Korcula - loviste
25th August 2022
The next island on the itinerary was Korcula. It was only a short motor sail away from Mljet and was another stunning location. As we were heading close to the island, we passed numerous charter boats heading out of Korcula. We’ve found out that 43% of the worlds charter vessels are based in Croatia which explains the number of boats out on the water.
We decide, after an aborted attempt to anchor near the monastery to tackle stern to mooring. We picked a small island and put the anchor in before backing back towards the shore. With a mooring line attached to the boat Ben and I swam to the shore with the rope and tied it around a tree. A second line was tied around another tree, and we were set, for a short time. The wind ended up changing direction and we were getting wind directly on the side which wasn’t ideal. Ben and I were back in the water swimming to the shore to undo the lines. I’m glad we had extra people on board to practice doing this manoeuvre the first time. I’m not actually sure if it would be achievable with just Tony and me. I think a crash course in helming would be good idea because then I wouldn’t have to be the one in the water!
We stayed the night at Korcula and in the morning picked up Grace who’d caught the ferry from Dubrovnik. Grace is my friend Deb’s daughter and an old school friend of Sarah’s. Grace has been travelling around Europe for a few months and the timing was right for her to jump on board for a week.
Next stop, after sailing down the channel between Korcula and the mainland was Loviste. It’s a small town at the end of the long peninsula and the home of a family we all know from Baldivis. Luka Brkusich moved to Australia as a young man and was market gardening in Baldivis for years. He regularly returns to Loviste and seeing we were in the neighbourhood we thought we’d drop in.
We tracked him down and we went to his cousin’s restaurant for an amazing seafood dinner that night, finished off with the local grappa. We spent the next day relaxing before heading into the town where a church fundraiser was being held. There was food and drinks for sale and later in the night there was a band.
It’s amazed Tony and I the number of festivals, events, fireworks etc that we have come across in our travels and usually they are in small little places like Loviste where the community comes together.
EDIT
Saturday morning we were preparing to leave Loviste when we received news that Steve Brkusich was on his way back from Austria after watching the Moto GP. What were we to do? How often do you get the chance to catch up with friends from Australia on the other side of the world. So we waited.
Steve made it back to Loviste around midday and later that afternoon he came aboard Phantomas for what can only be described as an afternoon of stories and reminiscing about the old days and about old friends. So if you are reading this and fall into the category of "old Baldivis Friends" chances are your name was mentioned and stories retold until well into the early morning.
Needless to say, there were a lot of fuzzy heads in the morning as we left Loviste.
The next island on the itinerary was Korcula. It was only a short motor sail away from Mljet and was another stunning location. As we were heading close to the island, we passed numerous charter boats heading out of Korcula. We’ve found out that 43% of the worlds charter vessels are based in Croatia which explains the number of boats out on the water.
We decide, after an aborted attempt to anchor near the monastery to tackle stern to mooring. We picked a small island and put the anchor in before backing back towards the shore. With a mooring line attached to the boat Ben and I swam to the shore with the rope and tied it around a tree. A second line was tied around another tree, and we were set, for a short time. The wind ended up changing direction and we were getting wind directly on the side which wasn’t ideal. Ben and I were back in the water swimming to the shore to undo the lines. I’m glad we had extra people on board to practice doing this manoeuvre the first time. I’m not actually sure if it would be achievable with just Tony and me. I think a crash course in helming would be good idea because then I wouldn’t have to be the one in the water!
We stayed the night at Korcula and in the morning picked up Grace who’d caught the ferry from Dubrovnik. Grace is my friend Deb’s daughter and an old school friend of Sarah’s. Grace has been travelling around Europe for a few months and the timing was right for her to jump on board for a week.
Next stop, after sailing down the channel between Korcula and the mainland was Loviste. It’s a small town at the end of the long peninsula and the home of a family we all know from Baldivis. Luka Brkusich moved to Australia as a young man and was market gardening in Baldivis for years. He regularly returns to Loviste and seeing we were in the neighbourhood we thought we’d drop in.
We tracked him down and we went to his cousin’s restaurant for an amazing seafood dinner that night, finished off with the local grappa. We spent the next day relaxing before heading into the town where a church fundraiser was being held. There was food and drinks for sale and later in the night there was a band.
It’s amazed Tony and I the number of festivals, events, fireworks etc that we have come across in our travels and usually they are in small little places like Loviste where the community comes together.
EDIT
Saturday morning we were preparing to leave Loviste when we received news that Steve Brkusich was on his way back from Austria after watching the Moto GP. What were we to do? How often do you get the chance to catch up with friends from Australia on the other side of the world. So we waited.
Steve made it back to Loviste around midday and later that afternoon he came aboard Phantomas for what can only be described as an afternoon of stories and reminiscing about the old days and about old friends. So if you are reading this and fall into the category of "old Baldivis Friends" chances are your name was mentioned and stories retold until well into the early morning.
Needless to say, there were a lot of fuzzy heads in the morning as we left Loviste.