Split Festival
Trip Start
Mar 24, 2011
1
21
47
Trip End
Sep 08, 2011
Marina Kastela, Splitsko-Dalmatinska, Croatia
Saturday, May 7, 2011
We walked to the train station and caught the one carriage diesel engine train into Split which was much quicker than driving and more comfortable than the rattly old buses which we have seen on the main road between Trogir and Split (we are in the middle of those towns). The Riva in Split was completely filled with masses of people, stalls selling more wooden spoons than there are cooks in Split as well as many wooden toys, handcrafts and furniture. Balloon sellers abounded and plastic trinkets were available in every corner, it was noisy, chaotic and fun! We had a look through the stalls and then headed to our favourite stores (Mark the marine shop, the boys and I to the second hand book shop and dive shop) but found that they were closed for the afternoon. We sat on the edge of the Riva and watched the Split equivalent of the Head of the River, 3 teams of 8 squad skulls, racing over a choppy 220m stretch of sea. Split was the winner after 2 starts against Cambridge and Oxford.
After a slice of pizza we headed to the SC Gripe Stadium to see a game of European Handball. This is a fast and furious game, made more exciting by the enthusiasm of the crowd and our confusion of the rules! We joined in cheering and booing as the crowd around us did, without really knowing what was going on. We were given tickets to this spectacle by a man who has been doing some prep work on our boat in readiness for the mast installation. His son was playing and when he heard we going into Split, presented us with the tickets to the game. We appreciated his generosity and immensely enjoyed the experience of the game.
After walking back to the train station we were happy to have a gelato and sit down waiting for the train to convey us back to Kastel Stari and then our walk down the road to Kastela Marina.
The marina is getting busier as the beginning of summer and the charter sailing season starts. On the weekends, the showers are very busy and we tend to wait until the middle of the day when it is quieter to shower. Our boat now has some very close neighbours as all the boats are moored with there sides just about touching, stern in to the jetty, with mooring lines at the front holding them in place. It is a tricky process wedging your boat in between 2 others but done slowly the reversing boat nudges the other 2 out of the way and they all shift down like dominos. The water is very still within the breakwater of the marina but when the wind was blowing earlier in the week the boats were bobbing up and down and nudging into each other. The strong wind from the north is called the Bora and this blows for a couple of days without stopping. The first night of the Bora I was quite pleased that I didn't have a mast to worry about as I spent most of the night listening to the wind howl through the other boats masts and heard their ropes clanging on the masts. After this experience we now know to take any mention of the Bora seriously and to find a safe harbour if we hear it is coming. To be out on an anchor during this wind would mean hourly checks through the night to make sure that we weren’t dragging.
Mark has been working on many projects to get the boat ready, while we have the time. He has installed the solar panels and now we spend time watching the batteries fill up with the amps generated by the panels, and work out how much power our appliances drain. He has also been replacing the black glue that surrounds the teak in our cockpit so that it is waterproof. The teak does not soak up much water and if it is completely sealed into the fibreglass cockpit dries very quickly after the rain. Teak is also very long lasting, doesn’t rot easily and is cooler underfoot than fibreglass.
