With uncharacteristically good timing we passed between the fortified headlands and entered Montenegro at sunset, digesting Tatiana’s splendid pork dish and quaffing. We motored slowly as the purple mountains became two-dimensional. Maxine has been on…
The ancient Venetian port of Korcula calls itself the birthplace of Marco Polo, although Venice would strongly disagree. With more justification however, Korcula can claim to be the first place in the world to ban…
We’re in Trogir, near Split. Maxine leaves tomorrow for 2 weeks’ family duty in Moscow. An unavoidable nuisance (the departure, not the woman). It has been a pleasure to have her back on board although…
For 15 years Chris has extolled to me the virtues of solitude. I am learning slowly, but still I dislike the company it provides. Blinged up in her Russian attire Maxine has flown home to…
The shouting and the tumult have died in the marina. The captains and charter kings have departed and it has been quiet, apart from the clamour of Sunday morning church bells ringing across the water…
…at least, I hope so. In any case Mendelssohn is just perfect for this morning. In Croatia, travelling north you have to set off early to get up some miles before the northerlies kick in.…
This one’s mainly about coolant, for the blokes. Anchored last night in flat water at the southern end of a lozenge-shaped island called Losenj, I checked the coolant. To my astonishment I found there had…
As the lights come on around Pula Coliseum I have reluctantly to admit that electricity is here to stay. Even in boats. After 40 years of celestial navigation my two sextants haven’t been out of…
I’m so used to long hauls between marine supply outlets that I buy in bulk when I can. The local chandler here almost fell over when I asked for 16 oil and fuel filters but it…
Short and medium term goals are important when you are cruising. In the longer term, the whole purpose of a voyage tends to be less concrete. For now, Venice has been the object of this…
I have written before about great arrivals – Sydney, Rio, New York and Archangel’sk. Unquestionably, Venice must be added to this list. Tired and relieved to have finally arrived, we motored along Canal di San…
If you ever wondered how Venetian gondoliers learn their trade, I can tell you. At Certosa Island, beside our berth, a young, pheromonal Italian lad is sculling up and down under the close guidance of…
We didn’t join the tourist queue for a ride in a gondola, but sitting in the shade with a campari spritz I could watch these boatmen all day. Gondolas look so ungainly, but in the…
I had not appreciated that all transportation in Venice is by water. Beautifully varnished water taxis, service barges, ambulances, fire fighting vessels, vaporetti, cruise ships and garbage boats bring whole new meaning to the concept…
Venetian customs and immigration formalities are easy, once you find out how to do it. In most countries there is a designated anchorage where vessels must stop, displaying a Q flag (“my vessel is healthy and…
Tourism and Venice go hand in hand. With a shrinking resident population (currently 56,000) Venice receives more than 22 million tourists annually. Locals here say that the parlous future of this city is defined by…
This can no longer be ignored. Her favoured drug, of course, has always been the iPhone. In our previous post there is a picture of Miss Perfect seated in the dinghy with her eyes glued…
Jasper is a keen soccer player and after much effort he managed to infect us with a modicum of interest in the game. Sadly he has had to fly home to Sydney, back to his…
Before she left Venice Maxine insisted that we get up at 5 am and take Tainui out for a photo shoot in front of the Doge’s Palace, before the waterway got too busy. It was…
At noon, central Venice is unbearably crowded. Morbidly obese Amercans named Chuck and Darlene with Very Loud Voices; bewildered and tired backpackers with dangling sneakers; Japanese parties with matching cameras and all making V signs;…
For many years I have wanted to make a pilgrimage to Ravenna. Here in Venice I had contemplated sailing 75 miles down the coast to Porto Corsini, from where it is a short bus ride…
After the chaos of Venice with its milling tourist throngs, Ravenna came as a delightful surprise. Here are some images which highlight the difference. Hardly a noteworthy post topic, I know, but the contrast came…
Last night I sat in the cockpit with a glass of red, marveling at the spectacular light show as a line of black thunderstorms approached from the northeast. Continuous sheet lightning with little thunder, reminding…
I ought to be able to report that provisioning today was a tedious business. It was not. I wandered through San Pietro and found myself at a cafe watching the Italy-Uruguay match. With the aid…
I had two jobs on today’s list – visits to Grand Scuola and the church of San Rocco and the inevitable SIM card nonsense at a Vodaphone shop. In San Pietro I was waylaid. I…
After a hearty Tainui breakfast (coffee, a cigarette, Metamucil, fluoxetine and paracetamol) I let go our lines at dawn and Tainui slipped out of Venice on the last of the ebb. A grey morning with…
After a fine sail down from Venice, Tainui is again tied up in Pula. Lucky I didn’t dely my departure – last night a vicious series of storms passed through with spectacular lightning displays, strong…
After a long drive up from Split, Lucy and her fiance Dan arrived last night. Jet-lagged to buggery, they said. I showed them the way to the playpen (our aft cabin) but first, they said,…
…me and Tainui both. With much difficulty, Lucy has managed to convince me that the Bloody Mary, combined with poached eggs on toast, is a perfectly respectable breakfast. Even in this most abstemious of vessels.…
We have been dawdling south among the hundreds of islands in the Kornati group. Low, rocky and often uninhabited, they offer a lifetime’s exploring. The cold rain and headwinds have given way to warm, gentle…
After two expensive (EUR 160 per day!) but luxuriously worthwhile nights at Dubrovnik marina we motored 35 miles down to Montenegro over calm seas. In Kotor, The Pheromonals climbed to the top of the splendid…
It is a long overnighter from Montenegro south to Corfu. The Albanian coast seems to go on and on, with limited opportunities to stop along the way. On our trip north we had had northerlies,…
Messing around on the water you always have a weather eye out for boats. In 3 days I saw these three examples of the best and the worst of them. The stately gentleman’s motor yacht…
Tainui and I romped west from Corfu in a fresh northerly breeze, with a sparkling azure sea and dancing whitecaps. Destination Riposto, 260 miles away in Sicily. It was a novel, wonderful feeling, to be…