Water, Water Everywhere, Now We Can Drink It Too

We stayed in Split for nearly a week as it offered good shelter from some strong winds plus we had visitors due to arrive in a few days time.

Whilst there we met new friends in the anchorage. They were living on their boat but also had an apartment and car in Split and very kindly took us on a day trip to a large shopping centre in the city. We made use of having transport and stocked up on heavy items from the grocery store.

We also met up with our friends from MdR on their catamaran Wahoo and spent a couple of evenings with them enjoying sunset drinks and food.

It was then time for a visit from the original Ed & Fred (aka Mum & Dad). They were on a Mediterranean cruise which was docking in Split for the day so we arranged to meet up with them on a nearby beach. The bay wasn’t sheltered enough for us to go and anchor with Ziggy so we took Ed & Fred II to shore (after evicting an unwanted passenger) and set off on a walk around the hilly coastline through the pine forest of the Marjan peninsular.

The area has been protected since the 14th Century, apparently anyone caught red handed at that time damaging or cutting down trees were fined 5 Libras and if caught at night the fine increased to 10 Libras. If the offender did not have the means to pay, they were whipped throughout the city, which all sounds very Game of Thrones.

Despite these strict measures the forest was completely destroyed by the 17th Century and was left as wasteland for 200 years. Eventually it was replanted with Aleppo pine trees as they survive well in drought and the needles drop which revitalise the soil.

Nowadays, the area is once again a protected City Park with a well maintained pathway to walk through the overhanging trees.

After about an hour we could see the beach we were heading to, we just had to find a way down to it.

We were pleased to find a cafe when we finally arrived serving frappe with ice cream. We had a lovely day on the beach with Ed & Fred swimming in the clear blue water.

The following day we lifted our anchor and motored out of the bay. With 15kts of wind behind us we turned off the engine and sailed north with the Genoa only. There were more strong winds forecasted over the next couple of days so we headed to Rogoznica and anchored in Podglavica, a large bay to the east of the town, where we would be sheltered from the forthcoming storms.

The wind picked up to 30kts by the evening and our anchor started to drag on the weedy seabed, so we had to reset it in the middle of the night. Luckily there was a Supermoon lighting up the bay to help us as we looked around for a good spot.

We had nearly run out of fresh water in our tanks, this normally meant that we would have to go into a costly marina to refill. However, we recently invested in a water maker which hadn’t yet been installed, so Paul got to work and connected it all up, which of course involved taking the boat apart again!

It wasn’t long before it was ready to switch on. With anticipation we fired it up and started converting sea water into fresh water using only the power from the sun on our solar panels. We were also pleased to see that there were no leaks anywhere….yet!

We had the water maker set up on the table in the saloon as a temporary arrangement to test that everything worked, it still needs to be installed and plumbed in permanently but we need some more fittings for that. The waste pipe was draining into the sink in the forward heads but after making water for a while, we noticed that the pipe had flipped out of the sink and flooded the heads! We then tied it down more securely.

A big restriction while travelling has been getting fresh water into our tanks roughly every two weeks, so this is a game changer for us to be able to make our own whilst sitting in a pretty anchorage.

Our friends on Wahoo had also come into the bay so after the strong winds had passed we joined them for an evening walk over the hills around the bay. We started off through an old disused compound which was full of rubbish and discarded domestic items. It was close to the beach and looked like it may have once been a holiday resort, but now looks more like the set for a Zombie film, so we hurried on.

Once passed this we had a lovely walk up the hill giving great views of ZigZag and the other yachts in the bay.

There was a small farming village at the top of the hill with ruined buildings which were slowly being renovated.

Continuing on, we eventually arrived down at the opposite end of the bay. We walked back along the beaches until we found a small kiosk selling beer and ice cream, well it would be rude not to stop.

We got back just as the sun was setting and went onboard Wahoo for a final sundowner.