Sucuraj was a beautiful, quaint little village. At this time of year it was quiet and I could take my morning walk in solitude. After visiting the church, I picked up some fresh bread from the bakery. After a leisurely breakfast we were ready to set off.
There wasn’t a lot of wind, just enough and from the wrong direction to make our departure a bit tricky. The wind blew us straight into the pier, and we got a chance to practice with a spring line and driving into the pier. Luckily there weren’t any other boats in front of us, but there was that tricky lamppost and our anchor jutting out perfectly close to it. Forward spring line taught, big fender properly positioned, gear forward, turn into the pier and the aft started slowly pushing out. Almost a textbook departure. There was a little hassle with pulling the line in when I started reversing. I was already looking backwards so as not to catch the mooring line of a fishing boat and not to go in the shallow part of the harbour.
We got out safely and the sails were up in a jiffy. We headed towards the lighthouse that we had visited the previous day. It’s always nice to sail off with the sun at your back. We headed northwest and rounded the eastern tip of Hvar, heading for the north side of Brac. With the wind coming just from that direction, we decided to cross over and see what the coast looked like on the mainland.
And it looked very nice. So nice that we found a beautiful cove with a beach. Two crazy people wanted a morning swim, so we anchored there and the crew took a dip and a swim to the beach, while the skipper waited, clad in two woollen sweaters. Even though I am a former competitive swimmer and swimming instructor, as a skipper I have one rule. Unless there is an emergency, stay in the boat. Not even at these latitudes is the water warm enough for swimming.
The crew was ecstatic and said it was a wonderful and “refreshing” swim. Yeah, right. With the crew happy we continued on and even saw a dolphin on the way. With the northerly wind forecast and our position on the north coast of Brac, I was looking for a bay that would give us shelter for the night. The pilot book said that Uvala Luka would fit our purposes beautifully.
In the late afternoon we made it to our destination, and it looked quite deserted. We optioned for the pontoon that Konoba Rouen was offering. With no other guests, we could pick our spot.
A little walk and some chilling. Since we were parked by the restaurant, it was appropriate to book a table. With no other customers, that wasn’t hard. Like in many other places, the keepers were elderly and English was not their choice of foreign language. German, on the other hand, was. Our German isn’t great, but we managed to order.
The fish was fresh and pretty good. The wine was OK, but the squid was rather overcooked and made it quite chewy. After dinner, we were offered some local specialities. I always love trying different kinds of liquors, and some of these were quite interesting. Jägermeister is sweet and sticky, Hungarian Unicum is not something most people enjoy and one of the bottles was one up on that. I enjoyed it, but my fellow sailors balked at the smell. As I was a bit unsure of the ingredients and the “medicinal” effects, a couple was enough for me too.
It was the beginning of the season and we were the only guests. The service was attentive enough, even though maybe on the slow side. We were in no hurry. Some might say it was on the expensive side, but I usually forgive restaurants in secluded places for this. You try getting your supplies there and you’ll know what an effort it is. I still give our visit 4/5.
With a slight swagger, we headed off to get our rest for the next day’s adventure.
The joys of life. Sailing. Travel. Food. 