About 2 weeks ago I spotted on Facebook an ad that needed a temp Captain for 1week on a 28m Riva. I messaged the Captain who had posted the ad, he explained me he would need a relief to tide over the interim for the new Captain to join as he needed to leave asap for another job. Typical planning in yachting.
Anyway, I said I'm available and it didn't take long for the Owner himself to call me on 15th July and propose joining dates and flights for 17th to which I agreed. Luckily I was already vaccinated and didn't need to run around for tests so all I needed was a weeks worth of handluggage.
Said and done I was on my way to Nice a day before as the flight was early. Checked in next to airport and enjoyed a quiet evening. Next morning got on the flight to Montenegro on time and made my connection. I landed in Tivat about 1700hrs from where I took a taxi to marina Montenegro. No issues with the covid vax card.
There were several large yachts in, among them the famous Pelorus now under arrest for unpaid bills and dues as explained by the Agent. I believe she was also subject to an article with Nautilus re: unpaid crew wages which I understand are now resolved. Alas, the yacht still remained under arrest for port dues and most likely other lapsed documents needed for sailing (into EU). Anyway, I digress, back to the marina and my mission.
I found the Riva next to the big crane and clambered onboard. There I met the British skipper and the Owner, we had a short introductory chat and then got on with the handover. Funny enough her registered length was 23.98m but LOA was 28m, this apparently allowed skippers with the 24m patent to command them under Italian reg's. Well, she had a very long bow, I give her that.
I was accommodated into a spare guest cabin as the only guests was the Owner + avec. It was very kind of him as the skipper shared a small coffin with the deckhand on a bottom top bunk arrangement. Next door was a similar cabin for the 2 stewardesses that had been given a day off. The messroom could fit one person sitting on the theoretical 2 person sofa but at the moment it was swamped by an ironing board and pending laundry next to the washing machine.
Handover was all by show and tell so it was quite a bit to take up with power management, genset and main engine startups, navigation systems and routines. Water management, all lighting, mainswitchboard feeds, a/c systems, watermaker, stabilisers (fins and 2x gyros) etc. all of it is consolidated in a supervision system designed by Riva that could be accessed at any conning position, i.e. inside the bridge and on the flybridge, very convenient when it works.
Propulsion was also all coordinated from bridge, one could start and stop from bridge, flybridge and the station aft main engines and thrusters. Naturally the prudent mariner does necessary checks in situ before starting remotely. There was twin props aft and a thruster fore and aft, so if one could not maneuver the boat into berth with these then it is better to change career path. I think another aspect is that once you clutch in the main props she'll jump ahead or astern and very quickly things can go wrong if one is not careful, hence the thrusters, maybe as an evolution of this.
The evening went by very fast and the skipper, soon having given the bit he wanted, took his gear and moved into a hotel as he was flying the next morning. I had a bit of dinner with him and went back onboard having also met the Antigua-Barbudan deckhand. The plan was to start early next morning, bunker cheap fuel and then continue towards Croatia.
Next morning 18th I was up early, having called the marina for disconnecting services & final invoice I moved over to fuel dock that was at end of marina. The dock was available as agreed the previous day and we went alongside. Soon enough we had the hose and pistol and fuel was going into the tank like one would be filling up a car, just much bigger tanks that could take 8000 litres in total.
As we had fueled 6000litres we departed and recovered the tender (yes, there was a small one in the garage + a jetski) that could be pulled up with a winch like a larger ship onto a slip. Then all was closed for sea (indications on bridge) and off we went into the fiord to reach open seas and turn towards Croatia. On the way we passed the old cold war accesses for submarines, the doors had fallen apart and one could see old hulks floating in there.
We would have to check into Croatia in Cavtat port but as it was Sunday I was informed by our Agents that the Customs (capitanerie) was not open there and was advised to go to Dubrovnik instead. Said and done we went on economic speed of 8-9kts towards Gruz port in Dubrovnik, at same time booked a berth for the night in Marina Frapa as per plans.
The agent did the clearing in and the "vignette" (cruisepermit) at the Customs dock and then we could move over to the marina that was on opposite side. We moored stern-to Mediterranean style and the marina gave groundlines, very new looking facility and clean jetty. As we had tied up the crew was dismissed onto town and I was invited for dinner with Owners. We enjoyed a nice dinner in the old city at the water front near the cruise ship jetty. Afterwards spent the evening walking around old town before returning onboard for the night.
Morning 19th as planned we left early for Mljet Island toward the nature reserve at the far western end. It was again economic speed and we pottered ahead 8kts, it was quite remarkable that the 3000+ HP MTU engines only consumed about 30litres/ hour at this speed considering that doing 32kts it would be 950litres/hour. Also the range for former would be 2400' compared to latter with 300'. Gives some perspective to the old adage that "time is money".
