Pre-Race Week in Cres

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Friday, John and I drove to Zagreb to pick up Ken at the airport. Shelly and Wendell will arrive later and I will pick them up at the Merag Ferry in the evening. Saturday, we will get our 2 apartments in town for race week and the remaining crew of Leneke, Clarissa, and Jerone will arrive later in the day. They too have rented an apartment in the old town of Cres, very close to ours.

Sunday, the day was spent continuing preparation on the boat for the race. Sail changes, lines set, anchor off, etc. Sunday night was the regattas opening event in the town square. It was lively with music, light shows and fireworks. John had discovered the one in-town winery where you can get your jug filled with their local wine so we had many a glass to kickoff the week.

Corfu Greece to Italy, Steve and Vicki

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We Found plenty of place at the small harbor for us, but our first attempt at anchor mooring. This is where you drop anchor and then back into the quay to tie up. Usually, we would find laid-lines from the Quay that we would tie our bow to their permanent underwater anchors. This first attempt went extremely well considering at this time our windlass decided not to work and the “boys” had to manually drop the anchor.

We found Steve waiting for us on the dock and Vicki in the closet café guarding their luggage. We decided to stay at Kosiopi, Corfu until Monday with both crew. As it turned out, Brian, Beth and Kat decided to taxi to a hotel near the airport for their Sunday departure. Steve, Vicki, Charlie, Ken and I stayed on the boat and spent some time discovering the town of Kasiopi. Found great internet in a covered outdoor café that also had good food. We spent several hours there using the internet and getting tips for fuel, food, and ice from the local patrons. Our fuel would be delivered by truck and I had to ride with the driver back to the station in order to use our Visa card. We purchased a larger jerrycan for extra fuel on the boat and the kind man carried this full can back to the boat for me. While we were here, we had two great rains that did a great job of cleaning our dirty deck. It is impossible to keep it clean with the dirty mooring lines we bring on the boat.

The Donley’s – June27-July 2 Cres to Greece

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Charlie, Ken, Beth, Brian, Kristine & Kat

Our next guests, Brian, Beth and Kat arrived Monday morning to the boat and with Charlie’s help started to shop for provisions for our next adventure. We will sail down the Croatian coast stopping at different spots than before. You would have to sail for many months to hit all the wonderful places along Croatia.

Tuesday, after arriving back to the boat, we paid our marina bill, got the last bags of ice, along with a treasure of 2 large bottles of Bicardi, and left allowing time to sail or motor to Orso where we would catch the 5pm swingbridge.

This route allows us some different places to stay on the inside of islands. We arrived with plenty of time in Orso to allow for some lunch and time for some people watching. Along the swingbridge were boats of all types, camper trailors filled with families on vacation, and people swimming in the canal. We ended up getting a great spot to tieup as we waited for the bridge to open. After the traffic from the South came through the bridge, we were given the signal to come through.

We arrived at Otok Ilovik around 7:30, finding the last spot in the harbor to tieup to a concrete pontoon. Otok Ilovik is a small island south of Otok Losinj and was very charming. No ice or internet of course. We at dinner at the first quayside restaurant and had excellent Risotto and fish.


Wednesday, we left harbor at 4:45 and sailed along Kornati Islands, where we found a large area of National Parks along the Islands. Our plan was to anchor off at O. Levrnaka and have some lunch. When we got settled, the Rangers approached us in their dingy and charged us the customary entrance fee of 40 Euro’s. Heading to Greece, we had used most of our Euro’s and had some time scraping up loose change and what Euro’s we had left. This was followed by some swimming to shore and a nice lunch on the boat.

Our overnight stay would be O.Smokvica. Thursday, we started our 3 day, 2 night sail. We were able to sail most of the day and night. During the day we did one stop at Otok Vis for provisions, lunch and fuel. In the morning, Hople-pople for breakfast and pasta for dinner.

We lost wind and ended up motoring all through Friday night. During the night, on Beth and my shift, we saw dolphins for about 30 minutes swimming along the boat. They would turn on their sides and their under side would glow with the lights of our starboard green nav light. It made our shift go much faster with this entertainment. No moon so it was dark and clouds only allowed a few stars to shine for us.

The evening shifts went well and I think everyone had a chance to get some decent sleep when they were off shift. Saturday, I woke to see the Albanian coastline. It was huge and lovely in the morning sun. We will arrive in Corfu Greece around 1-2pm. We made contact with our next crew, Vicki and Steve who are waiting for us on Kasiopi City on Corfu.