Cartagena to Gibraltar

We spent a lovely few days in Cartagena, working on boat jobs and exploring the town. We toured the ancient amphitheater and museum, artifacts, underwater history museum, and marveled at the architecture in every aspect of the town. From metallic inlays amongst the cobblestoned streets to the statues sprinkled every few meters, there is always something to admire.

The sail from Cartagena to Gibraltar was about 2 nights. Escorted by dolphins in the bioluminescence for several hours, was the highlight of the voyage! It was simply magical watching the glittering trails in the water.

We dropped anchor in the Bay of Gibraltar, next to La Linea (Alcaidesa Marina) around 4am. A few small fishing boats were setting up lines in the anchorage, so after dodging those, speaking with one in Spanish (he was worried we would mess up his nets), we settled in and got some much needed rest.

Following morning found us at the fuel dock to check in to Marina Alcaidesa and secure our spot for the next month or so. We met some new friends and reunited with old. At one point, we had 35 kids running around the place! We organized some Halloween games and trick-or-treating and had lots of fun. There is a skate park next to the marina, so the kids were there pretty much every day. We managed to find 15 days to rent a motor home and go on a road trip into inland Spain, France, Luxembourg, and Germany! More on that trip in another post.

The border of Gibraltar is about a 5-10 minute walk from the marina, and it is a super easy crossing. You basically hold up your passport and maybe the official will glance up at you. We were anticipating a long line as they looked over each passport, but in our 5 weeks there, they never did. So many people cross back and forth each day, it just isn't feasible. Sometimes they will stop people to look inside a backpack, which they have good reason to. If you glance inside the bus stop shelters, you will see people frantically plastic wrapping and taping cigarettes and alcohol to their bodies, shoving stuff inside strollers, diaper bags, under hair extensions, hats, and all sorts of creative ways to smuggle in the duty free goods.

We spent a lot of time touring around the tiny country, exploring Gibraltar Rock and its secrets. Definitely take the time tour the tunnels (there are 2 sets), walk around the top with the apes, and immerse yourself in the history.  On one of our hikes, an ape grabbed Jared's backpack and would not let go! It was quite the struggle until the ape finally managed to pull the mini chocolate bar Zach had stuck inside the pocket.

La Linea, back on the Spanish side is the best for provisioning and sourcing boat parts. While Gibraltar is VAT free, the prices are quite expensive, so you don't really save much money. We did most of our shopping in Spain and only went into Gibraltar for a few hard to source English food items. The grocery stores in La Linea deliver directly to the boat, which is fantastic and saves having to rent a car. The local bus system is great.

We left La Linea for the Gibraltar marina (Marina Bay) on Friday the 9th for a fuel top-up (duty free) and spent the remainder of the afternoon retrieving our new jib sail and lazy-bag from customs, as well as visiting with friends before we set off for the Canaries.

The quick and dirty story on getting our new sail and sail bag VAT free:

**We ordered our new sail and lazy bag from Greece in August with a promised delivery date of October 24th. All well and good, as we had booked the marina for all of October. Well, due to several delays (the shop didn't fill out the customs paperwork correctly, TNT had other delays and lost the parcel several times... not a fun experience to say the least), we didn't get our parcel until November 9th. This was all due to Stef calling every day and finally going to the Spanish customs office at Fed-Ex/TNT. She took a chair and waited for the guys to locate the parcel for her before leaving their office. Tenacity pays off! Speaking Spanish also helps a lot.
Then, she had to go into Gibraltar and locate the warehouse--no one seemed to know where it was exactly. An hour walk later, she found it and fortunately, as it was a Friday and the guys wanted to close early for the day, they found the parcel, loaded it into a truck and delivered Stef and the parcel directly to the boat. Whew! We were finally able to get on our way to the Canary Islands!!

***Apologies for lack of photos, but I am desperately working to update the blog before we cross the Atlantic in a few days!***

Sailing Croatia

Krka National Park

We left Montenegro around 1:30pm with a rainstorm on our stern. We had great sailing up to Cavtat, the first port of entry into Croatia. We were a bit uneasy, as we heard there are guys who demand to handle your lines as you tie up and then payment for doing so. As we backed up to the quay, sure enough a guy was there waiting for us. Fortunately, there were quite a few other boats tying up, much larger than us. He then noticed Zach jumping off to catch our lines, and so he moved on to the other larger (and more profitable) yachts. Tying up was easy and soon Jared was off to go check us in to the country. About 30 minutes later, we were casting off the lines and pointed in the direction of a free anchorage around the corner. Croatia jacked up their prices, including the cruising tax this year. In addition, they laid claim to most of the anchorages, forcing sailors to pay no matter if they anchored or took a buoy.

Cavtat customs quay (left) and anchorage around the corner (right).