During morning the Owner outlined his quest of rendering his yacht into commercial from private and that he'd been waiting for the previous skipper to furnish all the necssary data to the intended new flag state (changing from British to Cook Is) but apparently he had been too busy. Later in the afternoon I spent 2hrs collecting the data he needed for the flag state surveyor, piece of cake.
We were at the nature reserve around lunch time & after having sailed in the labyrinthine fiord we anchored inside the innermost bay that was already littered by small boats with the classic anchor ahead and lines ashore arrangement. Eventually I managed to drop anchors at a spot where we didn't need stern lines ashore so as the breeze was steady we rode on the anchors.
Guests went ashore to explore the Island on electric scooters whilst crew got on with housekeeping. Apparently this nature reserve had been Tito's favorite, I can't fault him at that, the surroundings looked spectacular. At some point the reserve guards came to say hello and wanted us to pay entry, luckily we had purchased tickets online so we were covered and they were happy to see the email. Come evening the wind came down and for the night it was calm.
20th morning we made arrangements to leave and as we heaved up anchors we were delayed a bit having them fouled during night. I should have heaved up one for the night. Luckily a chap next to us came and gave a hand to our deckhand and me pulling lines and chains on fore deck whilst the Owner was on the controls. Soon enough we were on our way north over to the next Island, Korcula, allegedly the birth place of Marco Polo, at least as per Croatian opinion.
As we came towards Korcula the wind increased and soon enough in front of Korcula it was pretty strong gale force winds blowing steadily from west along the channel formed by the Island north of Korcula. We retreated down towards where we had come from to some relative shelter and tried anchoring next to an Island for lunch, I put down 60m of chain in 5m of water but the glassfiber boat swung over 180deg and rode up in to the wind, bottom consistency was rock, and soon enough we started dragging closer to shore so I heaved up anchor in search for a better venue. Shortly I put down the anchor near a monastery and was again swinging wildly from the wind and again after some time we started again dragging. Luckily lunch was over by then. I started to see why the locals tied up their sterns ashore.
Later in afternoon having confirmed there was no space in Korcula marina we managed to secure a berth a bit south in Lumbarda marina, a quaint small village and I think we got the last berth for the evening. The wind was still buffeting us and the thrusters proved convenient holding the vessel in place at close quarters. Here we also got groundlines from the marina and secured stern-to.
In the evening I was instructed to take the crew out for dinner and we took taxi from the marina into town. The driver spoke excellent english but with an American accent, turned out he had spent years working there. Once in Korcula we ambled along the seaside where there was a long row of restaurants and we chose fairly quickly one that looked ok. Food and service turned out fantastic and everyone was enjoying, all 4 crew of us. For dessert we decided to walk to an ice cream parlor and call our American taxi driver to take us back.
On the 21st we went all of us to the local hospital for Covid tests (everyone registered the previous evening online) and then for provisions. Italian officials wanted us all tested within 48hrs so timing was crucial. The venue for testing had been setup on the backyard of the hospital and was pretty straight forward, there was a line along the wall and a single chair at the nurses table. When your turn came you told them your name, they cross checked it off their list and you sat down, the nurse approached, asked you to remove your mask. Once mask was off she'd attack with a swab and first stick into your throat to tickle your tonsils and when you sarted gagging she'd stuff the swab into your nose. From there she pushed it so deep that once resistance was met she gave it a good swirl before pulling it out. Then you were done, not the most pleasant of experiences. We had to be back a few hours later to collect the tests so it was off to the supermarket.
At the supermarket the Chef was left for her needs and Owner wanted to buy some electric fans so we were off with the taxi to a local electrics store and eventually scored some good ones. Once back at the market I gave a hand with the shopping and our Spanish stewardess was looking on as she had stumbled down her bunk and hurt her knee. By the looks of it I did straight away recommend going on sickleave as she had a history of ski accident. She tried and and tried but I eventually managed to convince the Owner (as the Island had only first aid clinics with one Doctor serving surrounding Islands) to send her home on sick leave before any real damage was caused by her hobbling around trying to do her duties.
Once shopping was done and test results collected we were back at the marina clearing out the bill for the stay and Owner and me chatted to the manager about the activities there which was quite interesting as next door was a working shipyard for decent size coastal vessels. Then it was time to cast off and try and find a place for the night. The same breeze as yesterday was again prevalent and I started seeing a pattern that mornings it would blow up to westerly, ten by evening it would go down and turn easterly in the wee hours until in afternoon turning westerly again. Local coastal breeze effected by change of temperature of land and water.
