Run out of Venice

We were chased out by the mosquitos. Also the mugginess. But mostly the mosquitoes. Our marina location was quite marshy with much still water, so we couldn’t sit outside or even open the windows that don’t have nets (which is most of them). Conor was on his own for a week with no one else around, so even he got very eaten up by the bugs. Therefore, while we really enjoyed the time in the city of Venice, upon my return we left many days early with a weather window to find more favorable conditions for living on a boat. 

Would we ever return to Venice? Absolutely. Would we do so by boat? Most likely not. Our marina was the closest you could get to the island of Venice, and we just couldn’t imagine the conditions improving, unfortunately.

We had a couple of good weather days in the forecast, so this time as we were making our way back to Croatia, we decided to stick along the northern Italian coast. We found ourselves stopping a night in what turned out to be the neat, lively town of Caorle. 

Getting in to our marina Darsena dell’Orologio was a special experience. We turned off the sea into a channel that led inland. We kept winding through this narrow, shallow channel for what felt like forever until we eventually came to the entrance to the marina. The channel kicked up Conor’s blood pressure already – at times it was only 2.1 meters deep and Sabática has a draft of 1.1 meters – but when we saw the marina entrance, we just shook our heads. Turns out the entrance was 7.3 meters wide and Sabática is 6.72 meters wide without fenders. That left Conor with a difference of 30 cm of spare room on either side (without fenders, which of course we had). I was ready with roving fenders, but Conor nailed it and took us straight through the middle of that tight passageway. 

Once inside, we couldn’t get any response from the marina. We had another larger boat on our tail and others coming the opposite way. Eventually, two marinaios (the official name for the marina staff) arrived by dinghy and showed us where to side dock. A bit of a bummer since we had already readjusted the fenders and lines for med mooring again. Quick movement on my part to get everything back to starboard and we secured ourselves to the dock. Conor could breath again.

Conor could also finally wash the boat after our long stint in Venice and time in drought-ridden Istria to remove bugs, leaves, etc. I had mounds of laundry to attend to and, fortunately, there was one washing machine in the women’s bathroom available for use. There was not one in the men’s bathroom. Don’t get me started. 

After some time with chores, we went into town to explore and have dinner. We were pleasantly surprised with Caorle. We weren’t expecting much, but it turned out to be a very colorful and lively town with lots of tourists still all about. We enjoyed our last yummy Italian meal for awhile then strolled around and marveled how at 10pm on a Monday night the streets were packed with families with young kids, all the stores were open, a live piano concert was going on near the impressive bell tower, other pianos were stationed around the town with kids giving their own little concerts, and the neat double promenade along the water was full of walkers. Lots of Italian and German tourists were here enjoying the beaches, water parks, and all the town had to offer. A nice discovery! (Sorry for the lack of good photos – it was dark and I didn’t take many!)

We were then ready for another hop across the Adriatic Sea to reach Slovenia…