Crew: Young & Christina Kim, Andrew Grinnell, Colin Schneider, and Mario D'Angelo
June 30. Anchored at Kastel Novi. After a great pizza lunch Sheila took the bus to pick up Stina & Young at the airport. Happy reunion! In the afternoon we were visited by several 13 year old local boys. They had been jumping off the rocks with friends when they swam out to practice English and ask us questions. We gave them honey straws for energy to get back to shore. Dinner on the boat--yum. Young & Stina went to bed early but were awoken at 2 am to help move the boat to Split harbor. The wind was blowing and the anchor wasn't holding in the rocky bottom.
July 1. Back to Kastel Novi to get ready to pick up Colin and Andrew. Sheila, Young & Stina took the dinghy in to make a grocery run. Two hours later with backpacks and coolers heavy with food we arrived back to the boat soaking wet in the choppy waters. Sheila went back to town to meet the boys. On the way to Split we passed Optomists sailing! The Oceanographic Society supports weekend racing. Split looks like a Hollywood backdrop. Georgeous clean buildings with lines of palm trees on the waterfront. Mario arrived by the ferry from Italy in the afternoon. We all went to one of Mike & Sheila's favorite: Konoba Hvaranin for goulash, octopus salad, homemade bread etc. Yum! After dinner we happened upon a free open air concert in the square. Kerumi, a popular Croatian band, was playing.
July 2. Early risers Andrew and Young went fishing around the cliffs with an enormous blood worm Andrew scored from some locals. The earliest riser, Andrew, actually went out a helped pull the 18" worm out of the rocks. No bites, just nibbles. After breakfast we motored to Korcula. We put up the Jib briefly, but ran out of wind. It was a long travel day and we arrived just before dusk ready to go to dinner. Sheila and Mike suggested the Lanterna Konoba down at the end of the bay in which we were anchored. The waiter had difficulty understanding our English as we were trying to ask for small dishes so we could eat family style sharing each interesting part of the meal. After dinner we dropped Mike off at the boat and Sheila showed us around the old walled city. The wind picked up, making it a choppy wet ride returning to the boat. Blankets seemed like a good idea that night.
July 3. The kids--Young, Christina, Andrew, and Colin--had booked a tour to Dubrovnik, including an early high speed ferry, a bus and walking tour of the outskirts and inside. What a gorgeous city! It has been meticulously re-built after the Serbian bombing in the war that took place in the 1990s. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable. How nice it was to have someone help us understand the history of the culture and life of the city. They recently found that there are two different churches under the currently standing chruch. Dubrovnik was under the rule of so many different outside occupations over the years, including Napoleon! For lunch we found Konoba Karmen recomended by Mike. It is tucked in beside a wall behind the cathedral's bell tower. The best food in town! Friends of the Grinnells, Pista and Georgia Nadj, had fled the bombing of Dubrovnik with their family to settle in Port Washington, NY. Christina befriended their daughter, Vanja, as they both attended Paul D. Schreiber High School. They have remained in contact ever since. It was a special visit for Christina. Dinner was pizza and beer for the guys. They went into town to watch on large screen projection TV Italy defeat Portugal in one of the qualifying games for the World Cup. Christina and Sheila played Scrabble and ate baked eggplant on the boat.
July 4. Early morning we headed back to Split stopping at Scedro. Sheila tried to pay the owner of the restaurant for bread he had given her last time. He refused and sent them off hiking. What a neat place. Paro lives there in the summers with his family. He showed us the lobsters he had trapped and keeps in a basket-like lobster keeper suspended in the water under his dock. We were amazed to see artichoke flowers in vases. They actually allow the artichoke to dry up on the stalk. The choke grows out purple "hair" through the middle.
