Voyage of P5 "Lili'uokalani"
from Rovinj to Zadar August 2014 - Part 1
From Lopari to Gaz
Winter is approaching, and the sad proaless time has only just begun.
To cheer you up, I`m going to follow Janusz' advice, and tell you the
story of my voyage along the coast of croatia. One more reason to tell
it, is Janusz' claim for it being "historical". Well, maybe he`s right, and it' s really been the first time in the history of mankind, that a
small proa sailed along this stretch of adriatic coast. But who knows,
what kind of craft sailed there in antedeluvian times?
I still don' t owe a camera, so there almost aren' t any pictures or films to witness, and so it`s up to your imagination.
The 19 th of august, I built my tent at the outskirts of "Camping Polari, a huge campsite near Rovinj, Istria. It was so crowded, that after 1 day only , I got an acute allergical fit against campervans, and fled to settle on the property of Marin, a 60 year old Croatian, living nearby. I had made his acquaintance, when he was hovering around, among a crowd of onlookers, while I was assembling my boat. For a few days, I had to wait for the arrival of my friend Olli, who was to sail with me in the first part of the voyage. So i made some day raids to some small islands nearby. (That' s the fantastic thing about sailing on this coast: there are ALWAYS some small islands nearby). As I was still using (illegaly?) the ramp and berth of the campsite harbour , I had plenty of time to muse on the quality and kind of watercraft, the average camper is taking for his holiday. I can' t say anything about the fleet of small portable kayaks, rubber dinghies and SUPs, those didn' t stay in the harbour overnight, but were drawn up for the night to each campervan to add to the stuffed, suffocating atmosphere. But on the lawn behind the ramp (swaying to the buoys in the water were many more), lay perhaps 40 motorized rubber dinghies, 10 plastic motorboats, five jetskis (one of them was transported to the water each morning with a ridicoulosly oversized quad, culminating in a rage of shere motorpower, when the engines of both vehicles where sceaming in a PS duet for a moment), and one sailing boat. It was a hobie16. As the owner curiously asked about the speed potential of "Lili'uokalani", I answered modestly, that I would never be able to catch up with him, to which he agreed in a selfassured way on the ground of his boat being a "Regatta Boat" ? But 1 day later I could savor the grudging respect on his face, after I had been able to draw even a few times, and even to overtake him once, during the day. But I have to admit, that I had been sailing solo, while he with 2 sailors.
After Olli had arrived, we loaded "Lili" with tent, sleeping bags, matresses, stove, cooking gear, food, spare clothes, 10l of water, 3 l of wine, 8 l of beer and one ukulele, We left Polari in the afternoon of the 23 rd of august, southbound in a south westerly breeze. After rounding the entrance of the bay, the wind got up to a lively Bf 4 plus and the waves reached perhaps 60 cm. We had to head up on starboardbow, and now it showed, that the boat was rather well loaded. My 68 kilos where mirrored by Olli' s 86, and there was a lot of water coming in. But we had already put in the drain plugs, and put on our wet gear when still in calmer waters.
After heading out straight for about 5 miles , we shunted the first time aiming back to land obliquely, but as the wind started to turn to west, we were able to sail closehauled along the istrian coast , bearing south southeast. The behaviour of a sharp bottom Proa in such conditions can perhaps only be compared to an oldfashioned "longkeeler" . The movements might be a bit "monohullish" , but in an upright way, because both hulls , the outrigger hull, or "ama" being smaller than the big "vaka", meet the obliquely, frontal incoming waves at the same time. So the typical constant yanking and tearing of cats and tris going upwind , because of their windward hull meeting the wave BEFORE the leeward hullI, is missing completely. It goes very smoothly through/over the waves, all the more, if the person, who is hiking, shows some talent in letting the ama just skim.
Olli was doing his very best, because we had switched places during the shunt. So he still worked as "hiker", postponing the "sheeting job" for calmer days.We had done constantly 5 to 6 knots upwind sailing, but now, after another 10 miles, as we reached the Brijuni Islands, the wind was dropping to 3 or 2 Bf. I had seen on the auto chart i had with me, hidden deep in the bowels of the ship, that the islands were a national park, but the OSM seachart i was using on my GPS said nothing about it. So we decided, to take the risk and land on the small, inhabited island of "Gaz", to look for a sleeping place. It was really beautyful, deserted, and paradise after the "concentration camping" of Polari. We built up the sail for a tent, cooked, smoked, drank tea, and made a serious attempt to make the ship lighter in reducing the ship' s liquid alcoholic cargo. I remember dimly, that we found a blowhole on the rocky shore, later in the night, where we cleaned ourselves, screaming and laughing in in neptunes breath!
Here the GPS track from Rovinj to Zadar. The Program interpreted the "switch off times " with straight lines between the last and next "switch on time"
GPS track from Rovinj to Zadar
From Lopari to Gaz
From Gaz, Brijuni Islands to the Fenoliga, a small island at the south cape of Istria 18 sm
Once again: I really have almost no foto and no video at all. But has plain reading really become so boring? I don' t know, if a flood of iphone snapshots helps to transmit the thrill of adventure. On the contrary, more often they show a disapointing and colorless reality that has nothing to do with the drama , you remember! I' m no expert, but I think, it takes a huge amount of planning, equipment, time and luck, to create a single picture, that really shows drama. Or do you really need to see a foto of the true cyclope, when you read the odyssey?
