Veli Rat to Zadar to collect Phil and onward to Pag

We nursed the hangovers, dingy’ed into a shop for supplies, had a quiet night and planned a short run to Molat the following day en-route to Zadar.

Molat sits a short way north of Veli Rat, sports a long protected bay with a small island forming a cool anchorage between the island and the holiday village on Molat itself. We wanted wifi so we parked as close to shore and a restaurant as possible but no dice.

This was the ideal spot to watch the sunset at the same time as the full moon rise. Many, it seemed had the same idea but it did add to the casual atmosphere in the bay.

This is the moonrise but all those fairy lights are mooring lights on the top of all the masts in the harbour. Sublime.

At 9.25 on Monday the 10^th July, we unhooked from our buoy mooring and set sail for Zadar. There was a fair bit to do when we got there. Laundry, provisioning, repairs, wifi SIMS and the boat needed a good scrubbing…. again!

We were assisted by some guys and slime lined in. It was hot, we were in a big harbour and so a swim was out of the question, but between Al, Erwin and I we got most of it done day one. We had another day before Phil arrived late evening so we took to the city of Zadar and got messy.

Two things of interest were the sea organ. A place where there are specially laid slabs along the promenade with holes and gaps so as the sea laps into the steps it becomes music. Very cool. We went there for the sunset…. And so did everybody else!

This was one way to get a good perspective although not very elegant.

The other was the museum of illusions. Ironically we never did find it.

Phil showed at 11:00pm Tuesday the 11^th after the usual lengthy trip from Sydney to London, change airports, wait a long time, Zadar. We had planned a longish trip to Casca on Pag so for many reasons we took it easy on Phil and crashed by 1:00am.

After a couple of last minute chores like retrieving my boat papers and paying the equivalent of $250 per night, we managed to leave by 9:15. Man they see you coming here, specially if you’re a catamaran.

In nil wind we motored through some pretty spectacular countryside. Everything completely denuded by the Bora. (That dreaded Adriatic wind). There were two bridges en-route, the heights of which we could not ascertain for some reason. 

Stymied by the lack of height of the first bridge meant a long two hour detour by which time Google Meister Al had managed to find the height of the second and decided to film our passage from the top of the mast.

And if you click on this link you will see that very video... Paski Most Bridge

You will notice the wind blown topograpghy I keep going on about too.

Casca is the Ibiza of Croatia but we thought it would be interesting to anchor off a big three day festival and take in the atmosphere. We anchored at 4:00pm and under the cover of darkness, dingy’ed in to get close to the action. What an incredible infrastructure for hedonism. Bungie crane, jet skis, five big music venues, bars, restaurants and lots of kids doing what kids do at these things… (he said enviously) Youth! So wasted on the young….

Did we really want to stay here two days?  The water wasn’t nice and clear, the bay was big and the festival wasn’t really for us. So that’s a no. But….. My Wind App told us there was a Bora coming by mid-morning the following day and as the saying goes, I’d rather be in here wishing I was out there than out there wishing I was in here. We readied the boat to leave and the go/no go decision would be made in the morning.

Morning dawned and it was calm. I woke the team and we were gone by 7:05. The Bora hit at 8:00 and even though we were still in a long, narrow protected bay we could see that this was not going to go well. We motored to the mouth of the bay and it was howling, waves were rising and white caps were spuming.

We went for it. Fortunately the wind was on our starboard beam and a little behind and in no time we were enjoying the ride. 

It lasted three hours until we tucked into a slot which leads up to the most delightful hamlet of Rab on Rab. Trees and vines and green stuff! We’d become so used to nothing but bare rock.

We anchored in a beautiful bay a short dingy ride from town and spent the day surrounded by beautiful people in pleasure craft.

Skradin and the Kornati National Park

We arrived at Skradin at 4:30 in the afternoon after an eventful sail. We managed to get everything up, but as is nearly always  the case they had to come down shortly thereafter as the wind went north westerly which was directly on our nose.

Skradin is a long way up river almost to the Krka Falls where Al and I went on the scooters. 

It is beautiful, narrow and winding with lots of mussel farms along the way. We pulled up at one such farm, ordered 3kgs of mussels and that evening Al cooked them split into two different sauces.

We were informed that we could anchor in the bay opposite the marina at Skradin during the day but would have to move into the marina at night… Well, we wanted to cook our fresh mussels onboard and so we decided to test that theory.. We stayed right there for two nights without the expected approach by Mr WaveyArms...

