Part 2 Korcula ....our first real shake down.

Jim and Judy's ship
 

Around 12 months ago when I was working in Adelaide , I caught up with my brother Jim and  wife Judy. They mentioned they were hoping to do a cruise in the Med. the following year. I mentioned to them that with any luck, we could be in Croatia having bought a yacht.
 This got me thinking if everything goes to plan , maybe we could sail to one of the ports they were visiting and meet up. Initially we were hoping to sail up to Venice as they had a few days there before boarding the ship, but this was going to be a bit tight as we had only just returned back to Sukosan with Marina.

Jim Steve, Judy and Ange aboard Split Enz

We decided Korcula sounded nice so we plotted a course for there as Jim and Judy would be arriving on the 4th July. This gave us plenty of time to sail 110 nautical miles. So what seemed a bit of a pipe dream became a reality.
It was pretty neat seeing them . We  spent the afternoon with them in Korcula  and then took them back to Split Enz and had a quiet Pivo (Beer)and then a stroll along the shore line before whisking them back in the Taxi to get on board the ship before 6pm.

Ange in Korula

We arrived in Korcula the day before Jim and Judy so we had already had a good look around . If you are ever in this part of the world,  its certainly worth the visit. We had to get back to Sucosan in order to re-provision the boat and give her a well needed spring clean. Tracey Wayne and Bryden were flying in from NZ on the 11th so we had a bit to do before they arrived.
The next day we decided to return to Laviste Bay on the Peninsular. We anchored there on the way down to Korcula. The water is a crystal clear  blue and 25deg C........and to top it off,  its shoreline is dotted with cafe's.

One of the many old churches in Korcula

Cafe's in Korcula

From there it was decided to set sail for a little island called Zirje. It was going to be a fairly solid day as it was around 80 NM to cover. Little did we know, we were sailing into what's known in this part of the world as a Bora. The Bora is a very strong wind that blows in from the Nth East. The forcast had no mention of it so I was a little surprised to get sprung with this. I could see it forming with some massive cloud formations with the odd lash of lightning, so we just chose to sail around it but copped a fair amount of wind and rough seas as a result. It was pretty odd to think earlier in the morning we had to motor sail and slowly the wind built to 30 + knots with heavy seas.

Korcula at its best

I was really pleased how Split Enz handled the conditions, she's a really stable ship and very comforted in how she performed.
We pulled into a sheltered bay called Tratinska Bay on the island of Zirje. Incredibly rocky and almost moon like with very little vegetation. Quite a contrast to what we are use to seeing back home in NZ.
The next day it was an easy broad reach to Pasman Island which is our closest Island to Sukosan. We stayed at one of our favourite Bays Zincenna Bay. The sail across only took 2 1/2 hrs to do 20 NM  so we made good time and spent the day relaxing and swimming.

Sunset on arrival at Zirje  Island

The following day we sailed up to meet our Aussie friends Cam and Annie staying across at Pasman Bridge An excellent meal and the odd pivo was had that evening before finally returning back to the marina the following morning,
Thanks for reading, Steve.

Tratinska Bay Zirje Island