Croatia's Mad Cat
We would have liked to spend another night in Montenegro, not because we were after another noisy sleepless night, but because we didn't want to do another night crossing. However, as we leave the coast of Montenegro behind, the wind picks up nicely and we make good progress leaving us with the following dilemma : to enter or not enter Cavtat Bay at night? Cavtat has to be our port of entry into Croatia and based on the reviews and stories we have heard about the country, you don't want to give them any opportunity to fine you. So we don't have a choice and can not sail any further until we have checked in. It is 11pm by the time we reach the outskirts of the village. It is dark. We could try to enter the bay and anchor or do a Med mooring on the immigration pier. Based on our past attempts at Med mooring, doing it in the middle of the night sounds like a recipe for disaster. Anchoring in the bay seems tricky based on the reviews and the space is meant to be limited. Finally, our pilot guide warns against any attempts at entering the bay at night. I am not sure why and unless you are using a compass and 3 points bearings it is actually pretty straightforward. However we do not know that yet and being rather on the cautious side of things, I opt for bobbing around until daylight. Mike agrees and so I find myself with the 2nd watch, starting at 1.30am, with nothing to do but make sure that Kujira doesn't drift into a cliff. I watch a movie, listen to some podcasts and call Dave who just arrived in Australia and therefore is awake.
With the first signs of daylight, Mike walks out of his cabin like a bear coming out of hibernation : confused, clumsy and in dire need of a coffee. We slowly motor into the bay and Kim comes out of her burrow too. Getting Jana out of bed to give us a hand with the Med mooring at the quarantine dock is a bit more difficult. It's like getting a 6 year old ready for school on a cold, dark, winter morning. Her body is on deck, but not her soul. We don't even try to wake up Emma who seems ready to sleep through a hurricane. Fortunately, there is absolutely no wind and no other boats at the immigration quay. Mike jumps in slow motion onto the paddle board and goes to shore to catch the lines from Kim and Jana. I slowly reverse Kujira who appears to be just as sleepy as everyone else and for once doesn't put up a fight. We drop the anchor and keep reversing in slow-motion. Kim hands the port line to Mike in slow-motion, Mike attaches the line in slow-motion. Jana hands the starboard line in super slow-motion and Mike attaches it in slow-motion. At this point I have the feeling to be captain of a crew of sloths. Yet we somehow succeed and all that is left to do is tighten the anchor chain.
I wind it up.
5m.
10m..
15m…
20m….
We now have less that 20m of chain left and I can see the anchor. The seafloor is so dense that the anchor isn't digging in. The right course of action would be to redo the whole manoeuvre but only Kim has the energy for such a task. It is 6.30am and the custom and immigration offices do not open until 8pm. Mike proposes to keep a watch to make sure the wind doesn't suddenly pick up and send Kujira slamming against the quay. I am not sure who is watching who as I leave Kujira to go to face the local authorities.
To my greatest surprise, there are no Karens. Quite the opposite in fact, I am dealing with friendly and polite human-beings. The only hassle is that I first go to the port authorities but needed to go the the immigration office, from there I go back to the port authorities, then the post office, back to the port authorities and finally the immigration office. Luckily Cavtat is a village rather than a town and nothing is too far away. Nonetheless it takes me a good 90 minutes to get all this done. I arrive back at the quay and find that Kujira is gone and see 4 sloths waving gleefully at me from the bay. Another boat had arrived next to Kujira nudging him sideways, dislodging the anchor, turning the boat on a diagonal and requiring Mike, Kim and Jana to set him loose and anchor in the bay without me. I get picked up by dinghy and we decide to move to the other side of the Cavtat peninsula which offers a spacious and easy anchorage. The rest of the day is spent eating, sleeping, swimming, eating, exploring Cavtat, eating and playing cards. Finally a "proper cruising day".
