Exploring the Seas with Tu Meke Sailing

Leaving Las Split

Hey widely read global community (i.e. Mum)

About time for an update and as we don't yet have AC power sorted on the boat, it won't be as long as it probably should be.

So, boat bought, bros + cuzzies visited, flights flown, shower to wash off the flights had, rona had. All completed with a minimum of meltdowns.

Arriving at the boat was all was fairly good actually. Yep it's not a new boat but pretty well in order, and we could make it comfortable quickly so that was a win. It was covered in dirt which all boats in Croatia suffer from as the Scirocco from Africa picks up shed loads and dumps it over here, but a quick(ish) going over with a hose and brush had it looking good quickly. We had the mooring in the marina paid for until the 5th of June which was great as it allowed a few items to be fixed. The main fridge wasn't working but a regas solved that, and the masthead light was also not working (just a bulb and judicious use of silicon to seal up the housing has kept that going strong too. Then there's filling the boat up with the basics of life. All the basic foods that are just at home normally, tools, boat bits, 100m of new anchor chain, paddle boards, masks, snorkels, sheets etc. Pretty epic use of a tiny rental car with full insurance thankfully as it turns out that the combined weight of 100m of 12m anchor chain is a touch too much for the floor in the boot to handle of an Opel Corsa. Soz Corsa!

But we got it there, didn't sink or rip apart the dingy floating it around to the front of the boat to haul it up and bought lots of things so were very happy to leave the marina early. Being at anchor is way nicer and waaaaay cooler (both senses of the word), throw in some school work as well and we're starting to get some form of normal. No not really.

So on leaving the marina it was just instantly awesome. Nice and relaxing and after several days of zero wind, even some pretty sweet sailing. Sick to the power of rad indeed.

Lots of islands explored after leaving split and as this is the first kind of update and it's late af, I'll be somewhat brief. Don't want to go to hard too early. I'm retired.

Vis - busy with charter boats intent on seeing the sunrise each day. Beautiful, but noisy. It did come with the added bonus of having an old soviet sub pen which in terms of coolness factor - well I can't quite see how that will be beaten this year although I'm excited by the possibilities that are out there.

Hvar - just as noisy. Hvar town was lovely, first time leaving the boat on anchor - win. more party boats and lots of mossies. Pretty good but weren't upset to leave Hvar and Vis in the distance, although Colette and I had a great sleep out on deck one night tucked far away from all other boats. Bliss.

Korcula - lovely, great anchorages and it was just winning. nice and calm, beautiful buildings and towns and given the monastery status of one part of it - fortunately nudity was banned as the only 2 groups that practice it are: 65+ Germans, 65+ Dutch. Disappointment abound.

Lastovo was super cool mostly because it had another 2 sub pens and we took the boat in as far as I dared before dismasting came into the picture, plus another couple of completely protected harbours which were awesome places to be.

One of the best highlights has been hooking up with Nikau (Mick, Karen, Isla and Liv) so the girls have had play time which has been amazing. We've been cruising for a while together now and today shot out to visit Odysseus' cave on the island of Mijet which was super cool.

Rafting up, BBQs, drinks over and hanging out. Lovely people and it's a real flavour of the cruising boat life.

Probably the best thing so far for the girls has been the intro of the bosun swing, especially when sailing.

Not all roses though. Marine toilets takes out the first 5 cons on the list I'd say, then there's definitely power issues, autopilot issues, lack of AC power, the sails are super old, stretched and baggy pieces of nonsense, the worlds worst fixed propeller, seasickness for some crew. Room for improvement but there's plan to fix all of this, only the seasick part might take a while...

I'll put more effort into the next one, but I do recall saying this was going to be drivel!

Chur, Ant