Wednesday 27 September 2017 – Pula



We did get up early and managed to leave by 7:30!  The sun wasn’t up yet, but it did come.  The port we stayed at is at the end of a long harbour.  Richard found there was a shortcut to get in and out and wanted to try it.  So I went below to make breakfast and sandwiches for lunch when there was a terrible banging noise.  As Tom Cunliff once said “We all know what it sounds like to hit a rock”.  Well I do and I knew that is just what happened.  Richard had put us aground on rock in this so called short cut.  Luckily the keel was fully down and by taking it up and going in reverse (only done when I shouted to go backwards) we got off.  There were a few moments of tension when Richard wanted to proceed down this route and I knew we would not.  So Richard avoided a full mutiny and went back to the usual route which we came in on. 

We had hoped to sail but to start with there was absolutely no wind.  But by 10am there was enough wind to put the sails up, but we continued to motor sail to keep the speed up to get to our destination in a reasonable time.  The wind finally settled down to a force four broad reach.  We tried to turn off the engine once or twice but we couldn’t keep up the speed.

That is until about midday.  I was on watch and realized that the wind was now blowing at 17 knots.  So I turned the engine off and we sailed the rest of the way.  In fact the wind blew harder.  It was a Force 4 gusting 6 all the way and we were doing 6+ knots most of the way.  We even had to take a reef in (which Richard only did when the autopilot couldn’t cope and I couldn’t manage the wheel because of weather helm). 

We got into Pula Marina at about 3pm.  This is supposed to be an interesting town with one of the largest Roman Amphitheatres in Europe and a number of other Roman structures.  The rest of the town is supposed be an industrial place.  Certainly there is a huge commercial port all around.  We have decided to stay for 2 nights.  This gave us a chance to just relax this afternoon after a long sail.  I also want to get laundry done and the lady who does it here isn’t in until tomorrow.  We are now on schedule and the weather doesn’t look too bad for the next few days so we will stay 2 nights to get the laundry done and see the town.  

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