A sojourn at Rab.

The southerly wind blew through to be replaced by 25kts of North Easterly forcing a relatively early start to the day and a rapid departure from Sahara. Given the wind direction it was obvious that the preferred passage to Rab town would be via the East coast and then up the Barbetski Canal, the narrow strip of water that separates Rab from the small island of Dolin. For the first few miles it was a fantastic run downwind but this was not to last. The wind backed round to the SW putting me on a beam reach in flat sea but with the wind strong enough to require two reefs. Skidding along at six to seven knots it seemed a good time for lunch however Neptune had other ideas. By the time I had made up two rolls and dug a beer out of the fridge the wind had dropped to a light breeze and then proceeded to clock round onto the nose! Enough. The iron foresail was hoisted (i.e. engine started) and lunch was eaten under engine whilst the wind decided what to do next. It did exactly nothing; for the afternoon there was no wind at all and the second half of the passage to Rab was, perforce, a motoring and battery charging trip.

Once at Rab the sea was calm enough to anchor outside the main harbour, off one of the swimming beaches and it was here that we stayed for the next three days. What wind there was conveniently coming from the north and therefore of no consequence other than the fact that it carried all of the warm water out of the bay and off to sea leaving cold water from the depths in it's place. I've never known such cold water in Croatia, even in the outer islands!

After this lazy period at anchor it was time to move into the inner anchorage, strap on the backpack and visit the supermarket to stock up. That achieved we motored into Rab inner harbour, berthing alongside the public quay, to top up with water, 10 kuna (i.e. £1.25p); what a difference to the prices charged by the marinas!

By this stage David, in his boat Camilla, had re-established communications and we agreed to meet up in the uninhabited cove, Uvala Mag, on the southern tip of Rab, so back down the canal it was, again under engine for lack of wind. I anchored in Uvala Mag amongst a collection of small powerboats at about 1400 and David, plus new crew, arrived three hours later. By the evening the others had all departed and our evening was spent enjoying another BBQ on the now deserted beach.

Today, dawned with a brisk South Westerly blowing so we decided to make a brief downwind passage to Sahara, yet again, which although offering more or less the same level of shelter offers a rather larger and better sandy beach to swim from. I anchored Kurukulla in 3m of water (virtually no tides here!) at 1215, Camilla anchoring some 10 minutes later 30m off my stern, and here we will stay for 24 hours whilst the Jugo (local name for Sirocco) blows through.