After more than 3 weeks on board Kujira, we raise the anchor one last time with Mike and Jana on board. Jana forgot to turn off the anchor light one last time. And we set sail one last time together. We have kept a highlight for our final day: a sail past Dubrovnik. We had visited the city last year while boat hunting and had been extremely impressed. Today is no different and reaching it by sea makes the experience even more spectacular. We slowly approach the old harbour with its tower overlooking the entrance, then we sail around the wall which drops straight into the sea before slowly motoring away, as the marina is in the new part of town. After a very technical and challenging refuelling we head to our pier. It is half empty yet the unfriendly marina staff ask us to park in the most difficult berth. We refuse and ask for an easier one not wanting to crash Kujira on our last day together. And just like that, the time has come for Mike, Jana and Emma to leave the whale behind. It isn't a sad farewell yet as they are staying in town for a couple nights and we have planned to have dinner with Emma and brunch the next day with Mike and Jana. However it is a sad day because we need to get Kujira back in tip top condition for our next visitors, my brother and his family. The afternoon is spent cleaning the inside of the boat, washing the layer of salt off the deck before Kujira turns into a salted cod, doing laundry and restocking food. In short, the yang of a "proper cruising day".
Jeremy, Franziska and the kids, a.k.a. the Germans, arrive on Sunday afternoon and we decide to spend the remainder of the day at the fancy marina pool catching up. After all they are charging us a fortune, so we might as well make the most of the infrastructures. Kujira doesn't seem to be pleased by the new crew, he is bouncing and rolling like a cat infested with flees making it really uncomfortable inside. Therefore, we decide to go out for burgers for dinner not to make everyone seasick on the first night. When we come back, Kujira has thrown the plank overboard, obviously not wanting the flees back on board. The useless marina staff haven’t done anything either despite it being their plank. The night isn't great, all the lines are either slapping, stretching or squeaking while Kujira is still swinging back and forth in his berth.
Having a lot of work to do on board, including looking for new house batteries, we send the Germans to visit the old town and I set off to visit the local chandleries while Kim did some cleaning. On my way there, I come across a solar panel shop which has an extensive set of batteries on display. I enter the shop.
"Good morning"
Nothing. The two people in the shop appear to be too busy talking to each other to acknowledge me.
I start looking around, turning batteries, digging, comparing.
Nothing.
I find lithium batteries which could potentially fit.
"Excuse me, how much are they?"
Nothing. They are obviously in the middle of a very interesting conversation which has very little to do with solar panels and batteries.
I try my luck with a different model.
"Excuse me, would you have 4 of these?"
One of them finally looks at me, looks at the battery in front of me.
"No"
And he returns to his conversation. I am obviously not welcome and will not achieve anything here so I leave. 15 minutes later I walk by a car shop which also displays batteries. Once again I am ignored at first. I find a model that might do the trick, at least for a month until we can find a better solution in Malta as we can not safely go on our 600Nm journey from Croatia to Malta in 10 days time with our current battery set.
"Excuse me, how much are they?"
"900 Kunas"
"Do you have the fittings to wire them?"
"No"
"... So?"
Nothing.
I am obviously disturbing him too.
I leave the shop and decide to try my luck at the first chandlery. The experience is just as bad, I am ignored and getting any information out of a Croat appears to be as challenging as feeding broccoli to a toddler. I leave that shop and go to the last but biggest chandlery. The guy working there is sitting behind the desk, looking at some papers.
"Good morning, I am after a set of batteries for my boat"
He looks at me.
"We don't have any"
He looks back at his paper.
"OK, I also need a few items from your shop"
Nothing.
"Would you have such a fuse?"
I pull out the glass fuse from the bilge pump which seems to blow up faster than waste water is being pumped out.
He looks away from his papers, take a brief look at it.
"No", and he walks away to the side of his shop and starts packing a small anchor.
"Excuse me, maybe I could use a car fuse, I can see that you have a full selection of them".
Nothing.
I wait.
He comes back toward me.
"Yes, I have a 5A car fuse"
He hands me one and before I have the time to say anything else he walks away again.
I wait.
Nothing.
"Excuse me, but if I use such a fuse, I will need a fuse plug too"
Obviously, packing that anchor is more interesting then dealing with a client.
I wait.
He finally comes back and hands me a plug. Before I can add anything else he leaves again. This is slowly becoming really ridiculous and annoying.
"Excuse me, but I also need a few more items"
He comes back after a while and every time I get one item off my list, he leaves and makes me wait for a couple minutes while he does something else. By the time I am done it is almost midday. I rush back to the boat, complete a couple jobs before heading to the old town to meet the Germans. They are currently visiting fort Lovrijenac. I manage to sneak in by entering at the same time as a large tour group which is here to hear everything about the TV show Game of Thrones instead of the rich and interesting history of the town. Once inside, I leave them behind and find the Germans. We finish the visit of the fort together. After that, Franziska and the kids head back to the boat while Jeremy and myself go on a mission to the lookout behind the old town.
