We set sail for Croatia late in the day once our lines finally arrived. This made things awkward since the overnight sail would now start with the dark part and then linger on into much of the following day. This is not good from a physiological point-of-view. However, it did give us the opportunity to take a picture of the obligatory “first sunset of the sailing season”.
The wind was tricky. It wasn’t that there wasn’t enough; it was just coming from the wrong direction. Pretty much directly behind us. Too much fine manipulation of sails for two people to do in the dark. So we resigned ourselves to motor-sailing - not the most auspicious of starts.
But that was soon to change.
As everyone knows dolphin are intelligent, cute and incredible swimmers. They love to play with boats - they dive across the bow, through the wake, and pass the boat at speeds that have to be seen to be appreciated. It is impressive.
We have seen this many times and it is always a highlight of any trip. But all our sightings have been during the day. This time we got to see them at night.
First of all, remember that it is pretty dark out these in the middle of the Adriatic - there are many, many stars and the Milky Way is a pale cloud of light spread in a streak across the sky. Every\thing is quiet with only gentle noises from the wav es.. Then the dolphins arrive. The first thing you hear is more splashes from the waves that you heard a few moments ago: then you see a linear splash that is almost parallel to the boat. It disappears for a few seconds and then something leaps out of the water only to dive beneath the bow. More and more dolphin appear and as your eye starts to get accustomed to the scene, you can suddenly see even the fine details of the bodies of the dolphins under the water! This is because of the phosphorescent bubbles that seem to cling to their skin as they swim.I It is an astonishing and slightly eery sight. All the more so because they stayed with us in two major episodes for over ninety minutes. I guess they had nothing else planned as Brexit has gone quiet.
And this leads to the solution of a mystery. Four years ago Lori’s sister and her husband Brian made a very similar night sail with us. Lori and Brian were on watch, chatting, facing each other. Suddenly, as Lori tells it, Brian’s jaw dropped and his eyes opened wide as something large , very large, splashed in the water behind her. More than slightly shaken and with visions of the Kraken awakening from the deep, they resolved to persevere rather than throw themselves into the ocean. The remainder of the watch was spent on edge with few words spoken.
Just like the well-knit crew we are, Lori has taunted Brian about this ever since and Pam and I have discounted it altogether as yet another “tall tale of the sea”. We had no explanation for this until now - dolphin in the dark!. Just think, if Lori and Brian had thrown themselves into the sea, they would have been surrounded by dolphin laughing their asses off.
But we can all rest easy, the Kraken remains dormant until it is fatefully summoned to punish mankind.
Coffee in the morning. I can say this when there a no Italians around.
But the manifestation of the dolphin in the water, led me to thinking (admittedly at two in the morning) that perhaps this is how we see ghosts (those of us who do, that is) as a spectral phosphorescence in the world that we inhabit but they no longer do. Admit it, it’s as good as some of the other “explanations” out there.
As a courtesy we change flags when we enter Croatian waters
As you may recall, Croatia didn’t impress us much when we came here first four years ago. It is, however, remarkable how far they’ve come in that time. Harbormasters and border police are friendly, helpful and above all extremely professional. The cuisine has started to show some flair - wasabi and soy sauce with tuna (in Croatia!?!) The wines have always been good and there are now some excellent premium vineyards and labels.
We meandered north through some of the most westerly islands - Lastovo, Korcula, Solta and Vis - revisiting old favorites and making some new discoveries. I thought that I might try something a little different this year and give you a better view of the locations we stay in - a seagull’s eye view. I don’t have a drone on board so these have to be photos other than my own.
Lastovo is a former military island that was off-limits to foreign visitors until 1988. This has enabled it to retain at least a part of its traditional charm. But it’s a remote kind of life for its 792 inhabitants where you have to take two ferries to get to the mainland, high school pupils spend the week in Split and only come home on weekends, and any raw materials for building and development have to be ferried in along with the skilled labor needed.
But on the other hand, this isolation has had benefits for the flora and fauna. The WWF (World Wildlife Fund) has declared the area of the park as one of the last ten treasures of biodiversity in the Mediterranean Sea and it is a remarkably tranquil and unspoiled place to spend a few days as we did.
We had a great sail of over twenty miles from Lastovo to Korcula with the wind steady at 17-18 knots and gusting to almost 30. True Colors was loving it; it was almost as if all three of us were shaking off the winter lethargy and eagerly pushing forward into summer.
Korcula is best known for claiming to be the birthplace of Marco Polo although evidence to support this claim is at best “sketchy”. This had not stopped a thriving tourist theme from developing in Korcula town. However this time we visited the town at the other end of the island, Vela Luka. A much more “normal” place that relies on fishing and water-based tourism for much of its growing prosperity.
