awaits. We have been warned on Navily that this dock is not the best to tie up to with a number of bollards missing, large tyres guaranteed to mark you hulk at intervals and not many areas to secure lines. The wind has dropped but the sun is in an awkward position but we find the dock and Maria gently ferry glides the moody to the dock as I step off in search of somewhere to attach a line. Fortunately the wind is gently pushing us onto the dock, where Maria has successfully missed all of the tyres, and I am able to find loops on the wall of the jetty to thread our lines.

Just over fifteen hours after leaving, we have completed the 106 mile journey with no further hiccups. We go to the police where we are greeted by a very friendly border officer who stamps our passport. This took a little longer than usual because her stamp was out of 8th and she was trying to use a biro to put ink on it. After about ten tests she has worked out where it was needed and we were ready to go. Next stop the harbour master, which is apparently a five minute walk away.

In our defence we are tired…

We head towards the road outside of the marina and think the harbour master’s office will be obvious and right on the commercial side of the harbour. Having checked several buildings we haven’t found it. Ok. Let’s walk back to the marina side and see if it is there. Not obviously, we walk mostly around an official looking building with the flag of Montenegro outside but no signage for a harbour master so our search continues. At this stage, my watch is telling me we have walked one kilometre and are no nearer to finding the office, we walk along the marina wall, find the marina office but still no harbour master. The map we have is quite vague as we start going through the buildings near to the marina, mostly coffee shops, bars and restaurants. We are now getting quite frustrated. Another look at the map and we start to look at a horseshoe of shops and bars. Nope! Now we have to ask and I walk into the fishing shop and chandlery in this horseshoe of shops, as soon as I walk in, he says, harbourmaster? Yes! Go to the other side of the shop and it is on the far side of the building in front of you, tucked down an alley. I grab Maria and we are on our way. It is the official looking building we have looked at previously but literally down the right hand side there is an alley with a recessed entrance that has a sign above it. As we get in, someone has just arrived ahead of us and so we have to wait outside.

The check in process is really easy, I think they are impressed that we have our own official crew list, with the Mariadz logo on it – it’s all about the branding baby! It doesn’t stop them typing the detail into the official form though but the process is smooth and relatively quick. One thing I have noticed with officialdom around boating is the excessive use of photocopying. There is a lot of paper with multiple documents being printed multiple times. We leave twenty minutes later clutching our official pieces of paper which once handed to the police and customs means we are official!

It’s been a hard few days, with a lack of sleep combined with hard work and most recently a long sailing trip where one or other is always on watch. We are tired but looking at the weather it is clear this is going to be a quick turnaround if we are to get back to Brindisi before the next front of bad weather arrives.

First we have to refuel so on leaving the customs pontoon we head to the marina where the fuel pontoon is positioned really well at the entrance. Maria has spoken to the Marina about a berth and getting fuel and they are waiting for us on the fuel pontoon with another member of staff waiting for us on a very nice berth on pontoon 7, where we will be alongside and right at the entrance of the marina.

Maria brings Mariadz in beautifully to the fuel pontoon and 400 litres and a shade over €500 later Mariadz is topped up. This was less fuel than I expected but is part of our safety first philosophy brought on by our experience going to Dunkirk more than a decade ago.

When we changed the engine of Mariadz, we bought a modern engine which interfaced with our navigation providing fuel consumption figures etc. this allows our system to calculate exactly how much fuel has been used, I have set our tank size to be slightly smaller than it actually is to provide a reserve (in addition to the 70 litres of fuel we carry in cans just in case. However, 400 litres means we probably had half a tank when we left Brindisi, when our gauge was reporting nearer a third!

Fuelled up, we are ready to go to the berth behind us and Maria is shattered and asks for me to bring her in. Rather than spin Mariadz round in several pirouette’s to get there, I decide to go astern all the way to the pontoon. Fortunately it works fine and we are soon in our new berth and ready for some rest. I quickly go to the marina office to pay our dues and then it is back to the boat to get some sleep.

Despite having had little sleep for a few days, and some early starts, we can’t get more than a few hours sleep before we decide to get up and have some breakfast. We decide to take advantage and have a little rest but leave earlier to return to Italy.

