Tuesday 26 September 2017 – Mali Losinj

I didn’t post yesterday because nothing happened other than it rained!  It rained all Sunday night and right through Monday until teatime.  There was also a warning of very strong winds gusting 30-50 knots!  So we didn’t go anywhere.  The only vaguely interesting thing was that the marina drove us to the local shop to get some food and waited for us to finish and drove us home.  Also when it finally stopped raining Richard cleaned and put away the dinghy.

It was very windy from early evening well into the night.  I was getting worried that we would never get away and never make it to Venice on time.  But we were pleasantly surprised this morning to find that the sun was shining.  The weather report was still for winds gusting up to force 6, but wind or no wind we had to go.  The forecast was even worse for Wednesday with winds of over 30 knots.

We set off with the just the Genoa up.  The wind was blowing a 5 gusting 6, but the wind was behind us and the sea was flat, so we were very comfortable.  To top it all we were making over 6 knots!  However, that didn’t last long.  After about 90 minutes the wind just died.  It returned at 3-5 knots on the nose!  No problem in this calm sea, but a bit of a surprise given the weather forecasts which had us so worried.

We made it in to Mali Losinji just before 2pm.  We are now out of Dalmatia, but we are still among the islands.  This is a long island and we are at the southern part.  The town has a very large and very protected harbour.  There are pontoons put up by the town.  The books say these pontoons fill up quickly, but at the end of the season there are very few boats here.  It is an attractive town with Venetian buildings all around the harbour.  They also have a lovely (but expensive) museum dedicated to a Greek Bronze sculpture of an athlete (Apoxyomenos) found in the sea and in remarkable condition.

We will try to get away early tomorrow as we have a long passage (40 miles) to make to Pula.