We were lucky enough to receive a map created by fellow sailors showing Google pins of all the free anchorages. There are hundreds of them! So far, they have all been fantastic and we haven't had to pay a cent.

Exploring the tidepools in Cavtat.

After dropping the hook, we had dinner and went to bed to the cheers of the nearby soccer fans watching the World Cup. The next day, we wandered around Cavtat. It reminded us of Pacific Grove, where the forest meets the sea. The kids explored tide pools and discovered an octopus changing colors as it navigated the pools and rocks.

After a nice walk, we ate a late lunch at a nice cafe, stocked up at the local produce market, and bought sim cards (unlimited data for a week for about 11us, so we wouldn't use up our project fi data--needed to backup 400 gb on our one drive, and this would cost way too much on our current plan).

A pirate ship ghosts past before the storm.

We hauled anchor and sailed over to Sunset beach, an anchorage off Dubrovnik. We spent the next day just lounging around, swimming, and took the kids to the floating water park nearby. Later on, we walked into the old town. It was similar to Kotor, with the medieval architecture and old world atmosphere. We walked along the famous fortress walls and were treated to stunning views of the city and sea. It was a pretty warm day and Sunny was pampered by quite a few cafe owners, who wanted to pet her and offer her cold water to drink. We always bring water for her, but Sunny lapped up the extra attention! We found a cool bookstore and the kids found some new treasures to add to their library.

Aquaparks are at most anchorages. RA in the background.

The next anchorage was in Zaton, which was quite a windy place. The Bora tends to funnel through here at high speeds. We liked the area, as it was peaceful and had great hiking trails nearby, but we sure did dry our laundry at record speeds while there!

Zaton town anchorage.

From Zaton, we visited Korcula / Mljet. Due to weather, we stayed there two nights and then booked it north.

Two ways to provision near Hvar: local produce market (left) and grocery boat (right).

We were treated to a gorgeous sunset.

Happy boat kids!

Hvar was the next destination, as we heard we could fill our cooking gas bottle there. We anchored off the archipelago and stayed a few days, as it was so lovely. We met up with another boat family, s/v Wind, so of course the kids spent most of each day happily playing. We caught another soccer game in Hvar town with the Wind crew and the kids spent the evening playing soccer in the old courtyard. How cool is that, playing with kids from around the world! Futbol knows no language barriers.

Kids playing futbol in the courtyard.

After saying farewell to our new friends (we had to make tracks north and they were meeting friends south), we sailed over to Starigrad, still on Hvar, but around the corner. This is a very well-protected inlet with lots of little bays to anchor in. We found a secluded spot and really enjoyed it there. We found coral for the first time in a long while and lots of fish!

Anchorage near Starigrad.

A short dinghy ride brought us over to Starigrad town, where we walked about a mile or so to get the gas bottle refilled. At first the guy wasn't sure he had the correct fitting for our Greek tank, but then Jared showed him he had it backwards and it was set to go. So handy, this husband of mine is!

Carrying the gas bottle to the filling station (left) and entering the station (right).

Starigrad quay.

Primosten (view from the boat)

Central town garden, Primosten.

We left Hvar the following day for Primosten. It was reputed to have a nice anchorage and quaint little town. We loved it here and spent the next few days swimming between the beach and the boat. We were lucky to meet up with another boat family, s/v Spacegrazer! Again, the kids had a blast playing water games.

Water babies!

Weather was changing and so while we would have loved to remain in Primosten a little longer, we had to move. We sailed on up to Sibenik and into the Krka river to see the famous waterfalls. Wow, what a place!

Anchored in the river and we found more kids!

We anchored off the river in a peaceful little bay the first night and then motored our way through the narrow river channel to the lake. We found another little bay to spend the night, as the winds were gusting into the 30s and we needed to find shelter. So calm it was, in that little branch off the lake! We found a little market for groceries, a bakery, and enjoyed a hike around the forest.

Tunnels along the channel walls and many mussel and oyster farms! They bring the fresh seafood to your boat!

We transited underneath two bridges on our journey upriver.

Skradin anchorage and mooring field. Swans are EVERYWHERE! 

Early the following morning, we sailed up to Skradin town and picked up a marina buoy. The winds were still gusting and we didn't want to leave the boat at anchor while we toured the falls.

We hadn't even had a line secured to the buoy when a marina employee was at our bow to assist. 400 kuna later, we packed a lunch and drinks, bought our tickets, and were on the water taxi to the falls.

Krka waterfalls.

Krka Waterfalls is part of the National Park and is well worth a trip! A truly magical place with wandering streams and hundreds of waterfalls. We hiked over the bridge by the large falls and spent most of the day wandering around the paths observing all sorts of wildlife and historical artifacts. The mills are still functioning and the kids were astonished to see the corn grinding away under the power of the water. This field trip turned into quite the educational experience.