I feel a lot better as we prepare to head back. Our trip out had been at the end of a long day and a long week including a very early flight and several late nights of work. I have had some sleep and feel a bit brighter, maria isn’t so sure so I will let her rest first when we get going. We walk to the harbour masters office again, which is incredibly easy to find! We are in a few minutes checking out and decide to walk to the border police to see if they will stamp our papers and let us leave directly from the marina. Their first question is where is your boat, it needs to be on the customs pontoon. Oh well, it was along shot I guess.

Returning to the boat, the departure couldn’t be easier, we are literally at the entrance of the marina and as I release the lines, Mariadz ferry glides from the pontoon and we are on our way. We return to the customs pontoon and into the office where we wait five minutes to get everything done and we are on our way back.

A final check of the weather reveals that there is even less wind, a fact we can attest to when we leave the harbour and find ourselves with 1.5knots of wind. It’s going to be a long drive home! There are no dolphins before dusk which is disappointing for Maria but as darkness falls, I can hear Maria “purring” loudly.

AIS is a wonderful thing and you can get over-reliant on it, you need to keep an eye out too but as an example the way it helps me to spot that I will be too close to a cruise ship hammering down the Adriatic while it is still 15 miles and 45 minutes away is brilliant. I make a slight course alteration to increase the gap between us and after a time they adjust slightly to create a gap of more than a mile. But when it is 330 metres and lit up like a Christmas tree, it feels closer and like you could watch the big TV on the top deck. I also remember this from our time crossing the top of Africa where we were so bored we were excited when a ship was likely to be within a mile. We could see twenty miles away and then they changed course and we would barely see them!

Maria and I are trying to be sensible with our rest this time and she goes down and I try to give her four hours rest until after midnight. I get the same and after a quiet night with a little wind and some dodging of ships we are soon on approach to Brindisi as the sun rises. Maria grabs some last rest, we will probably have a busy day and don’t want to lose it sleeping.

We are expecting to be in before 8am, so a little under 16 hours having had no wind or sails up to help this time.

Although we understand that Mariadz is VAT paid in Malta and hence officially an EU boat, as a British registered boat we like to leave the EU every eighteen months to “reset the VAT clock”. This stops an EU country charging you VAT on your boat as a permanent import and the boat only has to leave EU waters for a day to be reset. This was a problem for people during Covid, since they couldn’t move their boats or get crew to help due to lockdown we know of a few boats in Spain that were caught out and the owner had to pay VAT on the perceived value of their boats.

On mariadz, as readers will know, we like to be squeaky clean so even despite our Maltese VAT certificate we still leave the EU every year.

So we decided to try and do this at the end of the summer of 2024. We have a perfect weather window and we are thinking of spending a week to get to Montenegro, an overnight run, followed by going up the coast to Croatia as we did the previous year and island hoping at some of our favourite places. An admirable plan, in which we planned to work during the week but have fun in the evenings and weekends.

Brindisi, in common with some other Adriatic ports, has a real problem with growth on the boats when they are stationary and generally there are people around who will don scuba gear and armed with a scraper clean the bottom of the boat for you. This helps immeasurably with hull speed through the water and is a requirement in Brindisi whenever the boat is left for a few months,

This time, Maria asked our pontoon friend Mukbil if he would do it. Mukbil is an incredibly friendly Turkish guy who helped us to move our berth after the marina put huge boats either side and across the water so it was impossible for us to negotiate the cats cradle of lazy lines from people’s boats to get into our berth. This came to a head during the summer when we had four attempts to get into our berth and kept fouling on different lines. This sounds quite amateurish to be honest but we had never had a problem before but cutting out the turning space for us meant we could not go in straight and the large motor boat next to us had their line taught so that it came pretty much to the middle of the channel and met the lines on the other side. To add insult to injury, as the marina pulled us off the lines where we were stuck, they used a black workboat which left huge black marks all over the side of the boat. Not difficult to get out with some elbow grease but frustrating all the same. Anyway, enough was enough and we demanded to be moved to a pontoon where we could get in with ease i.e the other side of the pontoon we were on. After a long time and constant nagging of the marina, Mukbil reached out to us and told us that the boat opposite him was leaving and we were in there quickly. So we have moved to P pontoon and our friend Mukbil has been brilliant.

