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We kicked off Croatia with a visit to Dubrovnik which was very pretty and quaint, if a little smaller than expected. It was also full of both English people and English speakers which came as a bit of a shock after a month in Italy, although admittedly we do generally appreciate being able to communicate beyond "thank you" and "do you have". After our second day in the old town, we moved to a secluded little bay on the island next door where (drum roll...) I went for my first swim! Gerard is braver than me so had already popped his cherry last year when the water was freezing but I'd held out for a more pleasant experience - which it was, the Adriatic has the most beautiful clear, warm (by comparison) water! Feeling energetic, we then decided to go for a run but after 15 mins of dodging peacocks, we were stopped and told the island was now shut and that we had to leave - disappointing but pretty cool to realise we were literally the only people there.
With thunderstorms forecast overnight the next day, we made the short journey to refuel and restock in Gruz (Gerard completing an impressive solo manoeuvre to get out of the way of a large taxi boat while I was off grocery shopping) and then motored up the river to find a sheltered spot. Being a river, it was a bit narrower and shallower than we're used to so after getting bow and stern anchors dug in, we were just having a discussion about whether there was enough space for other boats to pass (and whether it actually mattered given that there was unlikely to be a lot of traffic) when a 44ft catamaran came trundling past. It made for a pretty good test - plenty of space fortunately. In the morning we congratulated ourselves on a good choice of spot having lied totally still all night, only realising when we were leaving that our immobility might have had something to do with the boat being just a touch aground...
From there we started island hopping and entered into full-on holiday mode. The sailing has been a dream (the wind's still coming from the wrong direction obviously but tacking's not so bad when you don't have as far to go), the weather is amazing, every day we swim, the scenery is beautiful...this is life! On Mljet we spent a day at the lakes, on Korcula we had a delicious lunch of local tapas and bought the most amazing cinnamon honey (why has noone thought of putting these ingredients together before?!), on Scedro a man belonging to the only family that lives on the island year-round came to the boat and sold us wine from his own vineyard... It's a slower pace of life but we're loving it - totally idyllic.
The only negative is the sudden appearance of other boats which seem to be filled with people who are not particularly concerned if their anchors are actually touching the ground or whether they have any clothes on. There are so many secluded bays here that it's easy enough to avoid the crowds though, and no doubt they're avoiding us too since showering has become a rare treat of late!
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