For Erwin’s sake we played tourist the following day, dingy’d in and took a tour boat up river to the falls where we could swim, drink cold beer and then go even further upriver to a monestry and a place called the necklaces where the naturally formed travertine walls look like necklaces as the water cascades over them. We walked back to town and never saw the tour boat either coming to pick us up or going?

Found a really nice restaurant called Skala, off the beaten track and elevated above town. Big balcony, great views, great food and too much wine. It took four days to realise I had left my travel card there….again! I can’t tell you how many times I have mislaid my Travel Cards. (You can stop smiling now Sal)

Another night at anchor in this biblical bay with bulrushes and swans to grace our view. 

At 10:45 on the 2^nd July, we weighed anchor and headed downstream en-route to the famous Kornati National Park. These Croatians sure know how to squeeze every last drop out of pretty much nothing. The key feature of this place is that it is a moonscape. Rockey rounded hills which have been scored by the wind for millennium, devoid of vegetation but somehow quite enchanting.

On our way downstream we stopped once more at our mussel guy. Five kilograms of mussels this time please and 3 dozen shucked oysters. It was Erwins turn to cook, he split them into three different sauces with fresh bread and cold chardonnay.. That, my friends is what I call decadent. 5Kgs of mussels ... $14.

You are supposed to buy your tickets for the Kornati’s while you are still outside the park which we attempted but could not anchor in Ravni Zakan. No room on the dock and quite a big wind in the bay, so we headed on until we found the amazing Lavsa bay where some friendly charter boat directed us to the last remaining mooring buoy. 

Then they arrived to inspect our tickets or sell us one. It cost almost twice as much than if we had managed to buy them outside the park! We then purchased another three day pass online so all up it was $180 for one night, then $215 for another three nights and as luck would have it, we only managed to use one night of that due the need to retrieve my Travel Card.

We got a message from some Ausies we met in Trogir that they were headed for Strakin. I had by this time figured out where I’d left my card and had contacted Skala to confirm that and told them somebody would come and collect it… “OK, so you guys should really try Skala restaurant and while you’re there, could you please collect my card and we’ll find some way to meet up. They did and we did. How’s that for a bit of luck.

One night in Lavsa and we headed for Sali a lovely little town on Dugi Otok, a long island with many interesting inlets, coves and anchorages but it was then we realised we had now left the Kornati National Park with all these day passes we’d paid for….

Reprovisioned in Sali and headed south again and into the Kornati’s so that it wasn’t a complete waste of money. 

We only had one more day to burn before rendezvousing with the Ausies to collect my Travel Card. 

One night in a cove at Uvala Vrulje, dinner at the restaurant onto who’s mooring we had tied and then a long climb to the top of a baron hill for an exquisite sunset/moonrise. 

As an asside, there is no garbage on the shorelines in Croatia and this is possibly why. Each town has a garbage bin area near the water, away from the town and accessible by dingy or when you pay for the mooring, the guys will take your garbage. A garbage boat turns up regularly and takes it all away. 

The Greeks and Turks could take a lesson here.

On Friday the 17^th at 9:05 we unhooked and started the long trek to the northern end of Dugi Otok and into a bay called Veli Rat. This was the decided venue for the card retrieval and a pot luck dinner on the Summer Amy. We tethered our paddle board to the neighbouring mooring buoy in order to ‘reserve’ it for them and settled in for a game of Rummycub. Penalty for losing was to swim naked to retrieve the paddle board on their arrival. I lost. Oh dear.

They turned up at 5:00 didn’t notice I was naked because of some strategic paddle board positioning until I had to swim back…. Woopin and a hollerin was all I could hear when I arrived back at our boat. “I'll explain later” I shouted.

They came over with Tuna Spag, we had done Spag Bol and it all ended around midnight. Summer Amy did us proud. The Aussie boys were under pressure from their partners to sell their boat and buy a catamaran.

Ready to rock!

Al had been very busy. All the teak had been oiled three or four times and the silverware had had a scrub down making the boat look like new. The marina staff had also been busy servicing the Sail drives and engines, polishing the hulls, repairing the punctured dingy and the Bora smashed engine cover. But….

Nenad, the marina contact through whom all work must be put was as useful as a punctured dingy. He forgot everything. I had to constantly remind him right through their winter about stuff that MUST happen before I got there, while I was there and the boat was out of the water and then when the boat went into the water. The most important item being the water maker. Without the kids we will be doing a lot of anchoring so we need to make pure water out of the sea. Did the repair happen? Did the guy even turn up?