Back at the boat, Kujira appears to have finally accepted the new crew and we can have a nice dinner on board and finally a good nights sleep.
We leave in the late morning after a last visit to the old town. We have only planned for a 10Nm journey to Lopud in order to give the new crew a chance to adapt to being on a boat. However there are a few popular caves on the way. The first one is of course called “the blue cave”. It is too deep to anchor and quite exposed to the wind and swell we have today, so we decide to go in 2 groups. With Jeremy and Oscar we take the dinghy and motor over while Kim makes donuts with Kujira. However, the swell is so bad that I can not find a safe place to attach the dinghy. I drop off Jeremy and Oscar and go wait for them near one of the many tour boats. The water is surprisingly cold and they are back within a few minutes. They climb on board and I go. The blue cave is nothing particular, just a low opening in the rock that leads into a very small chamber. I go back to the dinghy and we motor back to Kujira. As there is nowhere to attach the dinghy I offer to drive the whale as close to the cave as possible and have the 2nd group jump in the water like a bunch of navy seals. Jeremy and Oscar decide to go for another round. The sea is getting really choppy and manoeuvring Kujira so close to the cliff and other boats is not an easy task. When the time has come for them to jump in I start shouting "Go go go go !", Lilly freezes. Jeremy, like any good dad, just throw her off the back platform and jumps in after her. Picking them up turns out to be a little bit more difficult due to the ever worsening sea state. Kujira is dangerously bouncing up and down, ready to teabag anyone who would dare getting too close. Fortunately, everyone eventually makes it back on board safely except for Lilly who got stung by what we can only assume was a jellyfish.
Next on the agenda is the three sisters caves. Once again, anchoring is not an option. Oscar is still cold from his last swim so we decide to go investigate the place with Jeremy while Kim does … donuts with Kujira. The first cave is of minor interest, just a large opening full of tourists taking selfies, the second one is a lot better. It is like a narrow crack in the cliff that goes deep underground. The walls are smooth and it slowly gets narrower and shallower. The flashlight is needed to reach the end, a tiny patch of sand too narrow and small to even get out. The third cave is by far the most interesting one. It is more like a submerged canyon. In places it is necessary to dive to go further and in others to climb over rocks. It is probably a couple hundred meters long and comes out to a little cove.
Not long after that, we anchor off the charming island of Lopud. We are perfectly sheltered from the swell and the wind. Kujira is peacefully resting as if nothing had ever happened.
The next day is quite a milestone. Everyone but me goes on a hike across the island meanwhile I do my first solo sail ever. By the time I am ready to pull up the anchor a steady breeze is blowing inside the bay. Probably out of beginners luck I pull up the anchor without running into anyone. Once outside the bay, I unfurl the genoa and the mizzen, which are sufficient to keep me busy and give me enough power to sail around the island at a comfortable 4 to 5 knots. Once on the other side of the island, I had assumed that the others would just swim back to the boat but I was actually faster than them, therefore I decide to push my luck and anchor on my own. It must be my lucky day as, this too, is a success. After this, it is only a short but excellent sail to Slano, a bay without much to offer but a good easy anchorage.
Sailing with kids offers daily challenges. When you are not trying to drown them they want to go to a sandy beach to dig holes. Croatia is notoriously known for its rugged rocky shores, not its sandy beaches. So, when I discover that we are going to sail by one of them, I conclude that we have to make a stop over for the wellbeing of everyone. It is a lovely bay with crystal clear water and white sandy bottom. The beach is pretty busy but we are like kings on board Kujira, anchored a couple hundred meters from the beach. That is, until a moron decides to drop his anchor pretty much in our face. His catamaran is at the time no more than a few meters from Kujira.
I don’t like that.
Kim tells me that I am worrying too much and that I should just go dig a hole at the beach with Jeremy and the kids while she stays on board. The weather is beautiful, the sea is flat, everything is peaceful.
I swim to shore.
