FrankingWorldTraveller

Captain Mauro left Zadar for some personal time so Neal and Vanessa took the big blue boat off alone. First stop Otacic Arta Mali, off the Otak (island, Otacic is tiny island) of Murter. Murter!! Sounds ominous, but it was perfect. Small, protected from every direction, clear water, a few small boats that came in from Murter for swimming or fishing and profound quiet. No discos, no shipyard noises, no traffic. We swam, even though the water is a cool 72-74 degrees, but on a hot day, that feels wonderful. Then on to Primošten, called the Mini-Dubrovnik because it occupies a perfectly domed little island that is postcard cute, complete with a church and steeple on top. Sadly, Primošten is open to the west and even with a northern wind, a little swell builds up and comes into the bay. By dinnertime it was gone. By midnight, it was Mini-Ponza. We were in the cockpit at 3:30 and got back to bed about 5:30. Then Trogir for a night, to seek shelter from a slight Bora. We had decent wind protection, but a nice disco and choppy water kept us from sleeping too well. This derelict boat, which must have a good story because it is a fine boat, but for the rotting neglect, still sits at anchor, as it sat last year.

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The Riva, or waterfront, was it’s beautiful self, bustling with tourists and café goers, market stalls and tour boats.

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Then we sailed to Komiza on the western edge of Vis. Vis was used exclusively as a military base until 1989. As a result, it is relatively undeveloped and whatever they call “unspoiled.” I’m not sure tourism destroys an ancient place, it seems to lead to restoration, economic improvement, and (Gads!) gentrification of often depressed areas. What seems unspoiled to me is the lack of organized tour busses, boats, and packs of seasoned citizens following a chipper young lady with a brightly colored umbrella. None of that here. Hardly anywhere to park a dinghy, tho. We had dinner at Bako, which was recommended, but arrived after all the good fish had been picked. We had over-priced grouper and a really bad local white wine, while a front rolled in, causing rail to rail rolling all night! Otherwise, delightful place. Next day we sailed around the south side to Vis town. Decided to stay a couple of days. Our Fanese friend Marcello recommended this place, saying he was the first Italian allowed back in 1989. We almost got him aboard, but work kept him from joining us. Vis is still lovely, Marcello!

We had to wait for some paperwork to arrive in Zadar, so we rented a car to drive up to Plitvice Lakes national park, the bigger waterfalls park that we missed last year because it is a 2 hour drive inland. We had extra time, so we continued to Zagreb afterwards to see the capitol, which we also missed last year, being 3 hours inland. What a good choice! We found Plitviće totally skippable, especially since we had seen Krka Park last year. Krka was much less crowded and, due to the level of rain, much more dramatic. Here we saw lots of terraced lakes with beautiful water colors and zillions of humans.

Zagreb was indeed an almost undiscovered gem. The number of tourists is on the rise but still not enough to spoil the place and infuse all the locals with that pissed off sense of doom found in the populace of cities long since destroyed by mass tourism. Thank God they can’t pull a cruise ship up here. Zagreb has a very high energy, youthful vibe and one of the most alive cafe societies I’ve seen anywhere. Beautiful and very old buildings mixed with new modern ones in the old town and the surrounded by a growing modern city ringing the old.

The interior of the old city is perfectly walkable, with an orderly system of trams and signage that one would never see in Italy or France. Must be the Astro-Hungarian history. And considering that Zagreb contains something like 30% of the population, one could consider this to be a far more accurate representation of Croatia than the coastal towns that HAVE been jaded by tourists and cruise boats and seem generally pissed at the world. Zagreb hummed. The asshole coastal police most likely never lived here. (ref: Welcome to Croatia post)

A slight packing problem prevented us from running, because bad things happen if a person runs in New Balance on one foot and Asics on the other.

So we just walked and walked and took in Zagreb. A perfect weekend away from Amante!

