Hi all Sue here
Well we are on our way again, back to anchoring and tatty hair!! Our winter in Roccella was a lot quieter than previous ones but don’t worry we still managed to party and have lots of fun with old friends and new. The good thing about it being quieter was I had time to take up Yoga, something I have tried many times and given up with!! I now find I love it and am continuing to do it on the boat, although it can be a bit precarious when the boat is moving!! Calm anchorages are best.
In January we went on a trip to Spain to visit Claire and Eddie, sailing friends who have decided to settle down up The Guadiana. They have bought a beautiful property there with some land and it keeps them very busy. We had a great week with them and will visit again next year.
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| View of the Guadiana River form Claire and Eddies House | Milan Natural History Museum |
On our way back we had a cultural stop over in Milan just for one day, owing to Ryanair cancelling flights!!, and visited the National History Museum. It is huge and well worth a visit if you have the time.
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| Culture Around Milan | Girls On The Plane |
I then visited Milan again in March on a ladies trip and had a completely different experience, lots of silliness and Prosecco!! We did actually fit in a walking tour of Milan which included The Duomo, Sforza Castle and the best bit was the Last Supper painting by Leonardo da Vinci. It was a very wet 3 days but it didn't stop us ladies enjoying it!!
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| Standing Rigging Replacement | New Cover for the Dinghy |
Over to Chris for some technical stuff
As usual there were plenty of winter jobs to do to keep Nimrod in tip-top condition. Our insurers decided that since our standing rigging was now 15 years old it needed replacing so that was a major job that needed to be done. We got the new stainless wire from the UK with one end already swaged onto the wire, the other end has self-assembly re-usable fittings that you can see in the photo above. We needed to take down the old rigging a couple of pieces at a time then carefully measure the lengths before cutting the new wire to length and then assembling the end fitting onto the wire ready to put the new wire back onto the mast. The total job took a good bit of time but everything went to plan and we also put new bearings and seals in the headsail furlers while they were on the floor.
Our dinghy has a canvas cover to protect it from the sun and after 6 years the original was looking pretty tatty but it had certainly done it’s job since the dinghy tubes etc are still in great condition even though the dinghy is now nearly 15 years old. A new cover was made from acrylic canvas with extra patches around all the holes and where the dinghy meets the davits. A major job of measuring, cutting and stitching that took the best part of 2 weeks overall but the end result looks pretty good and should last another 5 or 6 years. The loops on the side are to hold foam “noodle” tubes to act as fenders and give even more protection.
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| Something We Caught On The Way | Turned Into This |
We left the Marina on April 22nd and headed to Crotone, a pretty calm day with hardly any wind so we motored all the way. Next day was an early start to cover the 73nm to Santa Maria di Luca and this time we had a nice friendly 10-12knt breeze on the beam so we managed to sail for about 8hrs of the trip.
Fishing lines were out and early afternoon a couple of the reels zipped out at a rapid rate, reeled the first one in with a nice 9kg tuna, the second one took a lot more effort but unfortunately the bigger fish escaped about 30m away from the boat – probably a good job since the freezer was filled up with just the one fish.
We caught a smaller tuna later in the day and had a great BBQ with Hami and Lisbeth when we got to Santa Maria di Luca. That was our only fishing success all the way from Roccella to Croatia but it will keep us in tuna for a couple of months.
The weather was all very calm and settled so we really had no wind for sailing meaning lots of motoring. From Santa Maria we motored 65nm to an anchorage at the end of Brindisi Airport runway followed by another 45nm to Mola di Bari with a safe anchorage inside the harbour and Lidl only a few minutes walk away to spend the last of our Euros on Italian goodies.
Next day was a very early start to cover the 105nm to Lastovo, Croatia. We had just enough breeze to motorsail and gain 1 – 2 knts speed so we arrived in Lastovo just before 7pm in time to check-in with Police and Harbourmaster so we were all legal.
Then we could slow down and relax since we have no urgent deadlines now we are in Croatia so we have been cruising around very slowly from Lastovo to Hvar, Vis, Solta and the Krka River.
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| Mussolini Steps, Santa Maria Di Luca | Submarine Pen and underground bunkers, Vis |
On Vis we did a tour of some submarine pens and underground bunkers. All very interesting and amazing how they built them. We also had a walk around Vis Town, very pretty and a favourite spot in the summer months with charter boats. Best time to see it is in May.
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| Lost in the Woods | Uvala Stoncica, Vis |
It’s obligatory to go on one of Chris hikes and end up on paths that are supposedly meant to be there!! I should be used to it by now but somehow I always follow and have faith in him finding the way out!!
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| a well looked after Unimog | Geo Caching around Solta |
We have started Geocaching again this year, it adds some entertainment to our walks, as if we need any!! There were a few to be found around Solta, which is surprising as its only a small quiet place.
Rogoznica has the best looked after Marina I have ever seen, very expensive to stay there but we anchored in a bay and dinghied across. The park and lake around the Marina are beautiful and its a really nice place and town to walk around.
Now we are anchored in the Krka River with just some friendly swans for company, very peaceful. Just waiting for Chris’ sister Gaynor and her husband Alec to arrive in Split in a weeks time. Time to chill and spruce Nimrod up ready for their arrival. Will be the first time they have been onboard so we are really looking forward to welcoming them.
