Diary #3 (B)

20th July 2008
We have had an action packed week. (Mis)adventure, joy and amazement sums it up! We managed to meet up with Fay and Windrose – the highlight. Our ability to meet up was because of the wonders of the mobile phone and misadventure.
After a rather unpleasant encounter with the receptionist at Zadar Town Marina and a disappointing stay there (though we did get our laundry done eventually), we left the VERY expensive marina manned by a highly disillusioned crew of people who told us in Croatia there was no such thing as service with a sigh of relief.
This was short lived because, as we left the pontoon, the throttle on Deep Blue failed and I found myself not-in-control of a boat moving forward in a very tight space towards other moored boats. I shouted at Andy who was sorting out the lines at the bow. He disappeared below. I was getting frantic – wondering where to steer. I needed to reverse as there was nowhere to go but into other boats. Andy said he thought he knew what to do and in the nick of time he manually managed to give me throttle so I could reverse!
Andy felt so confident he could repair the throttle whilst we were underway (and he so did not want to stay in that marina) that I motored to sea while he controlled the engine, then set the Genoa to maintain steerage whilst he did the repair. However, nothing is that simple. Andy noticed water in the saloon on the floor. Lots of it! Where was it coming from? We had just filled up ... surely our water tank had not burst? ... well yes it had!!
So imagine, I was sailing, steering and pumping. Andy was trying to stem the flow of water out of the tank whilst tracing the problem with the throttle cable. And .. no he could not do the repair as the one spare part we did not bring was the one he needed! We decided to make for Borik Marina on the other side of town to the one we had just left. We radioed ahead and they told us that they would meet us. In the meantime Andy jury rigged a throttle control.
Borik Marina proved that there IS service in Croatia. Two men helped us onto a finger pontoon and found us an engineer called Gordan within ten minutes of arriving at 8pm. Gordan proved to be a real character and we liked him, sharing the same taste in music and chess as Andy. The following day when he had finished the job and we had paid him he was ready to party! We allowed him to treat us to coffee but declined the beer as it was only just 10 a.m!
Having also replaced the burst water tank (that spare we did have), we were just about to leave when Fay text us to tell us Windrose would arrive in Zadar the next day and she could have some time off!!! We stayed (though moved to a small bay 3 mls across the water where we could anchor). Obviously this is why we had the problems!!
We spotted Windrose as she arrived at 1300hrs the next day, right on schedule, and followed her into the Town Marina (Oh No!). She had a space booked but we were turned away. But we had a cunning plan – we just anchored the other side of the breakwater, less than 200 meters from Windrose, so when Fay came on deck we spotted her and she spotted us!
Fays skipper Alex brought her out to see us, as soon as he was able, in the tender. She could only say hello at that point and he explained that as they had guests she could not have time off then but could meet with us once they had gone to bed. At her request (as if I wasn’t desperate to do it anyway) I managed to cuddle Fay over the side of the boat. It was so good to see her looking healthy and happy.
We met up late that evening and spent a lovely 2 hours with her. She is finding the work hard and continuous (she is on call from 7 am to 11 pm and gets NO time off) but gets on well with the crew and loves the boat. She is being paid REALLY well so, by the time she leaves the boat in the autumn, she will be able to travel in style for the rest of her time out. She has the chance of staying on board indefinitely and they are off to the Caribbean for the winter so may stay. However, she is seeing little of the outside world as she is below decks most of the time when guests are on board. This fact means that she may not.
Reluctantly this time we left Zadar, Fay was going South and we were going North. Zadar itself had filled with tourists during our stay but we felt it overrated and not a patch on Split. But we were leaving Fay. However, our sail to Pag where we are now was AMAZING.
Pag is an island off the coast North of Zadar, and to the South of Istra, in the Velebitski Canal at the foot of the Velebit Mountains. We had to work our way round several islands, going south, east and north to find enough water. The spinnaker was up one minute and fast stow so we could tack up wind the next. Through the most amazing landscape I have ever seen. It did remind us of Israel with the desert mountains and an almost moon like look. The islands looked like they were made of windblown sand in colour and texture but on close inspection saw that they were actually sharp ridges of rock – walking on the surface would be a challenge. Most were uninhabited though every now and then there was a little oasis of rather smart properties. Sailing up the Velebitski Canal we were COMPLETELY alone and when we arrived at Pag we were the only visiting boat.
Pag is a huge surprise though. After sailing through a desert (I know that sounds bazaar) we arrived at the town of Pag on the island of Pag to find literally thousands of holiday makers, jet-skis, cocktail bars and loud music booming out. Not what we were expecting. There are tourists from everywhere – Germany, Austria, Slovenia .. we even saw an English van and a Swedish car. How did they know about this place and what attracted them??
21st July 2008
Croatia advertises itself as “how the Med used to be”. Well, I do not subscribe to this at all from where I sit, at anchor just outside a small hamlet on Pag. Every small village here and, now I think about it, everywhere we have visited is set up just for the tourist. Here on Pag it is more in evidence because the transformation from sleepy village to tourist mecca is so recent that the overgrown and abandoned fields are in very much in evidence. Vineyards that were obviously well tended last year will not have their grapes picked this. There are even recent but abandoned haystacks and very few of the famous sheep in evidence.
In the town of Pag we visited the small vegetable market where there were perhaps 10 stall holders, all elderly people, and very few customers. We are trying hard to use the local shops – the butcher for meat, the baker for bread and the market for vegetables. However, we inevitably go to the supermarket to get beer and coffee. In Pag we were really struck at how BUSY the supermarket was compared to the delightful market next door. The cashier in the supermarket was positively hostile to us while the shop keepers in the small shops are always friendly and delighted at our custom. Unfortunately the supermarket offers a wider choice and often at a vastly reduced cost. On top of this it is easier to make a selection and reject anything you are not happy with. So it is not surprising that tourists and locals alike choose the supermarket over the local man. What will the end result be?
Pag is criss-crossed with an amazing array of dry-stone walls. These walls literally cross mountains on land that looks as dry as a desert. There is also evidence of terracing up the mountains on the more fertile land. Today we went for a walk (we are Bora bound again) and decided to walk up one of the fields bound by walls about 50 meters apart and straight up the side of a mountain. NOW I understand why the farmers feel tourism is a better bet. You seriously could not walk – it became a scramble up scree. No grass, no plants really. Just the evidence of sheep. What a hard life farming here must have been – truly subsistence.
Today we bought some of the famous Pag sheeps cheese (a pecorina). We walked past a house entrance and looked in and saw all these cheeses lined up and realised we could buy “the real thing” here. We went in and found two older guys drinking some home-made spirit (we have seen this urine looking liquid for sale but after my Grappa experience we give it a very wide berth!) They were keen to sell us a whole cheese but we agreed on a quarter, which ended up being somewhat more by the time it was cut. It cost us about £15 – which made it a pretty expensive chunk of cheese. But hey we were probably their only customer today and now we have seen what they have to go through to make this cheese....