Made a huge mistake when we left the boat last year, somehow we managed to leave the laptop behind. Our very good friend Graham lent us a laptop so that we could keep in touch with everything but it meant that the blogs were completely abandoned. So now we are back a quick catch up with what we have been doing.
The trip to Spain was uneventful if a little difficult, snow the day before had left big drifts on the motorway but thankfully they had all be ploughed to the side by the time we got there.
We spent Christmas and New Year at Vinaros, loads of parties with mountains of food and drink with good friends as usual.
We drove back to the UK for Dave’s appointment with his surgeon. Went over the Millau Viaduct for the first time, what a view!! Once Dave had seen the specialist all we had to do was wait for the letter confirming the operation date, so we had a couple of trips out, one to Arundel, it was freezing cold and the wind was bitter.
In the meantime Dave did the deal to change the Winnebago for a Burstner motorhome so we packed everything from the Winnebago into it and headed for the New Forrest.
Just in time for the snow fall. Very pretty and it didn’t last that long, and the heating system in the Burstner is marvellous so we kept warm. Dave got a cancellation slot for his op so we headed back to Oxfordshire to be near the hospital.
The weather was beautiful and we took some lovely walks along the river while Dave’s hand was healing. Once he got the all clear from the surgeon we sold the car and booked the ferry for our trip back down to the boat.
The first night we stayed near Dunkirk, then we stayed on the bank of the Mosel river, then somewhere in Germany, the last night was in the capital of Slovenia were it rained and turned the campsite into a quagmire, we had to be dug out !!!! Just as well we didn’t have the Winnebago or we would still be there !!
We went to our favourite restaurant our first night back in Biograd, best pizza place in town and open all year unlike some of the others. Set to work the next day cleaning the boat, there had been strong off shore winds which had brought dust down from the fields and covered the boats with a layer of grey dirt, took most of the day to wash it off. Inside was not so bad but still had dust on everything. Then started fitting the new equipment on the boat, what an experience getting wires from the binnacle through the engine room, under the shower compartment and up to the navigation station. Then a repeat performance with the connections for the new radio, a good way of finding out what's behind all the panelling though !!!
Then just when we thought we were ready for our first sail the weather changed and reminded us winter was not completely over.Hail stones some the size of small marbles, we were lucky not to have any damage, an hour later the sun was out and they were all gone in another hour or so.
Finally after fitting a reconditioned alternator, (don’t ask) we were able to get out for our first sail of the season. Headed down to the island of Murter where the views over the Kornati Island are wonderful. Only problem was they are digging up the main street to lay new water pipes or something and the restaurant we were going to go to is closed. Its a long detour around to the main square too so next time we took the dingy to the centre of town.
We stopped off on the way back to the boat for a beer and Dave liked the look of the menu so we returned later that evening for Dave’s birthday dinner. They produce their own wine like most the local restaurants do and it was very good, as Dave’s face shows.
The next day we sailed to Soline on the island of Pasman, spent a very lazy afternoon in the bay and had supper on board. Then in the morning we motored back to the marina, very little wind and in the wrong direction as usual. More bad weather forecast so will probably be in home port for a few days.
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