Sailing

We actually came here to sail, but in the first week we get hit by the Bora. This gives us—and especially Charly—the chance to just settle in.

The Bora is a type of downslope wind typical for the Croatian coast. In certain weather conditions, it comes thundering down from up to 2,000 meters straight to the shore. These winds are icy cold and can reach hurricane strength in parts of Croatia. Even with professional support from Ed, we decide to stay in the harbor for now and thank Poseidon for the invention of the diesel heater. Without it, Alexandra’s complaining would probably be unbearable.

At least there’s some harbor entertainment: The sailing school on the next dock is seriously practicing docking and undocking in this wind, which is really quite a challenge.

Alexandra met Ed during her ASA course in Rijeka. Ed just moved from the States to Pula with his Croatian wife. He’s an ASA instructor himself and was basically checking out the sailing school in Rijeka, since he’ll probably be working there. He’d probably do a few things differently in class, though. Since he likes us, finds our plans interesting, and is luckily a bit bored while waiting for his work permit, he offers to join us and show us a few tricks. Of course, we gladly accept.

On our first trip out, we still have plenty of wind and get to really blast the 410 through the waves. Charly and Alexandra are less thrilled than I am. Docking afterwards is a major challenge for me, and now it’s my turn to provide the harbor entertainment. By some miracle, I actually manage to squeeze into our way-too-small spot without ramming any other boats, but it was close and half the harbor was yelling and waving to “help.”

For Charly, Alexandra, and my back, it was all a bit much. So for the next few days, we take it easy—just like the wind. We putter around with the engine, practice docking and undocking, work on anchoring, and do a few light-wind maneuvers under Ed’s guidance. We enjoy the beautiful spring days and just relax. Charly is also getting used to the new surroundings and is slowly taking over the boat. Saying he enjoys sailing would be a stretch, but he doesn’t seem too stressed and at least he’s not getting seasick.

*This blog post has been automatically translated by a Large Language Model.