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Trip Report #10-2003: Croatia to SibariFiled from Sibari, Italy39 43.85 N 16 30.42 EOctober 9, 2003
Photo: The Coliseum in Pula, Croatia Dobra Dan, Family & Friends, Here we are, back in Croatia again after an overnight sail from Venice. And it's cold. A few days after we arrived here, the summer season closed down and the weather became much more unstable, with frequent cold fronts, attendant high winds and showers and thunderstorms. The harbor at Pula is a wonderful place to be in such weather. It is a huge harbor with excellent holding and good protection from most directions. It has a nice town with several supermarkets and a fresh vegetable and fruit market. We also found a great internet center just two blocks from the harbor and a news stand with the current day's issue of the International Herald Tribune. And best of all, there were other cruisers there. On arrival, we spied "Sayonara", a Baba 30 from Detroit, with Charlie and Barb on board, people we had never met, yet talked with frequently on the single sideband radio since 2000. It was wonderful to finally meet and spend some time with them.
Photo: Sayonara at anchor in Pula, Croatia In addition to Charlie & Barb, we whiled away an afternoon playing bridge with Scott & Julie, from London, on Physmallion.
Photo: Scott & Julie, intrepid bridge players from London We also had cocktails with Bruce, an American sailing a catamaran, Rphurst, and Ray and Hillary, a British couple whom we had met in Venice, on Koala.
Photo: Rphurst in Pula
Photo: Ray and Hillary on Koala in Pula Every night we were there, no matter what the weather was like, members of a local sculling club came out to practice, singly or with various numbers of crew members.
Photo: Crew practice in the harbor at Pula There are some very fine monuments from the Roman era in Pula. The coliseum, which can be seen from the water, was built from 1-2 AD and could accommodate 23,000 spectators. It is very well preserved and still the site of plays and other performances for up to 5,000 spectators.
Photo: The Coliseum at Pula from the harbor
Photo: Charlie & Barb from Sayonara tour the coliseum in Pula
Photo: The Gate of the Sergians, 1st Century BC, in the old town, Pula
Photo: The Temple of Romae & Augustus, Pula Photo: Park along the waterfront in Pula After spending a very pleasant 3 days in Pula, we said goodbyes and sailed to Artaturi, a pleasant bay on Losinj Mali. We arrived in time enough to anchor and have a swim. The water was cool, but warm enough to spend time scrubbing the summer's growth from the bottom of the boat and then to have a sailor's bath in salt water followed by a fresh water rinse in the cockpit. At about 6pm, a heavy thunderstorm passed through the area with winds of 35 knots in the anchorage and heavy rain. Several boats came into the anchorage during the storm and had difficulty maneuvering. All managed to get an anchor down safely to ride out the storm. Since it was a fairly small anchorage, all of the boats had crew in the cockpit to handle emergency situations if needed. At about this time, we began to hear that Hurricane Isabel was accumulating strength and likely to pose a threat to the North Carolina shore near our home. We decided that we would move toward Italy but take our time and keep an eye on developments. We left Artaturi and sailed a long day with the wind behind us at Force 6 to 7 to anchor in the Kornati Islands once again. We were one of three boats to anchor at Lopatica. Even in crowded conditions, these islands can have a feeling of lonely desolation, but on this cold, windy night, we felt a long way from civilization.
Photo: Sailing downwind in the Kornati Islands, Croatia
Photo: Anchored for the night in Lopatica, Kornati Islands We left early the next morning for Trogir. The news from home was not encouraging. We were able to receive the Storm Track forecasts from the Winlink ham radio email system and they indicated that Hurricane Isabel would hit land directly over our home within 3 days. We decided, therefore, to provision at Trogir and then sail directly to Sibari, Italy, where we would put the boat on the hard for the winter. If necessary then, one of us could go home to handle damage control there and one of us would put the boat away. The harbormaster in Trogir allowed us to tie to the wall for an hour while we gathered provisions, which meant that we did not have to put the dinghy, already secured on deck, in the water again.
Photo: Starboard Home stopping at Trogir for provisions We left the next morning for Sibari, a three-day sail away. We had good wind most of the way, using the motor only for 1 hour a day to keep the batteries charged.
Photo: Tom, sailing in the Hvar Channel toward Sibari, very worried about Hurricane Isabel The marina staff in Sibari were expecting us. Gaetano, the yard supervisor, met us in a dinghy and led us into the canal leading to the marina. The area in front of the canal is exposed to the full fetch of wave action in the Gulf of Taranto and experiences a lot of silting. The channel is a shifting one, and although well marked, it was good to have a pilot. We saw depths down to 6 feet. Our keel must have been brushing the sand.
Photo: The marina in Sibari - Laghi di Sibari
Photo: Entrance to the marina (from inside)
Photo: Starboard Home in Laghi di Sibari
Photo: Sunrise in Laghi di Sibari Sibari is a very pleasant marina in beautiful surroundings. The staff is helpful, efficient and courteous. It is safe and secure and the price is very reasonable. But there is nothing here. The nearest town is 7 or 8 miles away. Twice a week, the marina provides a van to take cruisers into town for a one-hour shopping trip. There is no place to get supplies for the boat in town or even in nearby towns. There is also no internet access in Sibari. We took a train from Sibari to Corigliano, 12 miles from Sibari, to find an internet center. The train fare was $5.00 round trip for the two of us. But taxi fare from Sibari to the marina was 15 Euros. We had to go to Corigliano several times and were lucky enough to find a cab driver who would take us to Sibari for only 10 Euros. We have purchased a wireless phone with an infrared device and now have unlimited internet access on our own computers on the boat. It's amazing. We prepay for this service for a month at a time and it costs 20 Euros for the month with no limits on time. We recharge the service each month by buying a card and recording the numbers on the card into the phone. We are no longer dependent on internet cafes. We learned that although Isabel did indeed hit Oriental, N.C., our home was undamaged. We will have plenty of work to do in the "garden" when we return, but our house and dock are in good shape. We now have a little extra time to get Starboard Home ready to lift out of the water and settled in her cradle for the winter. There is also plenty of time to walk outside the marina and enjoy the rural countryside and farmland with the mountains in the distance.
Photo: The road near Sibari Marina, lined with Eucalyptus trees
Photo: Farm land around Laghi di Sibari And as is usual in every place where cruising sailors gather, there is plenty of opportunity for people to gather after a hard day of working on the boat. The marina provides 2 rooms, one with a refrigerator, sink, tables and a bar, and another with a television, vcr player and comfortable chairs, a very nice suite for socializing. Here we met other cruisers from Holland, Germany, England, Ireland and Italy, as well as old friends from the U.S.
Photos: Socializing at Laghi di Sibari We will soon be leaving Sibari to go to Rome. Our intention is to take a little time to see Tuscany and Rome before leaving to return to the U.S. the last day of October. Arrividerci, familia e amici Peg & Tom aboard s/v Starboard Home
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Grand Daughters' web pages: Anna's Home Page, Anastasia's Home Page Isabelle's Home Page
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