The guys did such a nice job of the Sail drives and propellers that I was effusive with my compliments until I just happened to spin the prop after they had gone. To my utter amazement and disgust one whole section of anode was missing but they had turned the prop such that it could not be seen.  This would have meant un unbalanced prop which would have vibrated itself to pieces on starting the engine and putting it into gear. That would have meant taking the boat back out of the water at huge expense and no responsibility could now be levelled at the marina.

I called Nenad. He copped a strength five. Ask anybody who has witnessed one of those for an unbiased description. It didn’t stop until we left.

They literally had to remove the entire sail drive and take it to the workshop to fix the problem they had tried to cover up.

The boat was scheduled to go into the water at 8:00am on the 29^th June. We had planned to set the GoPro up at the top of the mast to do a time lapse of the launch like we did in Kos two seasons ago, but it couldn’t go up until the last minute to ensure it didn’t run out of battery or memory.

8:00 am came and went. They started launching other boats? 9:00am came and went. Adrenalin reached my face and I wondered down to the chap controlling the machine that picks up and moved boats to the crane and asked when he planned to move the Summer Amy….

“Oh” he says… “you need to pay something at reception before I can move it” Really! “When was somebody going to tell me that?”

The amount to be paid was $40… apparently the bank fee for transferring the many thousands of Euros it had cost to winter here. $40! No problem, just at least tell me so we can get the boat in the water in readiness for the water maker repairer who never showed anyway!

Erwin arrived while this was all happening. A welcome smiley face, an extra pair of hands and as it turns out, a great cook but more about that later. Wasn't long before his training began. Up the mast day one!

And so the journey begins at 11:10 on the 30th of June when we cast off motored out of Trogir and headed for Skradin.

Al arrives and I leave for London and Cambridge

By Sunday 18^th I had the boat ready for Al Reid’s arrival. For newcomers to this blog, Al is Canadian and has sailed with us for part of each of the three seasons past. So the boat was clean and setup but still on the hard so we had till Friday the 21^st before I had to flit off to the UK to do some work. Yes, yes I said work, but a four letter word none-the-less..

We hired scooters, made a shopping list of provisions and parts for the boat but had a ton of time on our hands so we visited Split, Primosten and the Krka National Park. We have noticed that Croatian is short on vowels.

Split is a big city with a very attractive waterfront and the now familiar ancient walled town with marble slabbed roads and alleyways and beautiful buildings hundreds of years old coping with the requirements of the 21^st century. 

Getting to that waterfront however was the same saga as when Sal and I did it 10 years ago. The roads got so narrow we needed to fold the mirrors. Much easier on a scooter but we had, once again failed to find the proper way in.

Krka National Park is a must see. A spring at its source, beautiful clean fresh water with dissolved lime stone which has been deposited along the river to form travertine walls which dam the water forming peaceful shaded ponds and waterfalls as you go down toward a grand waterfall which is where you can swim. Hot walk, cool swim, cold beer. Perfect.

Primosten was almost the last place we visited at the end of last season. A really neat little place on a promontory which I thought Al would appreciate as a lunch venue. He did.

And then there was the Boat Owners Party thrown by the owner of the Marina, who, in three different languages explained to everybody just how he made his money?? Must be a cultural thing. 

It was however a lavish affair, the theme was Miami Vice and the wine and cocktails went all night and the food was sumptuous and endless. The barmen put on a bottle juggling event with what looked like Molitov cocktails, in that they were alight. We hooked up with a boat load of poms and ended up on their boat till the wee hours.

Friday came and I flew to London where I caught up with Kate Scott and Steve McQuillan, old friends from my Astor days in London in the 80’s. Lunch at a pub in West Kensington ended at Steve’s apartment at 3:00am. Thank s Uber.

Lunch with Carrey-Leigh at Le Relais de Venise in Marylebone Lane in the West End. It’s French. They serve a delicious plate of salad, then steak, perfectly cooked, thinly sliced with fries. You can have as many servings of this as you’d like. Sounds pretty simple, but it was really good. I ordered a bottle of wine which Carrey declared I’d probably be drinking most of because she really doesn't drink much at all these days….. and she would need to get away to be home by five-ish.

After lunch we moved to an outdoor seat in the sun to a perfect little wine bar and ordered a glass of red each… we’d not have time for a bottle. The waitress swung by and as I was about to ask for the bill, Carrey ordered another glass, and another, and another. Always buy a bottle I say! One of my favourite ways to spend an afternoon, shooting the breeze with my beautiful daughter.

