Sunday 1 October 2017 – Umag

It’s my birthday.  However, it is not going to be a day of celebration.  We didn’t even manage to get a bottle of champagne aboard to make any festivities.

So we left port fairly early, about 8:30.  We didn’t have far to go to get to the last port in Croatia to sign out and go to Italy.  The weather forecast is for settled if cool and slightly cloudy conditions.  It certainly has been cold.  It was 14C in the cabin this morning when we got up.  We put both the boat and fan heaters on!  In the cockpit the sun shone enough to stop us freezing, but we were both wearing our fleeces.

There was little or no wind, and what there was eventually went on the nose.  So it was another day of motoring.  Other than the fact that Richard plotted us a course which almost took us into a ridge of rocks, nothing eventful happened.  (There was a gap but safety first!)  One curiosity did occur.  When Richard finally put his heavy fleece on, I noticed a little string hanging out of the pocket.  When we investigated we found the Italian courtesy flag!  If it hadn’t got cold enough for him to put that fleece on (which he obviously hadn’t worn for over two years since we left Italy) we would have gone crazy tomorrow looking for it to put up!

We got to Umag at lunch time.  We asked for a berth and they put us on a pontoon at the furthest end of the marina, miles from the facilities.  Not only that but the pontoon was so high it was almost impossible for us to get off the boat.  We couldn’t use the passerelle.  It would have been at nearly a 45 degree angle.  Richard did rig up something with the fender board.  He put it on top of the transom and then tied it to the transom at one end and on to the pontoon at the other.  He did walk over it, but not with much confidence.  It was then that it seemed I would be doomed to be stranded on the boat on my birthday meaning no dinner out and I would have to cook!  I was not overly pleased.

Richard, have ventured off the boat went to the office and persuaded them to let us berth alongside.  This we eventually did and we could get on and off the boat with no trouble.  Richard thought he read that they charged more for an alongside berth, but we were charged only what the brochure suggested it would be.

So to feel like a human being again, we walked the distance to the showers and had a good clean up.  Then I actually put a dress and make up on.  We enquired about restaurants and were, not surprisingly, directed to the one in the marina.  We decided instead to walk into town.  It didn’t look to far, but it was.  I was exhausted when we got to the town, which is very unexciting.  We finally found a string of restaurants along a bit of coast, but they were uninteresting and rather touristy.  So we persuaded one of them to call us a taxi and we went back to the marina for dinner!

So tomorrow we check out of Croatia.  That should be easy because the office is at the end of the pontoon we are on.  Then it is off to Italy.  We have identified a marina to stay at on the way to Venice.  They say they have plenty of room.  Problem is they have box moorings.  We have never successfully moored in one of them!