Ruled by Weather Windows

This post is based on real events that occurred August 13-16, 2022. (Better a bit late than never.) These were our last three stops in Croatia, still in the Istria region…

Our crew of seven left Pula and had a great day of sailing up to the gorgeous town of Rovinj. First time in awhile we got to sail without any motors. Conor was thrilled with the 12 knot winds and our speed of 6 knots. We were still enjoying beautiful, clear blue water but were starting to see jellyfish for the first time. Tons of huge, orange-brown ones.

We stayed in Rovinj one night enjoying the beautiful ACI marina and neat town. The marina was the first to remind me of our initial home of Porto Montenegro. Check out their fancy bathrooms! And, it was literally next-door to a nice beach area. Yay. I believe Rovinj ended up being a favorite stop among our young adults.

At the top of the hill, Rovinj has a beautiful cathedral and bell tower – the church of St. Euphemia – along with great views. The church was built in the early 1700s and is the largest baroque sacred building in the Istria region. The body of St Euphemia (who was only 16 when she was martyred) was taken out of Constantinople in the year 800 and moved here to be safely housed. 

Walking back down, you can wind through beautiful old streets. Just watch your slippery step.

We enjoyed a lovely dinner in Rovinj with the sunset. At least most of us did. Laura was a bit taken aback and turned a bit green when her lobster pasta came with an entire lobster. Sean was a mensch and cracked the whole thing for her!

Our next stop was Umag. This was going to be our most northern and last stop in Croatia. (It offered the most direct crossing to Venice.) Umag has a huge bay and the town wraps around it. Great long promenade for walking, jogging, and biking all around the bay. They even had a cute tourist train running through the streets that Kyle was particularly taken with. Not a lot to tout here, but we did end up spending two days due to the bad weather. Everyone got to experience our strongest thunderstorm yet. We were all awake and having a party at 2am as cushions from outside were being rushed inside. Needless to say, not the best night sleep ever, but we were safe in our dock.

We were hoping to make our departure from Croatia, but the weather forecast was still not cooperating. We were waiting for a better weather window. What is a “weather window” some non-sailers might ask… Well as you might guess, it’s essentially a time in between storms or otherwise not ideal sailing conditions. Movement from one location to another is completely dictated by weather windows. We were waiting for a big one to make the crossing across the Adriatic Sea over to Venice.

For a change of scenery, we simply motored about an hour south to the town of Novigrad. Nice marina (as part of a nice hotel), but the heat wiped everyone out so all we really did was swim. We never made the trek into town! And while still good to be submersed in the sea, it was likely everyone’s least favorite beach. Slimy bottom and super shallow forever. We swam all the way out to the rope border and even I could still easily stand. 😉 We did, however, enjoy our second night in a row of dinner on the boat and an evening that ended with all kinds of music and singing. We are loving our crew and their easy-going, go-with-the-flow attitudes!

The next day, we had a full one-day weather window, so we were finally ready to depart. We had a huge case of heartburn, however, when the starboard engine failed to start. We were never getting to Venice! After some exploring and troubleshooting, and giving the engine a bit of a wiggle, we got it starting again consistently. This was later fixed properly by Conor in Venice. We could now set off for Italy, and we did. 

Ciao, Croatia, and thank you for four great weeks. We’ll see you again in a few more!