Two tragedies in one day but all's well that ends well

After our scooter adventure we moved to the north coast of the island of Vis. Like much of the European coastline, Croatia has a lot of German concrete from WW2. On Viz we came across this spectacular rather spooky example.


Submarines, the menace of the seas, were very vulnerable to air attack when resupplying, this was the German answer to the problem.








Many of these submarine pens were built along the coast line, they now make useful docking places for visiting yachts!









I reckon each pen would hold 4 submarines.

Just opposite the pen was small concrete dock, ideal for setting up the barbeque,














and after a barby, any good Aussie must swim - bottoms up!









With the last of the meat cooked on the barby we needed to restock. Chris set to work (I don't have the patience) - he got a fish! Well sort of....
thank goodness for supermarkets! Our time was to come though....

We carry an inflatable canoe on board, its nice to have a paddle around the rocky coastline. Eyeing up the kayak Chris asked if it was stable. No problem says I, rock solid!

With the kayak alongside the back platform and Melanie on board, I climbed in or rather didn't....
In fairness to the canoe my hand slipped on the boat, I lost my grip when only half way in and gravity did the rest whilst I took Melanie with me. Woody stayed on board, calm as a cucumber whilst our Aussie friends howled with laughter!



We made it in the end and set off for a nice paddle.

It was then time to say goodbye to Chris and Katherine. We dropped them off in Split and made plans for the next leg of our adventure.





The sun was shining, at last the forecast was good for days and a good wind was blowing from the south, things were looking good!

We decided to make use of the wind and get some miles in to the north so left the Split area in a stiff 20 knot wind. Before going to sea I checked all was secure below and set the sails. Doing a good 7 knots we rounded the end of the island and out into the sea proper. Crash! Rock 'n' no Roll doesn't roll but she does rock - significantly when a 4' swell comes under the hull! When getting ready for sea I had missed a lovely bottle of Aussie wine that Chris and Katherine had given us which I had left just above the chart table waiting to be put away. Now it was a smashed mess on the floor. Tragedy no1. Oh well, every cloud has a silver lining, the bilges will smell nice for weeks!

I had the fishing lines out, more out of habit than hope - we had long ago decided that there were no fish in the Med, at least not in shore. Actually we were going several miles off shore so, you never know! Well, an hour later the whirr of a rod reel split the silence. The reel is set with a tension such that if a fish bites it can pull out more line if it pulls very hard thus avoiding the danger of breaking the line from a sharp tug. As the line pulls out the reel whirrs - the golden sound every sport fisherman is waiting for.
All hands to action. Turn the boat into wind to slow it down and reduce the drag on the line, pick up the rod and reel her in! This thing put up quite a fight, this was no diddly mackerel! Bit by bit it came closer to the boat. Melanie got the net, clipped herself onto the boat and climbed down to the back platform ready to scoop up our prize. It dived deep over and over as it got close to the boat bending the rod in a spectacular fashion then suddenly, exhausted, up it popped, it was huge!

This was the dodgy part of the operation where it is easiest to loose the fish.
Melanie lent over the back to scoop up the fish in the net,  nope, it was too big. She went back up to get the gaff, a long pole with a monster hook on the end that you jab into the fish to bring it aboard. While she was getting the gaff I thought I just might be able to pull the fish up onto the back platform, only a few inches above the water. As the fishes nose popped up I gently pulled it up. Big mistake. It was half out of the water when it gave a big thrash - bang, the line broke and it was gone.
Oh well,  tragedy no.2 but another lesson learnt.



Reset the line, turn back onto course and enjoy the sail.
An hour or so later  whirrrrrrrrrrrrrr  - both rods were screaming - we had two bites! I haden't planed for this eventuality. Still, one at a time.
Boat into wind, slow down, wind her in. Even bigger fight, lesson learnt, get the gaff - got him!
This fellow weighed in at 10kg, that should feed us for a few days!
The irony is, having struggled to find fresh fish anywhere for the last month except in restaurants, we found a wonderful fish market only yesterday and bought 3 meals worth! Oh well, it was worth it!

But I need a bigger bucket, this one isn't big enough!

By the time I got to the second rod the fish was gone taking the lure with it. probably just as well, I don't know what we would have done with it!