FaceBook took care of the following evening. Here was I hoping to catch up on some sleep when a message from Ant Gilbert, a motorcycling friend from home, changed all that. It did mean a schlepp all the way down to Clapham somewhere but it was great to catch up at the Eagle Ale House for way too many beers and nothing to eat. Had to get the Uber to find me a kabab shop on the way home.

Sunday was a family lunch at Alan River’s place in Notting Hill. It is in mid construction and true to form, it is a massive undertaking where he had to have the whole house held in the air while he dug an enormous basement taking up the full extent of the property and includes a lap pool about nine meters down! It was a great lunch.

Alan lives two blocks from Tony Blair, ex British PM and two blocks from the site of the Grenfell Tower blaze. There was a benefit concert happening so we went around for a look. Well nothing had prepared me for the sight of that building. It literally brought me to tears. The original fire was contained and residents were advised to stay in their apartments. It then smouldered through a wall onto the cladding on the outside of the building and up she went. 

Emergency callers were still being advised to stay in the building because they had not been updated on the inferno that left the building looking like the burnt out carcus it had become.

Uber to Kings Cross, train to Cambridge. If you’ve not been to Cambridge, put it on the list. It is beautiful and steeped in 800 years of academic history. This is where our Offices are, albeit in an industrial park. I dragged the occupants out into the sunshine for a group photo because the next time I see them they won’t be part of Reckon, they’ll be part of GetBusy, a separate entity we are about to list on AIM, a sub board for tech stocks on the London Stock Exchange.

Then off to PA Consulting, a brains trust working on a little idea I have brewed since I was 16 and first got on a motorbike. During the meeting I mentioned how nice it would be to be taken on a bit of a tour of old Cambridge. Ian Dunkley, my contact there said he had one more meeting, would meet me at my hotel and take me on said tour.

It was fascinating even though at this time of the year all the colleges are closed to the public. However, the pubs, inextricably connected to the academic history of this place, were not. So the tour became an historic pub crawl and that folks, is the way to do it! Thank you Ian.

Dinner with the senior staff on the roof of my hotel and a 6:00am board meeting saw me on a train to Stansted Airport and back to see what Al had achieved in my absence.

Back to Trogir, Croatia for season four

As any of you would be aware, the Summer Amy is for Sale. To put that in perspective, it has been advertised on a yacht sales web site at very little cost to place the ad. The site was recommended last season by a couple who used the same web site mid season and sold their boat to the first comer at the asking price... Now that's a result!


Sale through a broker means 10% to the broker... a bit rich me thinks but when we really really want to sell, we may take that option. So for now, I am happy to say I am back on board on the hard getting her ready for another adventure.

Thankfully they had moved her from the center of attention to somewhere a little more discreet. I still have a panoramic view of the marina life but I am less visible. She was filthy on the outside but much as I left her on the inside. 

Early this morning I got the bike down and went for a little sticky beak and to my great surprise discovered a short cut to the Trogir town centre. Everything in or near the marina is priced to hurt so this was no mean discovery and it put grocery shopping and lunch firmly on the agenda.

The markets were in full swing and the tourist season is already in top gear. After shopping I searched for a nice restaurant away from the water front for what I would have thought were obvious reasons but was swiftly reminded of the bland Croatian attitude to service at three separate stops. I won't go into detail but they may has well simply have told me to piss off it was that bad. Then to totally confound I did end up on the waterfront with all the tourists and the welcome, the food the service and the price will have me back there a few more times. Go figure?

One thing that was different from when we sailed in here and managed to jag a birth on the waterfront when Greg and Wendy Fraser were with us last year was that we would have been laughed at today. The big boats not only filled the entire length of the quay, they were rafted up three and four deep.

Now before we get into the season ahead I'd selfishly like to reflect on what we have been up to while the Summer Amy endured a European winter at Baotic Marina, Trogir, Croatia.

Our annual trip to Big White was cold. It averaged 20 degrees below the whole time, but the snow was brilliant from an Australian's point of view and having purchased new boots after a good 12 years in the old one and for the first time had them professionally fitted. I then test drove three recommended sets of skis before making that purchase, I have to say I have never enjoyed my skiing quite as much. Who knew?