I should have known by now that the Med is a cow and that a quiet day never stays quiet for very long. I suddenly realise that the wind has significantly picked up and the bay is now exposed to an increasing swell. Kujira is bouncing up and down, apparently nervous by the proximity of the cat which is, like every cat, moving in a weird and unpredictable way.
I swim back to the boat.
Kim is already at battle stations, trying her best to prevent any collision with the cat while the cat owner is chilling on his boat. We had planned to have lunch here before heading north but I change my mind and decide to leave as soon as possible before something bad happens. The sail is excellent despite beating into wind as per usual. My first anchorage of choice is too busy for my liking so we push on another mile around the peninsula and anchor easily off the village of Zuljana, in the middle of the bay, once again like kings. The village is not interesting but the surrounding sceneries are absolutely gorgeous. The adults go on a little exploration and figs foraging expedition while the kids enjoy some fun times on a giant floating bouncy parkour, “Water park Kraken”. Lilly manages to get stuck between two giant balls and has to be rescued by the staff.
The night is excellent, to the extent that Jeremy oversleeps and misses out on the opportunity to sneak onto the inflatable floating playground before it opens up to the public. We all leave the boat for various morning fun activities, except Kim who surprises us by making pancakes with Lilly’s help.
Korcula, our next stop is only 14Nm away. We treat ourselves to a Med mooring on a quay with just about no one. This time we nail it right on the first try. Kujira is nicely secured and as we are just about to head to town, a catamaran approaches, a chartered catamaran. The crew is nice but they are absolutely hopeless. I try to help them but their anchor has obviously not dug in and they are now swinging dangerously close to Kujira. I talk them into re-doing it. The second try is just as bad. So is the 3rd try but at least now they have moved further along the quay, away from Kujira. By now the port staff is also on the job and even ends up jumping on board and parking the boat for them while I catch their lines. Now that I know that Kujira is safe from any horny crazy cat, we head to town. Korcula is lovely but very touristic. Somehow, we manage to find an excellent restaurant out of pure luck. After dinner we linger around a bit longer before heading back to the boat. Kujira is peacefully waiting for us, no cat is trying to hump him, life is great and so is the night.
Ever since we left La grande Motte in southern France, we have been under time pressure, racing across the Med like madmen. Ultimately, the reason for this was to be in Zadar by the 9th of August. We realised a few weeks ago that we weren’t going to make it all the way there, but we were hoping to at least make it to Split, from where the Germans would be able to catch a bus to Zadar. However, it is becoming more and more obvious that long sailing days are not ideal with the kids and therefore we are looking at alternative options one of which would be to only go to Hvar and for the Germans to hop on a ferry and a bus. It feels a bit like a defeat or a let down but it could actually be a win-win situation for everyone: less sailing for them, less distance for us to go back to Spain. Once this is decided, we can plan for shorter days. We leave around mid-day and do another day of sailing, motor sailing, beating into the wind. The amount of well sheltered anchorages are limited in this part of the coast so it is no surprise to find the bay we have picked to be full like a can of sardines. As you enter the bay, all the boats are on the lefthand side, which is shallower and further away from the local village. Some boats are at anchor others have chosen a wild Med mooring. We start motoring around, trying to see whether we could fit the fat whale anywhere. After long consideration and the refusal from Kim to do a wild Med mooring, we try our luck in the only possible available place. Once the anchor is laid out we find ourself too close to other boats. I don’t like it and decide to try again elsewhere in the bay. Strangely enough, everyone seems to squeeze themselves on the left hand-side but no one goes to the centre of the bay. It turns out to be perfect, sandy bottom, around 8 - 10 meters deep and enough space to not be worrying about the neighbours. We might be a little bit more exposed to swell but we are willing to take our chances. Everything is well until a moronic charter boats shows up and decides to anchor right on top of us. There is no reason for such lack of courtesy as this part of the bay is not crowded at all. But have charter boats ever shown any signs of courtesy?
Jeremy and Franziska decide to go for a walk to the village while we stay near the boat with the kids. I do a bit of free diving with Oscar and manage not to drown him. We play with the paddle board with Lilly and I manage to not knock her down. So, all in all, a pretty successful Uncle Ben afternoon.
