Friday 29 September 2017 – Vrsar

We woke early and checked the weather.  It looked OK to go.  We didn’t rush and left our mooring at about 9:30.  The sun was shining but it was rather cold. We had a long way to go to get out of the harbour, so we put up the sails.  The forecast was for some strong gusts, so we left in the reef from the last sail.

Well the wind started at a 4, but soon was gusting strongly up to a 6.  I was not a happy bunny because we were going into the wind initially and we were heeling a lot.  At one state Richard asked me to let the main sheet out, but I couldn’t do it.   The damn rope has been acting up and won’t go through the clutch.   This means you have to lean over the coach roof and push the rope through to make it move the sail.  Today we were heeling so much (not quite gunwales in the sea) that I couldn’t reach to pull the rope without moving to a position where “I was sure” I was going to fall over and go out of the cockpit!

Richard however, was having a great time.  He eventually let the main sheet out and we were screaming along at over 6 knots.  The wind was very peculiar.  It would go down to a force 4 and then gust up to a 6.  This went on until about noon, when the wind just more or less died.  We persisted in trying to sail, but in the end had to put the engine on for the last 90 minutes or so of the journey. 

We came into Vrsar harbour.  There is a marina here which we were told is very nice.  It is not one of the ACI marinas that we have mainly been to.  Our experience has been that there is no problem getting berths, so we did not bother to contact this marina in advance.  When we came in I just called them up on the VHF to get a berth.  So I was a bit shocked when they told me they had no berths in the marina.  Slight panic until they said they could put us on a perfectly good berth on the other side of the harbour, but it would not have easy access to toilets and showers.  That was a relief.  In fact we quite like where we are.  The marina is on the edge of the town whereas we are on what is like a town pontoon along the main promenade.  We can manage with the heads ourselves and I think sometimes I prefer showering on board.  We have access to electricity and water, so that is not a problem.

We had a late lunch on board and then walked around the harbour.  The office explained that the reason they had no berths in the marina proper was that there was a rally in.  That was something I had always worried about before.  We were also pleased to find that there is a big festival here in the village tonight.  It is a fisherman’s festival.  The local fishing boats have all set up grills and fires and are cooking fresh fish to eat on the harbour walls.  We were going to eat in, but this was too good a chance to miss.  So just before dark we wandered around, bought a drink and then found a stall we liked the look of.  For about £16 we had a huge dish of 5 different grilled fish and a bowl of mussels with bread and salad.  And it was very good.

Having filled ourselves us with so much fish it was back to the boat.   The night cold was beginning to settle in, so we put on the heating and both had nice showers.  We haven’t made up our minds what to do tomorrow.