Yacht JACK TAR

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Venice & Return to Croatia

We left Trieste and made our way along the Italian coast to Venice, calling at Grado and Caorle, two delightful resort towns. At Grado we berthed in a small basin at the end of the narrow town canal and at Caorle, most of which lay below sea level protected by levee banks, in a marina off the canal. On arrival in Venice we managed to secure a berth in the yacht club basin on the island of San Giorgio, right opposite St Mark`s square. After several days we quit the teeming mid summer hordes and anchored five miles away off the island of Burano. There Michael joined before we departed for Croatia again. A calm crossing to Porec and again Rovinj and then several lovely island villages before arriving in Zadar, a busy port city with an old town centre. We plan to make our way south amongst the islands before again crossing to Italy.

Trieste city & port

Trieste

Miramare catle near Trieste

Some of the hundreds of thousands of tourists

Grado

Entering the Grado canal

Grado

In the canal at Caorle

Caorle

Approaching Venice

St Mark`s square as we approached - hordes of tourists!

The view from San Giorgio

Venetsia

The yacht club basin at San Giorgio

The logistical challenge - feeding Venice

Burano

Met by the band at Porec in Croatia

Ivolik

Brgulje

Zadar

At the sea organ, Zadar

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Northern Adriatic

Jack Tar is now in Trieste, having sailed the beautiful coast of the Istrian peninsula through northern Croatia and Slovenia. At Pula, an industrial city set on a beautiful harbour, John & Cari joined and we had a wonderful time visiting nearby Rovinj and adjacent anchorages before they departed again from Pula. Then we sailed north, indeed with some favourable breezes for a change, and cleared from Croatia at Umag. On to the short coastline of Slovenia, berthing in the old harbour at Piran, an attractive old town. Slovenia impressed, with the countryside being very fertile and covered in lush, green almost tropical trees and growing everthing imaginable; citrus, stone fruit, wonderful vegies etc. And the standard of living and infrastructure equal to any in Europe. But, thunderstorms every evening and now in trieste, the rain has set in. So we await the weather forecast before planning the next phase of our journey along the Italian coast to Venice.

The Roman collossium at Pula adjacent to the marina

Pula`s harbour surrounded by derelict communist era buildings.

Rovinj

Umag

Piran, Slovenia

Piran

Approaching Trieste

The grand canal, Trieste, all of 500 m long

Trieste

Sundowners by the grand canal

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Croatia

Have tried almost succesfully, to publish a more logical presentation by posting photos first. However you will have to view them from the bottom up again. And if you click on the pictures they will appear half screen and by clicking again more than full screen which does give an impression of " being there". Well, we are in the north of the Croatian islands at Mali Losinj, having sailed or rather motored for most of the way for want of wind or for having what little wind there was right on the nose. Jack Tar might as well be a motor yacht! We cleared in at Cavtat, south of Dubrovnic where we were unable to remain at the quay because it was booked out by large stinkboats, sorry, motor yachts. So at the adjacent anchorage that night we were subject to the "bora", a strong wind off the land. 40 kts and poor holding in weed forced us to move to a more suitable location. Then on to Dubrovnic past derelict resort hotel complexes still showing the the damage from shellfire during the war of 15 years past. We berthed in Gruz at the dusty but convenient town quay and a short bus ride to the old town. On then to a great anchorage near Korcula and then Hvar, our first port visited out of Split on the charter all those years ago. Great place, but we are here at high season and the number of yachts looking for space to anchor is amazing. Fortunately, we found the last available mooring buoy and were able to put lines ashore. In the anchorage the yachts were anchored literally feet apart and when the wind changed, chaos. Since then we have sailed north via lovely anchorages and ports and will soon meet John & Cari at Pula on the Istrian coast.