Slowly but surely we’re getting really tired of all the charter boats trying to crash into Kujira. I decide that today, we should aim for a tiny bay with mooring balls. They make for an easy anchoring and should prevent anyone to get too close to us. We leave early in order to have most of the day to enjoy the anchorage. The bay is actually made of narrow channels and each boat gets 2 mooring balls, one for the front and one for the back as everyone has to be as close to the shore as possible. Manoeuvring the fat whale is always a joy in a confined space. Kim wants to give it a try but sensibly changes her mind and quickly hands me over control of the beast. I have to do a U-turn in a channel not wide enough for the whale to turn in one go; then I need to parallel park with just a meter of water under the keel. Fortunately the wind hasn’t picked up yet, which is lucky because a few hours later it is blowing at 20 knots and there is no way I would have been able to keep Kujira under control. But here we are, nicely tucked in the bay, grilling under the scorching sun with nothing to do but relax, swim and more importantly, not worry about moronic charter boats. We snorkel and find the huge mussels the length of your forearm sitting on the sea bed upright. They look like underwater totem poles. We have a tasty lunch at the local restaurant and play cards. Life is great.
The kids had decided, under the bad influence of their uncle, to sleep outside on the back deck. As a result they don’t sleep nearly enough and make us pay for it pretty much all day. For the first time in a very long time, we also wake up to a stormy sky. It is a welcome change but a very bad omen for what is about to come later in the month. For now, however, we only need to sail 14Nm between 2 islands to reach Hvar, our final destination with the Germans.
Hvar is chaos. The port is small and exclusively reserved for ferries, super yachts, mega yachts and “small” cruise ships. The bay is small and packed to the brim. On one side you have a mooring field for locals which is off limits. At the centre, way too many boats are tempting the devil with anchors and very short scopes and on the other side you have a handful of mooring balls with lines to shores for charter boats to fight over. It looks like an aquaculture mussel line with the boats touching one another and loud music blasting. None of these options are appealing to me so we go a few hundreds meters further along the coast around the corner into the next bay. There, you have 4 beautiful, brand new, mooring balls. I call the Hvar port authorities to investigate whether we can use them.
“Yes, yes, yes”
We are a bit sceptical the person really understood where we were but we can not resist the temptation. Once attached, Kim takes the paddle to shore to ask the Hula-Hula beach bar, which is just across, whether we can indeed use these mooring balls and whom we need to pay.
Turns out that they do not belong to the Hvar port at all but to the bar. We can use them and the person Kim talked to tells her that it is 50 euros for the night. A “bargain” for Croatia. As she didn’t take any money with her she tells the guy that we would come back later to pay…
The kids are still grumpy so we decide to have a swim and a play before heading to town. There are big inflatable platforms in front of the bar to which we swim to before playing, jumping and pushing each other off them. In the end, Kim hurts herself and both kids end up crying. An excellent day at the playground. Now that this has been successfully achieved we can head to town.
Finding a parking spot for your dinghy is pretty much as difficult as finding a car park at your local supermarket 24h before a public holiday. I decide to take one for the team and ferry everyone to shore, bring the dinghy back to Kujira and swim to shore. I guess I will be going for a night swim tonight. Once ashore, I go to the bar to pay for our mooring ball. Kim can not see the person she talked to so I just ask someone behind the counter.
"Hi, I need to pay for the mooring"
"What?!"
The music is loud so I presume I haven't been heard properly.
"The mooring. It's my boat over there"
"So?"
"I need to pay"
"No, it's free"
“?!?”
Mother goose! We nearly got scammed 50€ by that other person Kim talked to earlier. We are slowly but surely getting tired of the locals.
The town of Hvar is a very popular destination with a constant ballet of ferry and other cruise ships dropping tourists off. The promenade along the water front is absolutely packed and covid seems to be a distant memory. Personally, we are not impressed. Sure it is nice but we wouldn't say it is nicer than Split, Dubrovnik, Korcula or Vis and the amount of people is a little bit overwhelming. What we hadn't realised is that Hvar is a popular party destination but where the people go to party, we don't know. Anyway, we are not here for clubbing but climbing the hill to the castle and find some food. Eventually an ice-cream too and not necessarily in that order.
