Long leg to Dubrovnik

Did I way it was to be a lazy 4 days? Not likely with only three crew. First we had no wind, then wind enough for the Genoa and Main sail. Then we had gusts over 25 knows and as dark set in, we decided to take the main down. Of course, that is when we got the 30 plus gusts. That goodness for autopilot so the three of us could drop the main and get it tied. We continued to sail with the Genoa ½ furled. Later in the night, the stars came out and we had 12 to 15 knots on the nose.

Around 3AM, just as Charlie was getting off his shift, and I was preparing to go to sleep, we ran over a huge submerged fishing net. We shut off the engine and put out the Genoa. Because of the wind at our nose, our bouncing for the remainder of the night dislodged the huge hemp rope and we were able to get the boat going again. We continued to motor-sail the rest of the night and into the day. It was a long day of motorsailing, but the shifts have gone well. The next night, around 1AM, Charlie is driving and I am watch, we see a boat approaching us at a fairly fast pace. I called Ken awake and by the time he was up in the companionway, we heard this boats loudspeaker state it was coming along our Port side. It was the Italian Coast Guard checking us out. We found later when we stopped at Otranto, that there are huge training facilities near where this boat came out with its lights a flashing! I think that they were satisfied that we were not refugees and headed back to shore.

We arrived at Otranto around 7AM on Monday and got an easy med-docking. We had to go through Italian Customs to leave the country and that was a bit of an ordeal, but turned out ok. As we were leaving several hours later to face our last overnight, we got fouled in someone elses mooring line. The marina staff had to assist us and pulled us out backwards after Charlie jumped into the water to take the line off the prop.

We motored to the fuel dock, and I then ran to the snack bar for some calzones , chips and the boys got icecream.





Customs dock in Gruz (Dubrovnik) after a weary 3 nights sailing.

Night three – heading to Dubrovnik we found this night to be the easiest with lighter winds. At this time we were well into our shift changes and the night went without any incident. It took 24 hours to cross the Adriatic to Dubrovnik. My last shift was noon to 3pm so while Charlie slept and Ken was at the Nav station, I washed some clothes up on the deck, and took a cockpit bath! Heaven! We arrived in Gruz where the Port of Entry was. Customs took about 2 hours and then we motored 30 minutes to the ACI Dubrovnik Marina. This marina is the best we have seen so far with great facilities and a big pool!
We had pizza for dinner, got a great night sleep Tuesday night, and in the morning called Raouf to plan on our meeting up with the new crew. I needed to have time to clean the boat for the new crew so we planned to meet them (Raouf, Michelle his daughter, & Alistair, Isabella his daughter) at the Old walled city of Dubrovnik.