Ready for Race week, June 18-25

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Our Race Crew

RACE WEEK
Monday, the boats left the harbor around 9:30 with an anticipated first start at 11AM. The wind forecast was for light winds for the next several days. Not good for a World Championship Regatta. I had checked the post at the Race office and most of the day just saw only results for Class A boats, race one. It appeared that no other classes got a start for the entire day due to diminishing winds and this would be a big disappointment to many boats.

When the boats returned there were many stories and complaints as to how the Committee boat handled the course changes and the delayed starts or recalls. In the end, only the Class A boats had a race results. No second races were even close to happening.


In the evening, we arranged a taxi to take us 5 km’s to the Bucaletta restaurant for the speciality of the Island, Roast Lamb. We had all looked forward to the dinner, with exception to Jerone (a Vegetarian), and did not leave hungry.


Tuesday, June 21st, the boats were ready to leave for their one Off-Shore, overnight race. Again light wind forecasts for the week so things looked bleak. From reports, all boats started and were on their way with the light winds. Around 3:30, I got a call from Ken informing me they were coming in back to the marina and would be there in 15 minutes. Their steering was out and they were using their manual tiller to guide the boat back. I jumped into the car and raced over to the marina to meet them. John walked to Shelly’s Apartment to let her know about the boat and they walked over to the marina.

Apparently, after about 2 hours, and after 2-360degree turns, they realized the boat was not responding to their steering. They thought the turns were due to the lack of wind, but soon realized it was much more serious than that. The manual tiller works well, but is awkward to use.

The rest of the day, the Grateful Red being the only boat on the pontoon, the crew worked on repairing the steering rod under the pedestal. The shipyard lent some assistance is some metal work, and after the repairs were complete, the crew took the boat out for a test. I returned to the apartment to fix a pasta dinner for the crew. Aside from the disappointment of not being able to race again, and the fact that it was blazing hot all day, the crew would need a good shower and a easy meal. It was a great evening with everyone at our apartment, eating outside and enjoying the cool evening.

Wednesday morning I took John to the bus station where he would travel to Zagreb and fly to Prague. Ken and I will meet up with him on Saturday for Maggie Touma’s Birthday celebration. The rest of the morning was slow and relaxing.


Charlie “deck-dancing”


Blender action on Thursday


A “local” friend at our apartment


Our Wednesday “fun-sail”

The rest of the crew will meet at 1pm at the boat to see if there is wind to take the boat out for a afternoon sail. Just for fun! We sailed across to Rabac (one of the few harbors directly across from Cres Island), we stopped there for cold drinks and icecream and then went on our way. It seemed to be a busy tourist town on the mainland and our big red boat was larger than life on the Quay. It is fun to watch from a distance as people would stop and stare at the boat. When we returned to the Cres Harbor, we watched the last of the Class B boats cross the finish. It was a long overnight race with light winds and in many ways we were glad not to compete. We gave the boat a salute and applaude for their efforts.


Boats returning to the Harbor

Thursday, again light winds and no start which would mean no finish for Class B racers. The boats stayed out until there was no chance of getting a race in for the day. Friday, finally some good wind and the boats all had good starts. Grateful Red could only race the first race as we had to then spend the remainder of the day turning the boat from racer to cruiser due to everyones having to leave early Saturday. Ken and I would drive to Zagreb Friday night so we could make our Saturday morning flight to Prague.


Leneke guarding the sails on Friday during our cleanup of the boat

Griffon Vulture Santuary in Beli, Cres

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“The Griffon vultures on Cres are the only Vultures that roost by the sea anywhere in the world, possibly a legacy of when the sea level was much lower, as far back as 9000 years. So when young vultures are fledging, making that all important first flight, they often hit the sea if they make any mistakes. They can sometimes make their way back to the beach, but that is as far as they can get so if they don’t drown, they usually die on the beach. This can happen at anytime, but when the young birds are startled into that first flight before they are really ready, they crash land in the sea. And what makes them go early? Often as not tourist boats going much too close to the colony, frightening the birds into a premature flight.

There are very strict rules against shooting these birds in Croatia, but vultures are no respecters of international boundaries, and several have been shot in Italy. In fact the birds from Cres have been recorded amazingly far afield, with sightings in places as diverse as The Alps, Israel, Spain, Russia and even 1 in Chad”

One of the days Ken was gone, Charlie, John and I decided to take a drive to the Griffon Vulture Santuary on the Northeast side of the Island in the town of Beli. As we drove the 2 lane road with NO shoulders, my “need gas” light came on. No sweat as we know that usually that will mean about 50 miles before you run out. Thinking the only logical place to get gas would be on the North Ferry dock past Beli. Arriving there, we discovered that the only gas station was in our “home” town of Cres. So, sweating, we decide to forgo the side trip to Beli and drive back to Cres to fill-up. John was worried we would run out and not have a place to pull our little car over on the narrow road. I just assured him, “life is an adventure” and we would be fine. Of course, we got to the Petro station at the marina and all was fine. We retried our trip to Beli the next day with a full tank.

The Griffon Vulture (Condor) is unique to Otok Cres. The birds come to Cres to mate, have their babies and then migrate all the way to Spain and back in between.

To get down to the shore, we walked a road with a 17{e5b62957b3804ab7f47eece8c936dd4b822dafb6efd3f6ca02827a1c1cc3266f} grade. Certainly not looking forward to going back up, but knew that a cold beer would be waiting for us at the bottom!


The “Roosting” Clifts of the Griffon Vulture (Condor)

Cres-week one continued

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Friday, Ken and I drove to Zagreb utilizing the car ferry from Merag on Otok Cres to meet John Hardiman who had flown in on Thursday.


Car Ferry approaching the dock


While waiting for the ferry, Ken checked the Cub scores.

John will stay with Charlie and I on the boat for the next week, and then in our apartment during race week. All our connections for our rental car, the boat ferry and driving in a new country has gone quite well. And, frankly, I love driving 130 km per hour. It sounds so fast!


View from our Zagreb Hotel window

Ken will return on Saturday, June 18th to meet up with our race crew and get the boat prepared for the ORC World Championship Regatta. We are one of two USA boats and are surrounded by boats from Germany, Italy, France, Norway, Denmark, and so on. (an interesting mix of language). We tend to be a curiosity at many of the marina’s we go to with our big red boat and large US flag on our transom. The question we hear over and over, “did you sail your boat all the way from America?”

The next few weeks will be filled with friends and race crew coming and going and full exploration of Cres. I highly recommend a visit to Croatia if you ever have the opportunity. It is truly a beautiful country. .


Another great view of Cres


One of the “locals” in his day attire…

With Ken gone, Charlie, John and I spent several hours each day working on projects on the boat.


John and I “hauled” Charlie up the mast to change the windex light.