Uvala Tatinja - Mooring madness and a BIG night

Only 20 miles to Uvala Tatinja on Solta, an island north west of Brac. This was where we decided to rendezvous with Jake and Dannie, Zoe and Lucas McAuliffe of the Sea Smith, the only other Aussies we have come across with kids on a boat since we began this caper.

Uvala Tatinja is a fairly well protected crack in the rocks with four buoy moorings belonging to a lone restaurant "Lonely Paradise" where if you moor you are obliged to eat.

Sal called ahead, booked two of the four buoys and dinner for four. 'Lamb under the belle', otherwise known as 'The Peka' ...... Sorted.

We arrived about an hour before the Sea Smith who had sailed from the north. A brisk wind blowing straight into the bay as we approached we were directed by the owner of the place toward the yellow buoy which looked like it was a few feet from the rocks at the crack's end and with the wind there was "no way in hell buddy".

You can see the buoys I'm talking about in this shot.

The closer we got, the more sure I was that this would not be a wise decision. We chose the red buoy one short of that and the protesting began from the shore and finger wagging at Sal from the balcony of the restaurant. I eventually put my foot down declaring "I am the captain of this boat, it is our boat not a charter and I am not putting her on that buoy"

Sal at this time feeling quite ill at the thought of attaching us to a buoy after our recent disaster at the Blue Cave managed to get us connected and we got settled to the annoyance of the owners.

The wind died down a little and the more it did the more possible that impossible buoy began to look. If we did not move then Sea Smith would not have a mooring as it was not only very close to the rocks, we were informed it would have been too shallow for their draft.

We bit the bullet and very gingerly disconnected from our buoy, pirouetted and with the wind behind us picked up the other buoy letting the breeze spin us around to face into the wind and hopefully not onto the rocks. Slowly she came around and finally settled literally 3 feet from the rocks.

I took two lines ashore off the stern so the boat was anchored on three points and would not move no matter what the wind did.

Sea Smith arrived, moored and all was good with the world but for our relationship with the owners, our dinner hosts for the evening.

The kids were united on the paddle board and on their dingy, the water out of this world, so clear.

This is off our port stern. Scary!

Parental bliss with the kids non-electronically engaged, Hendrick's (Sal's new fave tipple) and tonic, sun setting and almost time for dinner.

We were hoping our relationship with the hosts may have thawed since we ended up on the right buoy and thus proving them correct.

Such a short hop from our boats to the restaurant it was somehow decided that we use Sea Smith's dingy as it was already in the water and no need for a motor, ores would suffice.

We all went up, the food arrived and it looked the whole nine yards. The 'Peka' is an ancient Croatian feast taking hours to prepare and not to be missed.

Jake then kindly rowed the kids over to our boat where Will got them sorted with a movie and the parents were left to total and complete irresponsibility.



The manager and his wife, the finger wagger, served and entertained until the owner and his wife joined us, out came the home made poison up went the volume and the piss taking began. The owner mimicking me and my "I'm the Captain" speech, Sal mimicking the finger wagging from the balcony and all of us falling about laughing when Dannie disappeared?? Jake becoming anxious went and found her. It seemed the home made tipple had tippled her over the edge.

This was when Jake the total hero saved the day. Rowing Dannie home and putting her to bed. Then over to our boat to put our kids to bed, collect his kids, row them back to his boat putting them to bed and finally, a good few shots and much laughter later coming to collect a very unsteady Sally and Gregory, rowing us back to our boat and almost having to put us to bed then finally home to bed himself. What a hoooot!

A slow start the following day had us on a three and a half hour sail north to a mainland port of Primosten for one more night with the McAuliffe's