Suksosan to Postira (Brac)

Posted at 4:54 PM, Sep. 25, 2007

Currently Sunday morning 23 September, everyone a bit seedy after a very late night on the town in Hvar. In fact as I type this some haven’t yet put in an appearance. Have just moved onto the town quay, time for a caffeine hit – very busy and the hottest day we have  had yet  (27 degrees). Sue Warren about to join us also as co-incidentally she is back on the island having been in London for the last couple of months since we were last here.

                     Southern 2 weeks sail plan for September

After leaving Sukosan last Monday we had three pretty cool days, sunny but with the Sirocco (SE wind) blowing hard. Sailed down the inside of Otok Pasman via the Zadarski Kanal to exit near Biograd. Stopped off for lunch and then sailed another 15 miles, past Otok Murter to the village on Otok Kaprije which is a pretty little town and well sheltered from the Sirocco. Tuesday morning had a small problem with the genset so decided to sail across to  Kremik marina and try and get an engineer on board. Had a 25 mile sail bang on the nose, 30-35 knots but with two reefs in and about 60% of the jib rolled away we trucked along at around 8.25 knots so a satisfying sail. Lots of charter boats around in all sorts of strife trying to cope with the conditions. Got onto the marina there for the night but no luck with finding an engineer. Wednesday sailed the 30 miles further south to Split – got a berth on the marina and got the genset attended to -  not a major. Weather starting to improve i.e. less wind, bit warmer etc.

Thursday Annette and Marco arrived on board after Pam, Alice and I had got some more provisions on board and wandered around Split. Weather getting better and we had a pleasant motor sail across to the town of Postira (population 1,500) on the northern coast of Brac late afternoon.. This was the town that Marco’s parents had left (she at the age of 18) 70 years ago to come to NZ.  And this was Marco’s first visit for 27 years so we had the welcoming committee on the town quay. There is a fish cannery here that is owned by the Simunivich family of Auckland (this is apparently where they come from) and the story gets some credence as they own the excellent restaurant Bracu south of Auckland on the Bombay hills. Unfortunately the harbour is relatively open and during the evening the Bora (NW) wind started to blow so shortly before midnight we headed back up to Split and anchored in the harbour for the night.  Friday weather improving even more and again a motor sail back for the 12 miles across to Postira, anchored in the harbour and escorted up to one of Marco’s cousins house (Denko and Gita)  for a very Dalmatian lunch with about 15 relatives in attendance.

                 The view from Denko's deck Postira - Otok Brac

Fantastic hospitality, wine made by the family, olive oil also made by the family and local fish cooked on an outdoor fire - sitting on the deck looking back across to the mainland on a fine sunny afternoon with Marco rediscovering the language and little English spoken. After a very fine lunch we were then taken for a tour around the village while various of the relatives debated or seemed to argue as to which house we were going to visit next.  Each house we visited seemed to necessitate a welcoming glass of grappa! If time had permitted I am sure we would have seen most houses in the town.

                  Marco's extended Postira family (Marco 3rd from right)

 A very tidy village, appeared to be quite prosperous with new houses (built of course in the traditional style) costing around USD400,000.

So early evening Friday 21^st saw the breeze building again so this time we motored up the coast a mile or so and anchored in the western arm of the bay at the small village of Splitska. The breeze swung around 2300 hrs so we up anchored and nosed slowly up to the town quay to the delight of the locals in the bar who lined up quayside to help us tie up.

 Saturday morning the café/bar tables and chairs were at least 1 metre from the boat so it wasn’t far to adjourn to partake of our pastries and their expresso as can be seen below!

We then motored back to Postira for lunch with one of Marco’s cousins, Darko who is an historian and author. They were all very sad to see Marco leave had a most enjoyable time with the many cousins and their families. Darko presented marco with copies in Croatian of two of the books he had written - one on Otok Brac the other on the history of Postira dating back to 1337. He said he will send us the english versions when published in a couple of months time.

Late afternoon with a freshening NW we sailed the 25 miles up the northern coast of Otok Brac and then across to Hvar to anchor in a calm harbour for a change. Weather getting better every day, calm, settled and very warm again! Dinner ashore at the well regarded restaurant Macondo up off the square.  After dinner adjourned for cocktails to Cape Diem the famous bar on the waterfront for a few hours – we went back to the boat while Alice night clubbed the rest of the night away. After all this is called the Canne of eastern Europe.

The charter boat scene is still very busy and we are seeing more boats around now than we did in June. Water temps like an Auckland early summer – bracing! All well on board and all systems aok.

Cheers for now

Keith