We spent two very peaceful nights in Luka Telascica. The first was calm, but the second was really calm - not a ripple on the water and not a breath of wind. The stars were crisp and clear with a hazy grey background of all the more distant starts that are too far off to differentiate with the naked eye. The Milky Way was easily distinguishable and the shooting stars cut long knife-sharp arcs into the backdrop. We are steaming music now with TIDAL and it is slightly surreal to be able to provide whatever soundtrack we want to all this - Leonard Cohen, Jacques Brel, Julie Fowlis …
On a more prosaic note, the outboard works! I was worried when it wouldn’t start immediately but once I got it going it purred nicely and could be managed in a predictable fashion. We can go places now!
Lori swam this morning with no protestations. She was fully in the water before I realized it. This is progress. I think she is having fun especially with the water warming up as we move into August. That reminds me, August is Italian month. They vacation this month and head over to Croatia in their powerboats. It’s only about 70 miles or so and they can be here in about three hours. Croatians don’t seem to be quite sure what to make of this. While the influx of people means an influx of money, it is also a quite stressful. The flamboyant Italian approach to life, parking, and pricing grates against the Croatian psyche. With every blessing comes a curse…
We need to start moving north to meet up with Pam and Brian. We have plenty of time (too much really) but there is another storm lining up and we need to be cognizant of its intentions. We are heading to the island of Iz - a little north east of where we currently are. We don’t know anyone who’s been there but it looks to be pretty and about as authentic as you can get in this area.
Iz Veli is a little harbor that has been made into an informal marina. We park in about 10 knots with no particular problem. But as soon as we are settled the marinero wants us to move sideways a little to make sufficient space for a boat to come in on our starboard. We do so. About three hours later, a boat does come in on our starboard but the space is too tight so another marinero wants us to move over again. Indeed we found him on our boat moving our lines without even asking us! Not cool and very annoying. But we soon are moored securely again.
Tonight is the night of the Iz Feast. In a ceremony that dates back to the 17th century, each year they elect a”king” (who has no powers) and have a festival with speeches, singing and dancing. Some of the men and women are in traditional costumes and everybody is down on the quay for the celebrations. As darkness falls, the king and his entourage make a procession by boat to the other little village on the island and back again. There are fireworks and flares and people blowing rams horn trumpets.
The king comes ashore and the speeches start.
They are clearly funny - the old guy in front of us is chortling with laughter. However it’s all lost on us because we don’t speak Croatian. As we walk back to the marina, we come across a group of four older women sitting on a bench singing traditional songs. Indeed all the benches seem to be filled with four older women chatting or singing. We wonder just how long they and their forbears have been doing this. The dance begins and continues on into the night.
In the morning life goes back to the normal routine of fishing. We’ve seen this on other islands too, here people fish with traps. They put some kind of bait into rigid wire mesh box-like devices and drop them into the water. Some time later they return and retrieve them with fish flopping around inside them.
With no apologies whatsoever to Bill Clinton, by the way, it's pronounced "Eej"