Greece to Croatia

We ended up spending longer than anticipated at Corfu, as Pete decided to get the alternators checked out by someone who was recommended. It proved to be well worth while as the guy spoke good English & had excellent knowledge when it came to boat electronics. We also got some new neighbours, a Kiwi expat with his English wife who were on their way to Turkey. As they had spent the winter in Italy we were able to swap our knowledge & experiences to date which was great.
After 10 days, however Pete was suffering from dock fever so it was time to move on. We did a 30 hour overnight trip up past Albania to Montenegro. We cleared in at Bar then carried on to Budva where we stopped overnight. This is the main tourist town in Montenegro & was rebuilt after being destroyed by the 1979 earthquake. It was a beautiful calm evening when we arrived & we enjoyed the last of the setting sun. However it was a different story during the night, the katabatic winds swept down into the bay making it rather difficult for me to sleep. Every time a gust came down it sounded like a freight train was coming through the boat, Pete managed to sleep ok though!!! The next day it was time to move on, we headed up to Boka Kotorska (The Gulf of Kotor) which is the second deepest sounds in south Europe. We spent 3 days exploring the sounds which were quite spectacular with the steep mountains dropping straight down into the deep water We saw several obvious signs of the recent Yugoslavian war, eg the fort at the entrance to the sounds had been attacked with rockets fired from the sea. The most impressive town in the sounds was Kotor which had a walled village above was a fortress. We walked up the walls of the fortress which followed the step contours of the hillside & took over an hour to reach the top of the fortress. It was very impressive & so skillfully built that it’s hard to imagine how the enemies could have penetrated it. While in Kotor we also took a bus trip 1 ½ hours inland to Citinje. This town, once the capital of Montenegro, is now very quiet & rather rundown. However you can still see the stately mansions that housed European ambassadors, some of which have been restored to their former grandeur.
We “cleared out” of Montenegro & moved north to Croatia arriving in Dubrovnik. on 11th May s where we enquired about docking on what appear to be a town quay. It turned out to be run by the marina & the cost for mooring our boat there was 131euro (NZ$260) per night!!!! Luckily we managed to find a free anchorage not too far from town. Our sailing permit was also rather expensive at 300euro (NZ$600), but that will last for 12 months, shame we won’t be here for 12 months to get our moneys worth. We spent a day wandering around the infamous old walled town along with a large number of other tourists as there were 3 cruise ships in port that day, including the QEII. It is hard to believe that there was a full scale war going on in this country not so very long ago & that Dubrovnik suffered such devastating damage. The bomb shelled houses have now been restored to their former glory & there is little evidence left of the battle that besieged the city.
After catching our breath & catching up on chores etc we moved north on 15th May to start our exploration of some of the Croatian islands. We stopped off at island of Miljet for a few days. The north eastern end of Miljet is a National Park & we rode our bikes over to visit 2 sea lakes in the park. They are surrounded by bush, the water is a lovely green colour & there is a narrow opening where the sea water rushes in to fill the lakes. A Benedictine monastery was built on a small island, Sveta Marija (St Mary), on one of the lakes in 12th century &was abandoned in 18th century. In more recent years the monastery was turned into a hotel, however this was one of the victims of the 1990’s war so is now in ruins.
From Miljet we went to Korcular Otok (Island). Like Dubrovnik, the main town of Korcular has a walled city, but on a smaller scale. I actually preferred Korcular as I felt it was more personable & intimate, & not nearly as many tourists. Korcular is also the birth place of Marco Polo & his house has been preserve as a museum piece.
We’re now at Hvar, one of the bigger islands. It’s a very busy & popular harbour, we’ve had great entertainment watching the charter boats come & go, weaving in & out of the anchored boats at a great rate of knots, then anchoring too close to other boats etc – I guess the charter season has arrived after all!!! Hvar is also an ancient town with a large imposing fort dominating the hill above the town. There are no cars allowed inside the town, so the supply deliveries to the shops & resturants are made with electric carts.

We weren’t quite sure what to expect when we reached Croatia as we had heard a number of stories about the country, however to our relief the people we have met so far have been very friendly & helpful, & what’s more most speak English. We’ve noticed the food & most other prices are very similar to NZ, with the exception of marinas & cruising fees. Apparently house prices are on the rise, the reason is the Croatians are now allowing overseas people to purchase property in preparation to joining the EU in 2012. This is creating a demand along the coastal areas for holiday homes.
The weather has been rather changeable since we arrived, we’ve had several rain showers, mostly at night & it’s still too cold to swim. (Although we’ve noticed some of the locals & people on charter boats are not shy at bearing their naked bodies to the world, slightly different to Turkey where they had separate beaches for women in some places.) I think we were a bit spoilt last year in Turkey, I had expected it to be nice & hot by now!!! On the good side however, the wind has been most favorable & we’ve had some great sailing days.
So far the islands have been very green with pine trees, olive trees & vineyards. The olive industry would appear to be dwindling as they don’t seem to be replacing the trees on the stone walled terraces, however the viticulture seems to be booming, along with tourism. The villages are very picturesque with stone houses & terracotta roofs that crowd in to form the narrow cobbled lanes. Like most European countries Croatia has seen many changes in power over the centuries & in ancient times the island villages tended to be built inland as protection against invading conquerors & pirates which were also prevalent.
Kiwis are all over the place, we met a Kiwi guy, Chris & his Scottish wife, Lee, in the marina in Dubrovnik. We also met a kiwi couple from Wellington, they were passing through Korcula on their way to Turkey, on a kayaking holiday. We’ve also met a few Croatians who have relatives living in NZ.