I learned only later, that our stay on the island of Gaz had been highly
illegal. Sailing through the archipelago is forbidden, not to mention
sleeping on it !(without paying). The only place, where boats can stay
is the harbor of the main island, "Veli Brijun".
.When we woke up
with buzzing heads, Olli told me of a strange dream: he had seen two
national park- rangers and a rat pass us by silently, not to disturb our
sleep. This dream proved to be ominous.
On Gaz
At 14:00, south of Pula, the hunger let us drop the sail and screw out the floor hatches of the vaka, in search of the food bag. We lunched on the drift and soon continued our south southeasterly course, sometimes using the paddle very lazyly to add a knot, when boatspeed dropped below 3. We started to scan the islands, we passed for a beaching spot at 18:00, but it was only one hour later, when we had rounded the last island of Istria, south of the southermost tip of the peninsula, that we found a gentle slope of shere rock, that allowed us to land on the island of Fenoliga , after 18 miles of sailing. We had encountered an astonishing counter current of about 2 knots between the cape and the island, and that`s perhaps the reason, which made us pull the boat extra high up the dry. Also we had landed on the eastern shore and my "Windfinder SMS" foretold a change to force 5 to 6 out of the noth east during the night and the next day. And that' s why we chose a windsheltered place on the westshore for sleeping, where we cooked our evening meal: Dry soup- alas! But we improved it with some noodles and herbs, we still had left. But what we lacked totally by now, was beer. Only one miserable tin cup of wine helped us gulp down the soup. As predicted, the wind started to change and get up after midnight, and in the early morning we were even awakened by a few drops of rain. We hadn' t bothered to put up the tent, but quickly covered ourselves with the unbuilt tent and a plastic sheet, and thus were able to sleep on, till the sky was blue again!
From Gaz to Fenoliga
Fenoliga. Looks like a beach, but is a continuous slope of
shere rock
From Fenoliga to Liznjan 15 miles
Although breakfast had become very simple in the morning of the 25 th of august 14 , again we did' t get off earlyer than 11:00 , because swimming, loading, trimming, checking the boat and putting on our wet clothes plus life jackets took time. A host of whitecaps was rolling in , about 80 cm high, whipped up overnight by 5 to 6 Bf, blowing steadyly from northeast.And that was the direction, we planned to sail to, northeast, up the bay of Medulin, to contact civilisation . I held the rocking boat in the swell, while Olli clambered up to his position on the outrigger. Then I pushed it into the waves and hopped aboard to sheet in hastyly: Off we went closehauled, carving the steep waves with 5 to 6, sometimes even 7 knots. But the fun lasted only ten minutes, ' till "Lili" got to grinding halt, when the vaka burried itself completely in a wave, which filled the cockpit to the brim. She could still sail like that, no problem, though the exta 100 kilos made her a bit sluggish, but her freeboard was so low then, that the drainers couldn' t bail out the boat untill the next wave filled it up again. So I opened the sheet,"parked" the Proa (this type of boat keeps its position ama to windward by itself) and waited, till the water had run out of the scuppers. It took some time, because the drainers work much faster, when they suck out the water with underpressure, created by boatspeed.
And onward we ploughed, but this time I took care, to ease the sheet at the impact of the steepest waves, to take some pressure off the bow at that moment. Shurely there was still a lot of water flying, and Olli,when hit the second time like a punching ball, shouted " Thank you!" But he was smiling, the sun was shining, and although the water was warm, it wasn' t filling our boat like a bathtub anymore.
From Fenoliga to Liznjan
After 2 miles sailing east southeast, we shunted to head up to the bay, course north northeast, for another 3 miles. We got close to the shore at 12:00 with a tacking angle of about 100 degrees over ground, then bore away to the west and speeded along the sheltered beach of a huge camping ground with 9 knots. After rounding another head, We shunted up the last stretch to the harbour of Medulin. As usual it was packed with small motorboats and fishing vessels and even if you saw a vacant lot, you never couldn' t be sure, you didn' t brake some iron local rule, if you took it. So instead of eventually facing a crowd of angry local fishermen lateron, we opted for a muddy, smelly corner of the harbour, where carefree landing was dearly bought by sinking ankledeep into the soft, stinking mud.
From Liznjan to Martincica
But right in front of us, there was a restaurant, where we got rewarded for our deprivations by a plate of fried sardines, cevapcici with fries, salad and cool beer. And right in front of that restaurant, there was a supermarket, where we replenished our supplies. As we stepped out of that market, arms full of food and drink, we met some german youngsters, who were obviously away from home without parents, for the first time. They had run out of money and tried unsuccessfully to sell a case of empty bottles. As we gave them a bit of our newly bought victuals, they asked us: "Are you communists?"
We sailed out of the bay the way we had come, then turned east and north, following the coastline east of the southern cape of istria . The wind had dropped a lot, and In the afternoon we found a nice beach with a comfortable lawn above, fore a change on the mainland, Again we didn' t build a tent, but slept peacefully under the stary sky.
Back to civilization
Reto Brehm