Anyway, I digress. Mukbil agreed to go under our boat and clean it off so we could go and by the time we arrived at the boat, her undersides were looking clean.

We have got our provisions and are ready to go so we do our normal pre-flight checks, the engine is fine, everything is looking good to go.

Leaving the berth is flawless as usual…. More of that later…. And we are on our way. As we round the sea wall and fort to head to the outer harbour, we engage the autopilot that will see us through the journey so we are not too tired. Half way through the bay, we are veering off course and there is an alarm from the autopilot. I go down below to reset the systems hoping that will resolve the issue. We start again but it does it again and it gets much worse as we come out of the harbour when the entire navigation suite including depth, speed, autopilot and wind indicators stop working, the autopilot on its own we have dealt with before but not having the rest seems like a problem too far when we have sixteen to eighteen hour journey ahead of us, we reluctantly agree to turn back, see if we can get the problem fixed and let’s see if we can go in a couple of days.

We get back in and talk to one of the local guys who agrees to take a look for us. I won’t name names but I will describe what happened….

Firstly he is banging his way through our neat and orderly electrical system randomly cutting cable ties which didn’t make me 100% happy. He starts to look for the navigation controller. This is situated behind the raymarine chartplotter at our navigation table. In his eagerness to get to this he starts breaking the plastic covers around the chartplotter. What!!! He suggests that it will be ok when they go back because you will hardly see the crack! The chartplotter is out and he starts to pull wires from the navigation controller. I can only assume that he shorts something in there because there is a loud bang and he looks round quite worried whilst not admitting to anything. I’m beginning to lose patience as he single handedly sets about the boat. But he is finished for the moment after about 45 minutes of work saying the navigation controller has failed and we need a new one. His performance so far has not filled me with confidence but he says he will come back tomorrow with a view of how much it will cost to fix and how quickly it can be done. On these situations I go back to the team that I trust and for electronics work, Ollie at Seapower is my man. I call him and explain what has happened and he agrees it is likely to be the controller. Ollie can supply that for us but it will likely take some time but he agrees to give me an idea of cost including express shipping to Italy. Ollie never lets us down 😀

The next day dawns and we are still hopeful that the holiday can be back on. This is stopped in its tracks when our electrician comes back to us. He quotes us more than €2,500 to get the part and it may be here towards the end of the week. Bang, there goes our holiday, our spending money and anything else we had left. with that kind of timeline I would much rather give the work to Ollie and when I speak to him he confirms that the price given seems really high and in fact the system had been initially installed with a whole load of other work for less than that. Ollie has got a price for us which is hundreds less even including delivery and we order through him with a not dissimilar delivery timescale. However, we have had trouble with things being sent from the UK for us before so I am a little concerned whether we will get the part when we expect it. I shouldn’t have worried as the delivery is like clockwork and Ollie has even found a spare surround to replace the one that has been broken. Absolute hero and saved us money too.

So I have my new navigation controller in hand and decide that this is a like-for-like swap and do I really want a screwdriver waving madman anywhere near my boat again. How hard can it be…..

To be fair, the hardest part of the whole operation is actually unscrewing the old box from the inner wall and putting up the new one. It’s made harder because of the awkwardness of the space you are going into and the non-standard screw heads that took a bit of working out. However once in place, it is a simple task of plugging the old wires into the corresponding space in the new box. I now have a working navigation system again but this has all taken the full week we had allocated to being away.

We decide we will pop out of the harbour for the weekend, not least of all to make sure the new box is working as expected and invite our fantastic friends Carlo and Sabrina to come with us, the week may have been a wash out but at least we can spend some quality time with our friends. I think I have done the dockside configuration correctly but there may have been a problem so when I get to the outer harbour of Brindisi and switch over to the autopilot, it immediately goes the wrong way, oops! May need to do that again.

