On our way off to sail to the Island of Mljet we sailed passed the old town to just savour the beauty and take more photos.  It is a city that everybody should see sometime it is so impressive.

Our next anchorage was Polace which is the national park end of the Island of Mljet.  The bay is protected with cyprus pines and has an old castle on the hill.  We took the dingy ashore and a bus took us to the lake where a little boat ride is over to a small island with an old Beniedictine monestery stands.  There is only the little church and restaurant still in use but a fabulous experience to see the isolation.

Another swim off the back of the boat before an alfresco dinner in the cockpit of the boat with our little hurrican lamp flickering away.  The bay was filling up with boats as the wind was reported to be building up overnight.  A big white 85ft ketch called Sher Kahn slid in and put down her anchor completing the magical scene.

The wind did blow up and about 2 am a catameran broke anchor, cut the anchor rope of another yacht and the 2 of them careared into 3 other anchored yachts.  Fortunately we were tucked safely away further up the bay and with our huge anchor and 60 foot of chain out we never moved and inch.

30th June, 2005 Polace to the Island of Lastovo

We had a following wind all day and when the sea got a bit lumpy we just ducked behind one of the many small islands dotted along the way.

We could hardley believe our eyes at how beaufiful Lastovo Island is and how underpopulated and quiet.  The little marina in the bay of Pasadur *which means Paradise.  The island has been in the hands ofthe military for years owned by Italy, but after world war 2 it was given back to the Croatians.  There is a big hotel run by a charming lass Rosie who was born in Melbourne and her parents came back to the island to retire and she came to visit them and met her husband and they have taken over the hotel, diving school and marina and are running it very well.  She loved talking to us said it made her feel homesick for Australia, let us use her internet etc  We also took the opportunity to partake of the night special at the hotel restaurant of a pig on the spit, the following night a lamb on the spit and then a goat on the spit.  Drinking the islands excellent wine you can see why we stayed so long in Pasadur!!

Fresh drinking water is getting very hard to come by on the islands as the summer heats up and the crowds of tourists keep coming.   Our water maker is still not operational and Leo is anxious to meet up with Owen West to see how he works his water maker.  We have emailed the makers to send an English version of the instruction book which we only have in Italian and even with Peter sitting with an American guy who can read Italian they still cant work it out to use it.

HOORAH! HOORAH! Watermaker Manual (English version) has arrived via the internet and Peter, Stan and Leo will hopefully be able to get us fresh water on board Affinity.

This island is so beautiful we dont mind being held up here while the weather passes over us.  A very nice American couple have pulled up along side us and are full of information about the islands as they are travelling south to Dubrovnik and we are travelling north to Split where they have just come from.  They are very short of drinking water and were able to buy a 5 gal. drum of fresh water from Rosie at the hotel.  It is so good to chat to other travellers in depth when they speak English fluently.  Laurie, the American lady followed me up to the little outside bar where I had gone to sit in the shade to read my book and wanted to have a real chat about family, grandchildren etc. which all Mums and Grandmas miss while they are travelling.  She was dying to see her new grandson only 3 weeks old.  They were on their way south to cross over to Brindisi where they will leave their boat and fly back to Los Angeles and the bad weather was a real bummer. 

Of course I was able to produce my photo of my 2 grandsons and we both felt a lot better after our chat, then our husbands joined us and the conversation went back to boats and the weather!

We look like being able to get going from this island tomorrow so Stan and I will take a taxi up the big hill behind the marina up to the town of Lastova where we hope to find an ATM and a better supermarket as we need money and Ida needs supplies.

We did make it up to Lastova and the cab driver took us to the main lookouts along the way and the photos are on the photo page. The town of Lastova is tiny and no ATM and the smallest mini mart I have ever seen but we did get some supplies and was able to catch a bus back to Pasadur before dark.  Lastova is famous for its many different chimneys it was a way on distinguishing each family and when they went to another house they had to take their chimney with them so people would know where they had moved too, also very handy when they were invaded, as they have been many times over the centuries, it was really a secret code among the locals.

We went for our final dinner at the excellent restaurant at the hotel where it was roast kid (goat) and they had live music and dancing.  Looking around the tables there were Germans, Croats, English, American and of course 6 suntanned Aussies.  A very international group.

Ida and Leo did one of their amazing long walks today and discovered an abandoned millitary camp complete with bunkers with beds and little stoves etc. would make a great film set for a war movie.  We will be putting some photos on the website to tell the story.