Amante has taken on two new crew. Joan and Paul now are proud owners of Amante shirts and proved hearty, reliable crew! Paul is particularly helpful, with his something like 6’6″ of height, hand when time to change the genoa sheets!

We met them in Fano, where Gabriella darling Botis and Marcello had dinner for all of us in their beautiful home, Palazzo Rotati, where Joan and Paul stayed a night to rest from their European adventure before coming aboard. Gabriella and Sylvio (hello Sylvio- are you reading??) made a beautiful risotto, which Joan said was the best she had ever had, and I must agree, followed by eggplant parmigiana to die for!!

Then the whole- dredge our way out of Fano harbor debacle. Then welcome to Croatia.

Next morning we motored to the town Bazaba on Duki Otak that Marcello told us to go to in the first place and Mauro went into customs and checked the boat and us in.

We went ashore for a walk in the small but charming little island port with its small fishing boats, it’s one church of St. Nicolas, and it’s smiling cruise ship full of English cyclists doing the Croatia bike vacation on a floating bike mover.
We passed some of the cyclists on the walk and saw the rest at the town’s restaurant on the waterfront. The restaurant had the odd but delightful properties of being full of sweaty English speaking active people who were having beers before lunchtime looking over the harbor at Amante at anchor. It looked like a perfect lot to join, but we wanted to get to the next island (Otak) before all the good spots were gone. We went back to a favorite from last year, Otak Molat, the island where we spend a couple of wondrous days with good running, a mile of twisted pair wiring stretched across half the island, and a man in a speedo selling me my first octopus to cook.

We made Aperol Spritz and I opened the whole pecorino I bought in Arezzo to have for our goodbye-to-Italy last appertivo. We ate dinner out. 3 of us got the classic Croatian dish of grilled fish, boiled potatoes, blitva (wild chard), zucchini, and salad and some Malvasia to wash it down for me and Paul and Plavič for Neal and Joan. About as perfect a day as one would want.


We let them off in Zadar. Ciao Joan and Paul!

We’ve been gone a whole month and posted almost nothing. I’ll bet you’re checking the website every day wondering, “What are the Amantes up to?!?!” OK, so rather than blather on about it all I’ll summarize it to bullets. Since we arrived in Italy, life can be reduced to these:

* Arrival and readjustment to Italy and boat life, the highlights being visiting Bologna and staying in Fano, much thanks to the wonderful Palazzo Rotati, and making new friends in Fano.
* Cooking school in Tuscany for Vanessa and more boat work for Neal, followed by a weekend in Florence/Tuscany for both!
* Test sail and successful un-grounding of 8.6 foot deep Amante from our first trip in and out of the +/- 6 foot deep harbor in Fano.
* This one is the biggie- MATT AND EMMA”S WEDDING back in New Jersey
* Return to Italy and one night in Venezia.
* Another great dinner at Palazzo Rotati with Gabriella and Marcello, who included our friends Joan and Paul, arrivederci visits with new friends Kristen and Lucia Kate, and welcome to friends from home who came to visit Amante. Then the adventure part begins.
* Getting stuck on the way out and nearly running over the tied-on dinghy. Anchor out first night off the Fano disco, which went until 5 am.
* Arrival in Croatia- welcome to Croatia, give us 600 euro each.
* 2 perfect nights at anchor in Croatia- Duki Otak and Otak Molat.
* Arrival in Zadar and faring well Joan and Paul.