After dinner, as we walk back towards our bay, we see more and more young people dressed up for clubbing. Yet, still no sign of a club. We walk by the charter boats anchored next to each other like mussels on a line and definitely feel satisfied with our choice of anchoring further along the coast. As we get closer to our bay, the density of people keeps on increasing and so does the music. And to our astonishment, we discover that the Hula-Hula bar has turned into a night club with music pumping and people dancing everywhere. It turns out that the Hula-Hula bar is among the top 10 night clubs on the Adriatic, based on the ranking of some Internet hipster influencer. So much for our cunning plan of parking a little bit outside town to have some peace and quiet.
I get back into my swimsuit and swim back to Kujira to pick up the dinghy while I leave the others behind for some unwanted clubbing time. Unsurprisingly the remaining mooring balls are now occupied and Kujira finds himself between 2 gigantic catamarans. Before picking up my first load of passengers I put not one but two head torches on, one white facing forward and one red facing backwards. With all these morons around the last thing I would want is to be run over by a drunk dinghy driver. I have to do two trips as our dinghy is back on a leaky track. Once done with my second run, I step on the back platform and take off my head torch. Of course, I forget that I had a second one on like a Christmas tree and my trusty light goes for a dive. I can see it in the darkness of the ocean, still desperately shining. I take off my clothes, grab a mask and jump in. But we are in nearly 10m of water and going down in pitch darkness without fins is a bit difficult. I go back on the boat, pick up my fins and jump in again. I go down a lot faster but without glasses or contact lenses on I can't see whether I am 1 meter or 4 meters away from the bottom. To my astonishment the light is still shining and I know that I should be able to reach it.
This unfortunate event turns out to be a lifesaver for Kujira.
As I am in the water playing Enzo Maiorca, I suddenly realise that the catamaran on our left side is just about to stab Kujira in the belly with its pointy sugar scoop, the back platform, like a whaler with a harpoon. I shout something in the lines of "sacré bleu !" and Kim who was still outside on deck manages to prevent the deadly blow by stopping the cat a couple centimetres away from Kujira’s belly. With all the commotion Franziska and Oscar come out just on time to help us prevent the second blow. The cat is completely mad and out of control and has obviously decided that tonight was a good night to murder the neighbour. With the proximity of the boats I can just step onto the invader and start banging on the door. Of course no one is around. It is a charter boat and I wouldn't be surprised if its crew was partying at the bar. While I consider for a second to just untie it and let it drift away, I conclude that it would probably not be such a good idea. Instead, I start collecting all the fenders I can find on their boat and put them between the two boats. By now everyone but Lilly is on deck trying to fend off the attacks of the mad cat. It’s hard work and very physical. There is still no sign of its crew and we are wondering what to do next as we can obviously not spend the entire night doing this. That's when one, then two, then three guys show up in the water, swimming back to the boat.
I present you Useless, Hans and Skipper, the crew of the mad cat. Three friends in their forties, working in Malta who probably paid somewhere around 15.000 euros to rent this floating fortress for a week.
Useless is, obviously, useless.
Hans is German and drunk as a coconut mojito.
Skipper is the leader of the group, the brains behind the rental and a bit of an asshole.
They were having a good time at the club and are swimming back to the boat now because the club is closing, not because their boat is trying to murder Kujira. At first they appear a bit annoyed to find someone aboard before realising what was happening.
"Oh shit, what is going on?" said Skipper.
I give him a quick de-brief of the past 20 minutes.
"Any damages?"
"Not that I can see, but I don't know if we were lucky and it's the first attack or not"
He suddenly seems more concerned about the possible damages to his rental and the possibility of losing his bail. That's when Hans realises that we are from New Zealand.
"Oh, you are from New Zealand! I had a girlfriend from Auckland"
"Shut up Hans" shouts Skipper.
But you don't stop a drunk German like that.
"She lives in Devonport, maybe you know her?"
We obviously don't know her and right now we don't care but he keeps on going.
"I love New Zealand, such a great place. Have I told you I had a girlfriend who came from Devonport?"
"Hans, just shut the fuck up!"
Useless comes to get Hans out of the way so I can have a proper chat with Skipper.
"We need to do something, we can not push off your cat all night long"
"We can put our dinghy between the two boats"
"That might help for now but that's not a solution. Obviously your boat is too big for these mooring balls"
"Maybe you could put your dinghy too, would you be happy with that?"
"No, honestly you need to move. If you swing the other way you will hit the boat on the other side too"
"It's impossible, we can not leave now"
Somehow Hans makes it back on deck.