A few times, we would all sit down and dangle our feet above the cool water, watching dragonflies flit around, fish swishing their fins back and forth against the current (we compared how the fish in the stronger current had to swim a bit faster in order to accomodate), birds singing, and frogs croaking messages to their sweethearts.

After a snack, we all enjoyed a dip in the river and playing near the falls. The water was cool and refreshing. Jared and I laid out towels on the grass while the kids played.

A few hours later, we were back at the boat to change and go back ashore for dinner. We spent the remainder of the evening wandering around the town, playing on the playground (we found a zipline!), throwing the frisbee for Sunny, and eating ice cream in the shade.

Next morning, we sailed back over to a bay near Sibenik town. I took Zach ashore with me on a mission to score some appliances (ice maker, hand blender, and spiralizer). The ones we own are for a 110v connection, and since we are selling these, we wanted to replace with 220v. Now we can make smoothies and all sorts of stuff with these new gadgets. We treated the kids to the large waterpark the following day. We spent all day going on the water slides and lazy river with them. After they made some new friends, they left us to go play and so Jared and I spent the rest of the time on our own. It was sort of like being on a date!

Dalmatia waterpark.

Sailing by the famous sea organ!

A couple of nights later, we sailed up to Zadar. I've always wanted to see the sea organ and here we found ourselves sailing right by it! We anchored off Olive Island the first night there, caught the World Cup game with the locals, and then found a nice spot near the sea organ the following day. When the town goes to sleep at night, you can hear the organ softly playing. It put us all right to sleep!

Zadar at night (sea organ is to the far right, where as the Greeting to the Sun solar art is the blue light (color changing light display).

Sea organ artwork.

We are spending a few more days here as we await boat parts. Uber is functioning here and so I plan on using that to get us stocked up on provisions (having a car to tote groceries makes all the difference)! From here, we will sail on to Rijeka to finalize documents for receiving our cargo (it's been a year since we have seen those boxes, so it will be like Christmas when we get them).

As of this blog post:

Countries visited: 3: Greece, Montenegro, Croatia
Nautical Miles sailed: 28,000

Last days in Greece

Cave near Fiskardo, Kefalonia.

Itea is a great base to explore Delphi. It is an abandoned marina and that means free! We tied up Roundabout and set off to find a bus or taxi to the top of the mountains.

Delphi is an extremely beautiful place. If only we had more time to spend! We had a few hours and could have easily spent an entire day. However, we needed to make a provisioning run and sail to the island of Trizonia before nightfall.

Delphi

Trizonia is a lovely island with grassy meadows and lush pine forest. There is a small marina there, as well. We spent a peaceful night and explored a little of the surrounding islands before setting off for the large port town of Patras. The starboard air conditioning unit needed servicing and despite our best attempts to do it ourselves, we decided it was time to call in the professionals.

Sunset over Trizonia island.

Lovely scenery.

At anchor off Trizonia.

About 10 minutes after tying up to the quay, a man appeared from a yacht service agency. In less than an hour, we had a team repairing the air conditioner. They finished a couple of hours later and so after 100 euros and a big 'thank you', we settled in for the night.

3am found us up and exiting the harbor, setting sail for the island of Zakythnos. We had a pretty good run out of the Gulf of Patras and down to the island. We anchored off Shipwreck Beach and enjoyed a couple of hours there before the swell picked up.

We sailed over to the island of Kefalonia and anchored off a nice beach. After some swimming and dinner, we were treated to another music and fireworks show!

Music and fireworks on the beach. Anchored out, we had front row seats!

Fiskardo, Kefalonia Greece

Dinghy inside and then go ashore and explore.

Lots of tunnels to follow.

That water!

A new favorite anchorage.

Next morning we sailed on up to Fiskardo Bay to meet up with Plan B. We anchored in the bay and stern tied to shore. We really enjoyed our time there, as the water is gorgeous and there are so many things to do! We went on a neat hike and explored a nearby cave. With a weather window opening, it was time to sail up to Lefkada and source some parts in Lefkas town.

Sailing through the channel was a bit precarious, as lots of charter boats were exiting the time we were about ready to enter. It was no less than 30 boats all single file! Approaching Lefkas, we were a bit worried about finding a spot, but fortunately, we timed it right. We met up with two other sailing families, acquired some parts, and then set off for the island of Corfu.

Corfu is the last Greek island and our final port of call in this country. We spent two nights in Gouvia bay, again next to our friends on Plan B. They have a similar itinerary. Checking out was a breeze and we spent the rest of the time at the pool and swimming in the bay. We were fortunate enough to meet up with yet another sailing family, although they were on their way south for the season.

We set sail for Montenegro around 8am and waved goodbye to  Greece.

Taking down the Greek courtesy flag as we sail towards Montenegro.