I will cover each in different detail, as I feel like, but since we have only been afloat 3 days, I will start there since we left Fano with friends aboard from home. We were in sight of the channel opening, after having seen depths in the 6 foot range, when we came to a slow stop. Amante draws 8.6 feet. The harbor in Fano is notoriously shallow, but they SWORE to us they would dredge the harbor in winter and we would have NO PROBLEMS getting out. They dredged a few times, but what we didn’t realize is that Amante leaving was the primary dredging they had in mind. The bottom is loose silty mud, but once stuck we were stuck. The marina had a dinghy out to guide us and the guys who took care of Amante all winter were following in our dinghy (whose name is Tiny). When Amante stopped, the guys in Tiny attached a line to the stern of the dinghy and pulled the bow of Amante starboard, and it worked! We were free and moving along, but the 2 guys driving were yelling in Italian, Neal was driving in English, and GO GO GO sounds just like NO NO NO when the dinghy is alongside and invisible to the helm. Translation issues, the dinghy driver putting the gear into reverse instead of forward, much confusion resulted in a terrible outcome. I saw the dinghy heading for Davy Jones’ locker underneath Amante. I was in – “Screw the paint job, we’re about to see 2 nice guys die” – mode of screaming. Neal stopped, the dinghy was submerged up to the tubes and the outboard engine went (there is some debate here) underwater? Mostly underwater? Enough underwater to cut out? We got the dinghy untied (really hard to do in a hurry, under load, with lives at stake) and the marina towed it out of the harbor. We got out, tested the engine, bow thrusters, rudder, no problems with Amante, but they couldn’t get the dinghy started. They assumed it was the fuses, this was saturday night, and the shop opens Monday morning, and the two guys who had helped us out, climbed aboard another boat and LEFT US there with no dinghy outside Fano harbor. I near-‘bout had a hissy fit. Until I saw Dom, il Maestro of the boatyard coming out of the harbor in his own red sailboat to help. By then, Neal had done that thing he does where he touched the dinghy key and it started- in their confusion they had failed to put the gear back into neutral. Fresh water rinse, bilge pump for awhile, (it was up to the seats) and Bob is your uncle, Tiny is fine. Looks like we need a new battery, tho. Anyway, we spent a calm, flat night in front of Fano listening to the beat of disco music until 5 am. We left at 6 am for Croatia.

It was sad, as I have come to love Fano! It is an unheard of by American ears, fishing town on the Adriatic that was once on the Road to Rimini (from Rome) as part of the Roman empire. So much history and nice people, long beaches with boardwalks filled with people exercising, walking dogs, kissing ciao two times and drinking Morettas (Moretti). I heart Fano and will miss this darling small, old town.

We left anchorage in front of Fano, Italy early in the morning and crossed the Adriatic in one long day sail. We arrived late, at sundown, and assuming Customs would be closed, anchored in the best shelter as close to Customs as practicable and commenced dinner. Along come the Polizia and took Captain Mauro and all our passports and documents into their boat for 2 hours. Mauro came out looking haggard and told us we were being fined 600 euro each for not going in to customs immediately. We could see customs from the boat, but for a few trees and a hill. Mauro tried to go right then. NO! WE CAN FINE YOU BECAUSE YOU SAT HERE AN HOUR FIRST SO WE WILL FINE YOU!! I will leave all other commentary off the post, but I wished them badly (aloud, I’m afraid. I am not a nice person when being assaulted), something like slow deaths in bellies of whales. I lean towards drama when indicated.

So we paid the stupid fines, and consider it part of the cruising life. My advice. Stay out of Croatia. If you’re stuck paying fines anyway and your cruising permit is still good until July from last year, stay and enjoy it.

While the boat was still in the yard, I went to cooking school, Tuscookany, while Neal worked on the boat. Yes, I fled to Tuscany, to cooking school, rather than spend a week in the yard, without floors (the sole panels were being varnished- but wait, you say…didn’t they have the sole varnished NINE TIMES last year? Yes they did. See why Vanessa is a raving lunatic? See why it is better to send her off to Tuscany to cooking school than listen to her wail about having to varnish the damn floor AGAIN?? AFTER 1 YEAR???). I hope I made my point.

Anyway- here are a few cooking school photos.