"We can not leave, we are here with our friend in the cat over there" he says pointing to a boat a few hundred meters away.
"We could raft up the boat, would you be happy with that?" says Skipper.
"Not really. But if you are happy rafting why don't you raft with you friends over there?"
"No"
He goes inside the cat leaving me with Hans.
"You are from New Zealand, right? I had a girlfriend from New Zealand"
"Great.."
While we were talking, the mad cat finally stopped harassing Kujira and we now have a little distance between the 2 boats. Useless uses this opportunity to put their dinghy on the starboard side before disappearing once again in the shadow like a creep. I am left alone with Hans.
"So, what do you think we should do?"
"I think you should move"
"I can ask Skipper but I don't think he wants to move. By the way, you are from New Zealand?"
"..."
Skipper comes back.
"Are we good?"
"No, not at all"
"Maybe we could do watches?" says Hans.
"I know I am drunk but I can stay awake if I need to. I can keep myself busy" he continues.
I don't like the idea, moreover tomorrow we have an early start and I don't really fancy a sleepless night.
"How many are you on the boat?" Asks Skipper.
"4 adults"
"I need to get to town to pick up some food, you do the watch until 2am and we take it from there. Here is my WhatsApp number. If anything happens we can call each other"
I still don't like the idea but I agree. I jump in the water and swim back to kujira. I inform Kim, Jeremy and Franziska of the agreement. The two boats are still close enough that Hans can chat our ears off. After 20 minutes or so, I realise that the dinghy which was meant to be used as a fender was gone.
"Hans, what happened to the dinghy? You told me it would be used as a fender?"
"Skipper took it to town, he is having a drink with some friends"
"What?! I thought he was getting food?"
Useless appears from nowhere, "Shut up Hans"
Obviously, I have been lied to but there is no time to talk about it as the mad cat is just about to go for another attack, this time trying to hit Kujira in the nose. All our fenders are now useless and here we are again pushing the cat at arms length. Once the attack is avoided, I message Skipper to let him know of the new attack. To this day I am still waiting for his response.
Hans uses the opportunity to go for another round of "I had a girlfriend in NZ”, a very popular jingle tonight. This is not sustainable. Moreover, I will not trust them with a night-watch, if they even do one. It's time to go to plan B. Navily, the anchorage app, is not showing any viable alternatives at this time of night and with the requirement of being nearby as the Germans need to be dropped off at the town Quay tomorrow morning to catch their ferry to Split. Looking on the chart plotter, I see a little bay just on the other side of Hvar. It looks promising on Google earth and would be ideal.
We turn on the navigation lights, wake up Mr Perkins and off we go into the night away from this madness. It is only a few minutes away but feels like a world away. No bars, no clubs, no hotels in the bay. Nothing and no one except for one boat anchored deep inside the bay. There are a couple people relaxing in the cockpit who panic when they see a boat arriving at this time of night. They quickly turn on their deck light and get ready to fight for their lives, or at least their piece of anchorage. I don't blame them, having witnessed the shit show Croatia is in summer, any boat owner can only be nervous about late comers. I use the opportunity to get really close, and make them really nervous, to be within shooting distance.
"Excuse me for the trouble, but do you know what kind of bottom we are dealing with here?"
"Sand and posidonia"
"Great, thank you. And don't worry, we will anchor a bit further out"
We motor a couple hundred meters away and drop the anchor in 12 meters of water. I reverse and the anchor digs in nicely. It is 2am but we can finally relax.
The night is peaceful but short. As we head towards Hvar we nearly get rammed into by a charter boat that had put its autopilot on before disappearing down bellow to make breakfast or something. We are officially over Croatia, it is time to drop off my family, the Germans and leave this place. We had an amazing time together this week and we hope to have them join us again for another part of the sailing adventure. But like all good things, for now our time together has come to an end. We need to ferry everyone, including their bags to shore. While I do donuts with Kujira who is behaving himself, Kim goes back and forth a couple of times to take them ashore. No time for long farewells, simply some hugs and waves goodbye. Auf Wiedersehen!
And just like that, after 5 weeks with visitors on board we find ourselves alone. And as always, we are now under time pressure to cross the entire Mediterranean back to southwest Spain in order to catch a flight to NZ. What could go wrong…
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