Adventures of Thésée: Exploring Croatia's southern islands

Exploring Croatia's southern islands

Friday 27th August... Linda - Our last couple of weeks in Croatia begin, and there are a few places we haven't seen yet as we move southwards towards Montenegro.

In the early hours of this morning we had thunder and lightning, then at around 7am there was a huge downpour. Dean calls it a free boat wash. By 9am the clouds had dispersed and it was turning into quite a nice morning.

Rain, rain, go away

Starting to clear up

At 9.30am we decided to make our move. Today's destination was a four hour trip across the north coast of Korcula and onto the tip of a large mainland promontory called Peljesac. I have to say the sea got very lumpy about half way, and the 8 knot easterly wind was actually 15 knots. We tried to sail but it was an impossible heading, and to be honest we just wanted to get there and get out of the nastyness.

The bay we were heading for and finally arrived at is called Loviste. We were almost inside the bay when the wind eased up to 10 knots and allowed us to drop the mainsail. Inside the bay it was still choppy but a lot better than what we had experienced outside. It looks like a super place, nice blue water and wonderful views.

This'll do nicely

Looking over towards the bars & restaurants

Clouds still looking menacing this afternoon

We both had a bit of a snooze and then Dean teak oiled some of the saloon seating as it's getting rather scabby and flaking.

His favourite pastime... teak oiling

Late afternoon we dinghy'd ashore for a walkabout and a bit of shopping. It's a lovely place, and very much sheltered from today's winds. We also found time for a quick beer and coke in a bar that our friends had recommended called Bistro Porec, where a very friendly and affectionate kitten came around looking for attention..

First views ashore

The kitten took a fancy to sunbathing under Dean's chair

Looking out to sea from the bar

Obligatory Church

Evening sky

So we are sitting here now expecting more rain and thunder. Let's hope the weather forecast is wrong, again.

Saturday 28th August... Linda - The autumn weather is definately on the turn. During the night in the anchorage it was calm waters although windyish, but we had so much lightning through the night. I woke at 1am and was counting 3 lightning flashes per minute. Hardly any thunder though strangely. Dean was up after that and he said there was lightning all around us. Somehow we both managed to get some sleep, maybe it was that I had my hands covering my eyes that helped.

As it so happened, our friends Phil & Cristina had chosen to do a night sail from Italy to Croatia too. When we were up in the night we were following their progress across the Adriatic. I think they had a rough ride, but will find out more when we get to meet up in a couple of days.

So this morning, Dean's first job was to empty the sail bag of rain water. I hadn't noticed a lot of rain during the night, but he managed to scoop two bucket fulls out of the top of the sail bag this morning. I expect there is more lurking inside the sail.

Bucket number two being filled

The day progressed nicely and we only had one bout of rain around lunchtime. The wind has now calmed to nothing. Late afternoon we did a double paddle-board (me sitting) around this wonderful tranquil bay. It seemed crass to actually use the dinghy and outboard to spoil the peace and quiet.

After paddle-boarding we took a leisurely swim in the clear water. Apart from chores this morning for us both, today has been so relaxing. We have fallen in love with Loviste.... yet another fabulous Croatian anchorage 😃.

Sunday 29th August... Linda - Thanks to Dean a rare breakfast for us today, yummy boiled eggs with soldiers.

Delicious

We made the decision to stay another night, so rowed ashore and went for a longer walk. Again all very nice and pleasant with a couple of camper van parks hidden in the trees.

Thesee from the shoreline

Me and Thesee

Me admiring Thesee

So beautiful here

...and wow, here too on the small beach

Bird house in the trees

... hard to work out, this is a big fluffy monkey in this tree

Walking alongside one of the camper van parks

The wind blew up again a lot this afternoon, quite unexpected and we rolled around in the anchorage until late evening. So annoying.

Monday 30th August... Linda - A new day in the Adventures of Thesee, and what an exciting day too. Our friends Phil and Cris on Bora La have arrived in Croatia and we made arrangements to meet up with them in our new anchorage near Korcula town.

So we left lovely Loviste at 10am hoping that the run down the Peljeski channel between the mainland and Korcula island was a good one.... and it was! As we were crossing to have a quick look at the lovely anchorage at Kneza we spotted something very large and brown in the water. Dean thought it was a log, and I thought it was one of those big oval fenders that the fishermen use. But no, it was neither! In fact it was a big turtle we reckon about 1 meter long. Much bigger than the two we saw previously on the south coast of Italy. It was so exciting to see it wobbling along quite near to us.

Starting our trip down the channel

Spectacular scenery

Fabulous restaurant sites

Grabbing the camera, I just managed

to zoom in and capture turtles head

There's his body!

Kneza anchorage, wish we had come

here yesterday for the night

Church on the high mainland ridge

Passing Korcula town

It looks lovely, we must visit

Water taxi, we might need this from the anchorage

We found a good spot to anchor and settled in. Unfortunately a boat came in shortly after and anchored right in front of us, then his anchor dragged and he ended up so close to us Dean started our engine ready to try and move out of his way. We've never had to do that before. Luckily there was one person on board their boat and he just about managed to start his engine and pull forward in time. What an idiot!

This photo is of when he re-anchored and he was still TOO close!

Phil and Cris turned up about 4pm and we went over to join them for a few hours catch up. Luckily the dragging boat had left by then. Oops, dark when we got back to Thesee.... a lot of catching up to do.

Bora La arrives, hoorah!

Choosing a spot to anchor

Perfect

Wednesday 1st September ... Linda - Dean fitted his new special regulator for the freezer. Phil had kindly brought it with him all the way from the USA as it was the only country that was selling them. So far so good and it seems to be doing what its supposed to. Phil needed to go up his mast so Dean went over to help him. Also, Phil was having trouble with his outboard engine. Dean said the pilot jet was blocked so they sorted that problem out too.

The new green freezer regulator

About midday we asked the water taxi to pick us all up from our boats and take us into Korcula Town. It was an experience in the taxi as he went pretty fast, but good fun. There are a lot of boat movements in this area so not a good idea to dinghy too far.

A lovely morning in the anchorage

Nasty insect sitting on the dinghy water outlet

Korcula old town was beautiful and we took lots of photos, then after a walk about stopped for lunch, than another walkabout. We spent about four hours there before getting the water taxi back. This time there were a number of people onboard being dropped off at different boats and small islands, so we had quite a tour. Here's the photos....