We then flew to Maui to join, Greg and Wendy Fraser for 10 days of Hawaiian hospitality. Laid back as all get out, it was like dropping into the 60's underlined by a night at Fleetwoods. 
This is a pub owned by Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac fame who just happened to have his band performing and Sal being Sal managed to get tickets for this intimate banger of a night!



Not exactly a typical Hawaiian shot but the helicopter ride was a highlight as you can tell! You can see Hawaai reflected in the sunnies right?

We were home for Christmas for the first time forever and spent some time at our place on South Stradbroke Island before attending the Blues Fest at Byron Bay. 

Then its all about our kids... 

Carrey-Leigh lives the life of a working mum rasing two beautiful boys and, she turned 40 today... Not sure how she's feeling about that, its a big one to contemplate, and not just for her! .....I have a daughter who is 40....

Sorry Carrey, it's all about me remember. 

In case you're wondering, this is Zane and Aiden

Jarrad is earning an international reputation for the quality of his tattoo art and is currently on a European tour, he was a guests artist in Barcelona, Spain then headed to Italy, then Denmark where he worked for a year, Berlin and home.

Jack has now become a lynch pin at Reckon running the team primarily dealing with the sales of our online and cloud products against fearsome competition with bottomless pockets yet somehow making amazing headway.

Mark is plugging away at Uni but sounds like its all going to plan. 

His sky diving exploits have blown us away having won the rooky team national championships he has just been invited to join the Australian Big Way sequential skydiving record doing a '32 way' making three points (formations)... whatever the hell that means? Just sounds like awesone fun with lots of like minded individuals.

That's Mark with the purple shute bag, the person above them is one of two cameramen. This is one of three formations they have to perform as many times as possible in 35 seconds. The most difficult bit is staying at the same height as eachother. The slightest mistake in aerodynamics and they find themselves either above or below and therefore out of the group.

William is the soccer kid. He was selected in the 'super six indoor futsal team' to represent his school. They won the inter schools cup, his outdoor team looking really good too. Quite the swimmer too with a 2nd in freestyle, 3rd in breatsstroke and the relay team clocked a 4th.

For his birthday Mark bought him a session in the wind tunnel so I guess that means we'll have two of them keeping us awake at night!









Summer won the school and the inter schools cross country.

She then took 1st in the school freestyle, breaststroke and the relay. That got her a spot in the interschools team at ASISSA where the relay tean made the regionals.

They are both doing great at school although Summer enjoys academics a little more than her soccer crazy, gaming obsessed brother.

A fantastic life is all we ask them to aim for... So far, so good.

Now, back to the boat...

At the end of the last sailing season we agreed that it was no longer for the kids. Way too difficult keeping them interested and frankly it was all becoming a little same old, same old for Sal and I. 

We have half heartedly put the boat on the market but one thing is clear, she must be moved out of Croatia. It is very expensive to leave a boat here and so I the plan is to get her to Sicily.

We could just sail south through waters I have already sailed in order to check out at Cavtat, the southern most port of Croatia, and then pop over to Sicily, but given I have some mates joining me, we may as well make it interesting. 

So. The plan is to head north and having had another look at what there is to see, we would need six months to do it any justice at all but that would be pushing the brownie points into negative and irretrievable territory. 

I am booked to fly home on the 11th August which I'm sure you'll agree is a massive effort on Sal's part but by then the boat will need to be comfortably ensconced on the hard at Seragusa Marina and that ensconcing takes a few days.

I am still on the hard in Trogir, she doesn't go into the water until the 29th June as I need to go to London for some exciting Reckon stuff in between. We sail on the 30th. That gives us a maximum of five weeks to cover the rest of Croatia, Slovenia, Venice and then the 500 nautical mile schlepp south to Sicily. Ordinarily that will have taken four to five months for the Wilkinsons!

You may also appreciate that getting back to the boat this time has not been easy. I don't mean physically, but emotionally. At this point I am normally getting the boat ready for the arrival of my family but they are not coming. The boat is choc full of amazing memory triggers like bicycles, soccer balls, nurf guns, fluffy toys, Motenegran wine, coffee pods, coconut milk and stuff to make yummy Asian dishes I have no idea how to use? 

Today I had to make a list of provisions required. That has never been my job. So as much as it's great to get away, I do miss them all terribly and the adventure we are about to embark upon can never really be shared, something I know I will always regret.

And so I'll finish by thanking Sal for taking on the dual task of the house and kids whilst, (in your eyes) I gallivant around the Adriatic with my mates. Well it won't be that easy without my soul mate and my little ones, that is becoming clear.