We are anchored outside of the harbour having a light lunch and a small drink while we chill and chat. At the end of a lovely afternoon, I decide to quickly do the configuration again whilst anchored and see if that works. It’s not exactly dockside but hopefully won’t be a problem, we start to head in and this time the autopilot behaves exactly as expected and I am quite chuffed with myself.

At least the boat is working and ready for our next trip whenever that will be.

The next day I speak to the local electrician, he doesn’t need to worry because I was able to get it installed and it works fine. Thanks for your efforts before and how much do I owe you? He asks for €250. I am perplexed. You were on the boat for 45 minutes, broke stuff and then gave me a ridiculous quote for a replacement. Apparently, he wanted to charge me for the fitting of the unit that I had done! needless to say, that wasn’t happening, and I pointed out that he had broken part of my chartplotter and on the internet that costs €30, another huge thanks for Ollie finding me one. We settle at a much lower number, neither of us happy which I guess is the sign of a good negotiation. He won’t be back on our boat though.

What a stunning holiday. This was our first holiday in mariadz in the Mediterranean, we needed a good break and we found both places welcoming and beautiful. We have had no real exposure to either country before apart from a day trip to Dubrovnik on a cruise ship 17 years ago. We did not know what to expect of the people and knew nothing of the languages so we were very grateful for the excellent English spoken everywhere. We will try harder next time and at least we are now starting to pronounce the islands better!

On this trip we travelled every day, so we could see as much as possible. We have found some places where we will definitely return and very few that we think are done. A return next year will see us stay in some special anchorages for a few days and explore some new ones too.

In total we travelled nearly 500 miles and added seventy hours to the engine which seems to prove that the med either has too much wind or none at all. In our case none or in the wrong direction. That said, we had glorious weather for the end of May and early June with only one short storm, although it was a doozy! It also meant that despite filling up in Montenegro, we used quite a bit of fuel, about 285 litres. We were actually told that Croatia was cheaper for fuel than Montenegro but didn’t check that. Montenegro was substantially cheaper than the €2.20 that Brindisi expected. That was so bad that we contemplated filling up by can which would have meant 50 litres at a time but would save 60c a litre!

However, the great experience does cost, Croatia in particular is suffering very high inflation as it normalises under its new position in the EU. However, there had been evidence prior to this that cruising in Croatia was expensive, when the cruising permits were introduced which, although an annual charge, are now €250 for a cruising permit and tourist tax. In addition, there are the national parks when you come into a pretty normal looking harbour to be told to pay €40. Restaurant prices were also high with a couple of meals coming in at over €150 for the two of us. One was pretty normal fare too but the other was a special meal with a fantastic view (you may have seen the photo…. 😀). It is definitely getting more expensive, as are a lot of Mediterranean countries. We will be able to report on Greece later in the year.

Our encounters with officials went very well which,upon going, was probably our biggest concern. But now we are used to the routine of police, harbourmaster and customs. Our papers are now very much in order although our crew sheet could be better and will be properly printed for future adventures. In both Croatia and Montenegro we were fortunate to have someone guide us through the process which definitely made things easier.

Although we spent a couple of days in marinas which went well, the point of this holiday was to spend time in quiet bays with crystal clear water. We definitely achieved that, whether it was in site of tree covered mountains descending into the water in Montenegro or the bays of Croatia with trees to tie a line to. We got used to med mooring with a line to shore although with two people it isn’t easy. Taking our time seemed to do the trick as well as being able to laugh at your own mistakes which were frequent but, as they say, no one died – everyone got to go home, so it is all good.

It may have taken some time, and a little cajoling, but the dolphins eventually arrived and when they did the display was amazing and made us both smile. I think I know the real reason they turned up….. you know you have really got to book these guys, they are busy, busy, busy!

We also had our first attempts at using a drone to get video and pictures. I will let you judge but I suspect there is a little more work to do after our initial attempts.

As usual, there were a few problems with the boat and we have a small list of things to fix prior to our summer week in Greece, which will probably be a lot busier than Croatia in June.

Finally, it reminded us why we do this and why we still have plans to travel the world, doing this for a long time sounds like heaven.

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!