Vela Luka Town Center
This isn’t working … It must be broken… I’ve been standing here for hours.
And it is in Vela Luka that our new mystery has its origins. Showering and swimming naked from the back of boats is quite common and unremarked upon. There are also “naked boats” where the occupants sail without any clothes. This can be disconcerting an d you have to resist the temptation to go closer to their boat and say “Don’t you know the damage you’re doing to your skin!”
But this year we saw our first “semi-naked boat”, where some of the occupants were clothed and others not (at all). This must make for interesting meals and casual conversations. There were six guys on this boat, all in their fifties (at least) and three went about naked all the time. The vision of a naked guy raising a dinghy is one that stays with you for quite a while. As does the one where they had clearly lost something in the water and a guy (naked) was standing up at the bow scanning the surface of the water with binoculars while his crew drove him around the anchorage.
I wonder about them when they’re back home.. Do they all work together? “Hey, Helmut, how’s that bruise on your …? Errr, never mind let’s get back to the meeting agenda.” Or are they old school friends? “Otto, I see you still have that scar from when you got caught on that barb wire fence when you were ten.”
And here is the mystery. Just as it was getting dark, the three naked guys get into their dinghy and potter off to the middle of the large bay leading to Vela Luka. A large ferry passes them (was anybody watching?); they buzz around for a few minutes and then they return. What were they doing and why? There might be a prize for the most creative (but printable) answer to this riddle.
Leaving behind the “sights” of Vela Luka, we set sail the next day for the small island of Solta where there is a restaurant and a mooring that we really enjoy. It turns into another great day of sailing. The winds increased and became steady again at over twenty knots with gusts again of about 30. We sailed with the wind behind us for the first half of the day (which is always deceptive because you don’t really feel the strength of the wind). I had been hoping to get past the Pakleni Islands and then come closer to the wind for the final leg to Solta. But there was not quite enough room. So we gybed twice at the far end of the islands and headed north to Solta with the wind on our beam.
Two things about this are worthy of note. Lori has clearly overcome her nervousness about gybing in big winds. She was totally up for it and was mellow through the whole thing. I was proud of her. Secondly, with twenty-plus winds on our beam and True Colors racing along at up to nine knots, we sat in the cockpit and had lunch. Our sails were trimmed perfectly (thanks Lori), the wind was steady and lunch was a stable and mellow occasion. It doesn’t get much better!!
Sismis (which is Croatian for “bat”) is a nice slightly upscale restaurant in a narrow inlet on the west of the island. Parking the boat here is unlike anywhere else and you have to rely on the marineros to get your boat into its final position. We end up moored about 10 feet from the quay. Rather than have us take down our dinghy for the short trip, they say they’ll pick us up and take us back any time we want to go ashore - that’s service!
We defy you N ew York Times!
The food is creative and delicious in a beautiful setting looking west into the sunset.
Who are these clean people?
Croatian white wine passes the Lori test.
The next day we head north to the mainland. One of the challenges in Croatia is restocking supplies and water for the trips among the islands. There are not many supermarkets on the smaller or more remote islands and those that exist are pretty small with limited provisions. So calling into a marina, like to one at Rogoznica, is sometimes necessary.
The pretty little town offers some modest-sized supermarkets, but also a little farmers’ market, an adjacent fish market and many ice cream stands - Croatians seem to love ice cream in quantities that would make other countries blush
And a lot of bakeries.
“Sladoled.” What a great name for ice cream
Lori’s first version of borek
And this is where we ran into the controversy. You may know that Lori likes a specific pastry that looks like it has been squeezed out of a tube (I suggest squeezed out of somewhere else but she will have none of it). This is one variant of a Croatian street food called “borek”. The other is a more conventional-looking meat tart. The flaky pastry is phyllo and there can be a little yogurt added to the meat to give it a tangy flavor.
And the second version
The origins of this dish are where the controversy arises. It probably started in Turkey (Anatolia, actually) but has been claimed by the Serbians and the Croatians as “their own”. In a volatile region, this is cause for concern. But then there is the whole “filling issue”. Can real borek have any other filling than meat? Purists say “no”. but the bakers round Rogoznica don’t seem to be purists - you can get fruit fillings like apple and apricot.
And now, if you’ve been following along, we can broaden the whole controversial mess. A phyllo-like pastry tart filled with apple. Sounds a lot like apple strudel to me. “Oops, sorry Austrians”. A phyllo-like pasty tart with a non-meat filling, say spinach. Sounds a lot like like spanakopita to me. “Oops, sorry Greeks.”
This is going to take some diplomacy to resolve. Historically, not exactly a strength in this part of the world. Not even Donald has a fantastic solution. We’ll just keep our mouths shut and eat. Wait a minute, how does that work exactly?