Welcome to Croatia! As much as we loved Venice, it was not inexpensive, and more importantly it was time to move on. After a rather embarassing episode of bumper boats on several pilings at the yacht club (wind plus current plus our little engine makes maneuvering a beast), we escaped Italy and were off to Croatia. As usual, it was more motoring than sailing, but the sailing that we had was lovely. We pulled into Umag, Croatia, the first port of entry, only to find out that authorities not work the weekends. We wandered around town with all the locals out enjoying themselves, had a burger on the waterfront, and turned in.

We decided to head to Rovinj on Sunday, stay overnight, and clear in there on Monday morning before moving on. We were motor sailing, and Trip decided to check on a temporary fix he had made in Venice. (He had sheared a special spacer bolt on the sea water pump when tightening belts, but had managed to get a temporary bolt in place.) The temporary bolt had worked its way free and stripped the threads on its way out. Luckily he had drilled a hole and put a cotter pin in place as a failsafe, and that was still holding the pump in place. He set to work down below, I unfurled the jib and tacked, and we set sail to Italy (kidding, but with the winds as they were we were heading way off shore). It turned out to be a fabulous sail despite the tacks required, and we were able to sail all the way into the Rovinj mooring field. We picked up a mooring (it costs to moor or anchor here, so we decided to pay the few extra $$ to moor) and immediately jumped in the water for a swim. It was brisk, but my body is now more acclimated to cold water and the color simply couldn’t be beat.

As we were heading into town, we saw an American-flagged catamaran that we had seen twice two years ago (Horta and again in Sines). David and Diane had also just come from Venice, and were working their way south. We chatted for a bit and moved on.

Rovinj is a very touristy town, but it’s lovely to wander. It’s considered one of the best remaining Venetian towns architecturally speaking in Istria (the region of Croatia). The old town is very concentrated on the bulb of the peninsula with the cathedral of St Euphemia sitting on top, and the town spilling down behind. The streets are old worn cobblestone and wonderful to walk. The hill isn’t nearly as steep as some towns, so it wasn’t as much of an exhausting exercise.

We stopped to admire the ‘piscina naturala’ (the public swimming pools simply made by pouring concrete slabs around the rocks at the edge of the sea) when we spotted a really cool restaurant next door, with its seating area terraced down on the rocks at the water’s edge. We hovered at La Puntulina and managed to snag a lovely spot on the rocks to enjoy a gin and tonic. Little did we know it was a Michelin star restaurant (not that we could have gotten in, they were completely booked), and instead settled for beans & rice back on board.

The next morning we went back in promptly at 8 to complete our cruising vignette (permit) with the local authorities. We ran into David and Diane and chatted with them for a bit, then did a final wander around town again. With weather coming, we were off to Pula.