Miljet (pronounced “myet”) is the first large island north of Dubrovnik. It runs parallel to the coast for about 23 miles but is less than 2 miles wide. After failing again to anchor in Lopud, we headed for Saplunara at the south end of the island. Saplunara is a beautifully sheltered bay with a few holiday homes and a couple of restaurants. One of the scenarios for overnight staysin Croatia is that restaurants provide mooring buoys that you can tie up to free of charge as long as you eat in the restaurant. On this occasion the winds were forecast to gust to 35 - 45 knots overnight and a mooring buoy is a pretty safe place to be when it blows like that.
When we pull into the bay, a young guy from the restaurant comes out in a dinghy to help us moor. He remembers us from last year! He probably remembers the boat more than us but it’s a surprising and pleasant welcome. The folk in the restaurant remember us too.
There is a Scottish couple at the table next to us and they are from Glasgow. Inevitably the conversation turns to the “Brexit” vote. We ask them what they think. The word they use is “horrified”. They deeply resent the English making such a stupid and short-sighted decision. They fear not only damage to Britain and the EU but also see the break-up of the United Kingdom as a distinct possibility. As a result, some people in the UK are having second thoughts and wondering if they could run the referendum again.
The next day we take a walk up the hill behind the little hamlet and strike off along a forest path to some archaeological excavations. If Kolocep was remarkable for its songbirds, Millet is notable for its butterflies. They are everywhere and in all different colors - yellow/orange, vibrant blue, black/yellow etc. Not too many pesticides in use here. The tiny ruins are of a 2nd century AD church with an 11th century church inside them. The church is dedicated to St. Paul. The old name of Miljet was Mileta and that is the name of the island where St. Paul was shipwrecked. The other “Mileta" in the Mediterranean is Malta and it usually gets the credit as the site of Paul’s mishap but some people seem to support Miljet as a plausible alternative.
After a couple of nights in Saplunara, we head out into the channel between Miljet and the mainland and point north towards the other end of the island. It is a great day for sailing. We have 10 - 15 knots of wind just far enough off our nose to allow us to beat up the channel at about 7 knots. The sky and the sea are both exquisitely blue and we are surprised by how few sailing boats there are here.
But one of the yachts that is here makes up for the absence of others. She is “Prana”; a 60 meter sailing super-yacht (which is fairly uncommon) that can be chartered with its crew for a mere $185000. We had seen her in Kotorin Montenegro and wondered what she would look like under sail. Today we got to find out.
We were doing 7 knots. She was doing over 11. So to find ourselves heading towards each other at a combined 18 knots tends to focus the mind just a bit. Couple that with the large ferry that was running parallel to Prana at about 20 knots and the sea was starting to feel quite crowded. We tacked to put ourselves on the same heading as Prana and we got to enjoy watching her slide past before we tacked back onto our original course behind both her and the ferry. It felt neatly done.
At the north end of Millet there is a national park with two beautiful inland saltwater lakes. It is a great place to walk so we intend to spend a few days here in a little bay with the small village of Polace on one shore.
Polace has about 40 houses but this year they are building a bypass. It makes sense because the small street along the quay is narrow and has locals and visitors in cars, on bikes and on foot making it difficult to make progress. You pay a modest fee to stay here (for a week) and this must be the source of the funding for the road.
As I said in an earlier post, we wanted to see if Croatia was stepping up to the needs of a tourist-based economy and, here at least, we can say that they definitely are. The park has been spruced up since last year - new benches, new signs, tasteful trash bins and landscaping all make for a very pleasant atmosphere. As we walk to the lakes there are more butterflies and the air is filled with the scent of the wild honeysuckle which is blooming everywhere. The other flora that Miljet is know for is orchids. They bloom particularly well here apparanetly.
On an island in one of the lakes there are some Roman ruins and a little monastery. This was probably a prime spot to be a monk - surrounded by tranquil warm water and beautiful foliage, it must have been perfect for meditation.
It also has some donkeys
We eat dinner in a little restaurant on the quay in Polace one evening and the owner remembers us from last year. He recalls that we were here with Pam, Brian, Ali and Jeremy and that we liked his pizza (which we still do).
We enjoy the park for a couple of days and on the second day when we get back to our anchorage there is the inevitable super-yacht parked in our vicinity. This is not a problem but the guests are hitting golf balls of the back of the boat! They have a little floating green and the yacht crew are going around in the dinghy picking up the floating (specially made for this purpose?) golf balls and bringing them back to the boat. The people do this for about four hours! Miljet doesn’t have a golf course so I suppose the alternative of flooding it to achieve the same effect was not open to them. Do people not realize how stupid they look?
As we are watching this with jaws agape, a little dinghy pulls u at our stern with Jacques and Sylvia in it. He is French-Canadian and she is Argentinian but they live in Italy. They saw our flag and thought they would come over to say “Hi”. We chant and they invite us for dinner on their boat with their Polish friends.
Dinner was immensely enjoyable. Conversation ranged across Donald and Hillary, Brexit, the EU and globalization. Lori was particularly struck by the multi-cultural perspectives and getting to see how accepted norms in one country can be unacceptable in another. Fascinating and fun.
For our last day here, we will take a trip across by ferry to the adjacent island of Korcula.