It was fun, stunning location, but I was not overwhelmed by the cooking. Sorry. Great chef, good people. But the dates that worked for me were for the Mediterranean cooking and we sort of hit a few common foods from Spain, Italy, France, Morocco and they were essentially too easy to bother with in a cooking school (salad with goat cheese toasts) or things I will never make (pasta- nobody makes pasta. buy fresh pasta). I did learn a few new things, and I would own the property outright tomorrow, if it were for trade for one 70 foot boat!!

On to Poppi, the cool little town nearby, not just another small Tuscan hill town. We visited the town’s castle, the Castello dei Conti Guidi, known from 1191. One of the Guidi (a Guido) was said to have drunk the blood of his enemies. I liked that part. There was also the remains or a cast replica of the remains of a prisoner who tried to escape. Rather severe.
The best part was the Library Rilliana, a collection of ancient ancient books and parchment manuscripts, inculabula (look it up- it is too great a word to not know) from the 15th century forward. A great room to inhale.
Just outside the castle is a bust of Dante Alligeri.

Just between the bust and the castle, a couple chose to hold their wedding. Dante, you know, is known for his Divine Comedy, first part of which is INFERNO (hell). I thought it an odd place to hold a wedding, but perhaps there was some divine comedy in mind.

We visited the church of the Madonna del Morbo, where this painting of the virgin (I think) is attributed to Filippino Lippi.

I also noticed and found interestingly morbid, this painting of someone calmly being boiled alive and this other one of someone being martyred.


Maybe it was Tommaso Crudeli, who was condemned as a heretic, was imprisoned in Poppi’s Palazzo Crudeli, and tortured to death. Neat town! Especially for a wedding!!

We were invited to dinner with the owners of the apartment we are staying with in Fano, Gabriela and Marcello.

What a great pleasure it was to spend time in a home with a family for dinner! We we able to spend a whole evening not speaking Italian (or speaking very bad Italian) and helping practice English with our hosts and their family and friends. This was my favorite dinner ever in Italy. We have had some superb meals, but nothing so special as dining with new friends in their home. We started with a whole pecorino cheese. It comes shrink wrapped in hay, and it was served on a large cutting board on top of the hay. Then we had perfect pasta (gluten free for me!) with vegetables, followed by bufala mozzarella so fresh it made water buffalo sounds, fava beans, sautéed artichokes, salad (after the main course in Europe) and fresh fruit for dessert. Delicious!! Mi dispiace che non parlo italiano.

Right where we left her, and the hopping marina bar Fish House is still hopping right off the stern!! Woohoo!!

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Dated May 1, 2015
How wonderful to be back in Italy with some of my favorite things markets, churches, terra-cotta rooftops.

Bologna is another terribly old, beautiful terra cotta tiled Italian Città with miles and miles of portico covered walkways, the oldest University in the world, the famous other twin towers of Asinelli and Garisenda, the best ice cream on the planet, and a delightful habit of covering the external sides of their windows with red colored canvas curtains, so that the whole town looks put to bed by a doting and fussy mother.

We mostly walked and window shopped, stopped in churches and ate. WE ate first at Columbiana, which featured haute Bolognese cuisine. It was steps behind the Art Hotel di Commercianti, where we stayed in Junior Vaninni, the same suite where Sting spent two weeks one time, thus said the clerk. It was great and the cured meats appetizer was the best I had ever had. It was recommended to be paired with a Spumanti style light red, and it was perfect.

We walked to the University and that part of town was quite tagged and more rugged than the nicer part of town that we frequented, the one with Gucci and Hermes stores and the good gelato.

We had half a free day from boat winterization, so we drove from Fano to Urbino, the capital of the province Urbino and Pesaro. Urbino has a (surprise!) long history, but today is an active college town. The tiny, narrow streets are very steep and make San Francicso look flat. Lots of churches, Ducal Palace, stolen obelisk from Egypt, Urbino has it all! And an amazing view of the town from the fortress, which is now a park full of people all sitting around hunched over their cell phones. Stop it people!