We cruised round all the small islands in the area and I tried a stern-to mooring at one place but the sidewind pushed us off plus & then the fwd thruster stopped working. Again heaved up anchors and we cruised to another bay where we got wind shelter and stayed for the night. I put out 80m in 5m of water depth. Then we went for a swim to look at the forward thruster and discovered there were no blades left anymore, they had been all sheared off for some reason. Owner did earlier ask me if it sounded odd but as I had no audioimpression when it was working normally I still thought it was ok as it sounded the same rough hydraulic growl as when other small vessels I've heard using their thrusters and thrusting power was fine too. Apparently the previous skipper had had some issues previously so possibly it was damaged then slightly and with my usage the blades then cavitated off one by one.
She swung again as usual but by evening the wind died and early wee hours of the 22nd the easterly breeze set in and I had to heave up by sunrise because of the chop that rocked the boat, so change of location was on the cards in order to get lee. The anchor seemed to hold much better with 80m out, again stayed ok but as the wind turned westerly and the vessel started to swing in another pattern the anchor lost hold and we were again dragging. By this time it was early afternoon and I suggested we go and checkout from Korcula so we could sail for Italy as planned.
Owner agreed and we started toward Korcula town, the same hoolie blew from west in front of the town and the yacht was instructed to moor on the Customs jetty. I suggested to Owner instead of risking damage I'd take the tender ashore and he'd hover in front so the officials could see the yacht (as they wanted). Said and done I was bobbing ashore and meeting the agent with all documents in hand. Met the Agent and we started the procedure, first was the stamp of port captain which took maybe 5minutes.
Then it was to the portpolice where all our passports were pored over and inserted into the system. The thing took ages and the officer was apparently getting instructions over the phone of how to do it. After 1.5hrs she had finally processed all 6 of us (forbid the thought of a cruise ship with 5000 people onboard!) and we had been stamped out and we could take our leave after a quick stamp at the Customs office.
I found my deckhand and was on my way to the tender when the Agent raced back and said we had to go back to the police as she had stamped the wrong date in the departure crew & guest lists and passports. Another 15min wasted when dates were corrected. Then when I had the papers finally in my hand I headed towards an irate Owner (luckily the police had agreed the yacht could go behind Korcula town to get wind shelter). I got onboard, recovered the tender and headed towards Italy. Afterwards the Agent explained the officer had never done a checkout before so probably it is not a common occurrence in Korcula.
During the whole checkout process I was asserted again and again by the officials that I must follow the straight course out of Croatian waters and not stop or stray anywhere. The coast guard will follow the AIS track and if I'd tarry along the straight route out of Crotia the vessel would be fined upon next entry and also the Master even if on another ship. Very particular bureaucratics and surprising considering we were moving inside EU from one EU nation to another although we came into Schengen when entering Italy. After the initial tacks to get clear of the coast I settled on an almost southerly heading straight towards Bari. Owner then proposed if I would stay a few days more with my relief to give him a better handover and to assist in the transit to Sicily to which I agreed.
As the night got on the wind got less and less so when we arrived Bari on the 23rd morning it was dead calm. I was up before sunrise and got to see the most awesome moonset. The entry into port was straight forward into the basin and right, we moored at the local shipyard docks, stern-to once again and marina gave us groundlines. On the jetty the new full time skipper waited, a very friendly Maltese chap. We had to clear into Italy and disembark guests. The police was very late to arrive and once onboard it didnt take long for them to scan passports and issue an arrival crewlist.
Agent told me my SA Chef could not go ashore (because of Covid scare?), so I offered to go and took a taxi to a huge Conad supermarket and got her essentials for next couple of days as we were going down the boot of Italy to Sicily for Pozzallo port. The Owner was so enamoured to the new skipper he spent hours telling him bits and pieces and the history of the boat that I did not get much words in between but I did have another 2 days. Eventually we had to delay departure and in the end we sailed at sunset, the current was pushing us along 9-10kts and I got messages not to waste fuel.
On the 24th we did a full speed test with the other skipper and got up to 30kts, probably why we did not reach 32kts was maybe because of a slightly dirty bottom or that we had the trim tabs on auto. During the morning the other skipper had been woken up from his day dreaming by the Italian coast guard asking where we were going. Later on in the day caught a massive tuna that then our deckhand spent the evening cleaning and chopping up.
Afternoon on the 25th we arrived Pozzallo and headed straight into the shiplift as the bowthruster had to be fixed and some other maintenance could be carried out before the other Owners arrival. It turned out the propeller was plastic. Once all fast in the basin we turned off all electrics and the crew headed for a local hotel. I got a taxi to Catania where I was flying home to Genova the next day. The hotel in Catania was very posh but unfortunately due to my late arrival I had no time to enjoy the facilities and it was sleepytime straight away.
On the 26th I took a taxi with airline pilots and didn't have to pay any fare. The flight to Genova was uneventful and from the airport i taxied to Piazza Principe train station so I could head home to my Ligurian mountain retreat.
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