heading south
After leaving Bags and Dags, as we affectionately refer to them, in Rogoznica we pointed the boat towards Hvar with the reduced crew of myself, Tony, Veronica and Michele. It was a longish day and we arrived around 4pm to the same bay in the Pakleni Islands that we had anchored previously. If you don’t remember it was the bay with the arguing Germans! We girls got a taxi into Hvar to have a look around while Tony stayed behind for some solitude.
Hvar the second time round was just as impressive as the first time. We ambled up a side street past bars and restaurants and on the way down a street we stopped for a drink and admired the view. With two slightly reluctant shoppers it took little time to cruise some of the alleyways near the main port before finding a place for dinner. Another taxi ride to get back to Phantomas with boat-to-boat service. Stepping off the taxi onto the sugar scoops of Phantomas , it doesn’t get much easier than that. The wind and current were doing funny things in the anchorage that night and we had a vacant charter cat next door to us doing unusual manoeuvres, so we stayed up keeping an eye on that until the wind set things in the right direction. We got going quite early in the morning so didn’t get the chance to wait for the shop boat that delivers bread, pastries, fruit, and juices that we had experienced last time.
After upping anchor, we began heading back to Loviste. We had really enjoyed our time in Loviste on the way north, getting the chance to see Luka and Steve Brkusich and this time we would be able to catch up with the other brother Peter or Boo as he is also known and his girlfriend Kylie and Boos son Jordan. It had been over 5 years or so since we had caught up with him so lots to talk about. It was Luka’s 80th birthday that day so Boo was busy that night, but before that he drove us into Orebic to go to the supermarket. Along the way we stopped in at the old village that his dad had grown up in. The village is practically deserted, and most buildings are in a state of disrepair, but it was SO interesting. Boo walked us around and showed us the buildings that made up his family’s heritage.
The next pressing problem was the weather! There was some rough weather expected between Loviste and Dubrovnik over the next few days, right where we needed to be heading to get Michele and Veronica to their respective planes. There’s a saying amongst sailors “the worse thing you can have on a boat is a calendar”. Having a deadline to meet can often lead to making decisions that would have otherwise not been made. Spending some time studying the weather it became apparent that it would not be sensible or indeed comfortable to carry on with the trip back to Dubrovnik to coincide with the planned flights. Looking for alternative transport led to finding a bus that was leaving from further up the peninsula. Boo and Kylie kindly offered to drive the girls to the bus stop. All good plans can go astray, as this one surely did when some misinformation from a local led to missing the bus! Boo and Kylie then kindly drove the girls the rest of the way into Dubrovnik. We can not thank them enough for their help and generosity. Michele and Veronica had a night out in Dubrovnik at a bar watching the Springboks rugby match and chatting to some other travellers. The next day the luck continued for Veronica as her flight to Athens due to leave 9ish Sunday morning was cancelled and the next flight was Monday night meaning she would not get the connecting flight to Mykonos. All was not lost as she was put up in a 5 Star hotel. Michele made her flight to the UK with no problems.
We were invited by Luka to come for dinner that night to feast on whole local fish cooked on the grill. They were divine, served simply with olive oil, salt and pepper. It was a perfect end to our stay in Loviste and we will remember it fondly.
Hvar the second time round was just as impressive as the first time. We ambled up a side street past bars and restaurants and on the way down a street we stopped for a drink and admired the view. With two slightly reluctant shoppers it took little time to cruise some of the alleyways near the main port before finding a place for dinner. Another taxi ride to get back to Phantomas with boat-to-boat service. Stepping off the taxi onto the sugar scoops of Phantomas , it doesn’t get much easier than that. The wind and current were doing funny things in the anchorage that night and we had a vacant charter cat next door to us doing unusual manoeuvres, so we stayed up keeping an eye on that until the wind set things in the right direction. We got going quite early in the morning so didn’t get the chance to wait for the shop boat that delivers bread, pastries, fruit, and juices that we had experienced last time.
After upping anchor, we began heading back to Loviste. We had really enjoyed our time in Loviste on the way north, getting the chance to see Luka and Steve Brkusich and this time we would be able to catch up with the other brother Peter or Boo as he is also known and his girlfriend Kylie and Boos son Jordan. It had been over 5 years or so since we had caught up with him so lots to talk about. It was Luka’s 80th birthday that day so Boo was busy that night, but before that he drove us into Orebic to go to the supermarket. Along the way we stopped in at the old village that his dad had grown up in. The village is practically deserted, and most buildings are in a state of disrepair, but it was SO interesting. Boo walked us around and showed us the buildings that made up his family’s heritage.
The next pressing problem was the weather! There was some rough weather expected between Loviste and Dubrovnik over the next few days, right where we needed to be heading to get Michele and Veronica to their respective planes. There’s a saying amongst sailors “the worse thing you can have on a boat is a calendar”. Having a deadline to meet can often lead to making decisions that would have otherwise not been made. Spending some time studying the weather it became apparent that it would not be sensible or indeed comfortable to carry on with the trip back to Dubrovnik to coincide with the planned flights. Looking for alternative transport led to finding a bus that was leaving from further up the peninsula. Boo and Kylie kindly offered to drive the girls to the bus stop. All good plans can go astray, as this one surely did when some misinformation from a local led to missing the bus! Boo and Kylie then kindly drove the girls the rest of the way into Dubrovnik. We can not thank them enough for their help and generosity. Michele and Veronica had a night out in Dubrovnik at a bar watching the Springboks rugby match and chatting to some other travellers. The next day the luck continued for Veronica as her flight to Athens due to leave 9ish Sunday morning was cancelled and the next flight was Monday night meaning she would not get the connecting flight to Mykonos. All was not lost as she was put up in a 5 Star hotel. Michele made her flight to the UK with no problems.
We were invited by Luka to come for dinner that night to feast on whole local fish cooked on the grill. They were divine, served simply with olive oil, salt and pepper. It was a perfect end to our stay in Loviste and we will remember it fondly.