Day eleven - Korcula to Hvar

We left Korcula at a quarter past ridiculous in order to make the rather lengthy journey to Hvar, somewhere that mum has been looking forward to returning to for the whole trip. Unfortunately, although the wind was FOR ONCE coming from a favourable direction, it had no 'gust'-o (see what I did there) so we were back to motoring. It was nice and warm though, so still very pleasant. We stopped for lunch and a swim in a lovely anchorage off the small island of Scedro and then continued to Hvar. It became apparent that the weather was going to take a nasty turn again a la Stormy Saturday so we emailed ahead to the marina begging for sanctuary but to no avail. The harbour wall was full so we reluctantly dropped anchor perhaps a little to close into the town. A smarmy mooring fascist in his motor boat came to tell us off: 

"Anchoring is prohibited inside the port"

"Oh but sir!" we cried, "There's a nasty storm coming this evening, we must be sheltered!"
"A storm?" (first he'd heard of it, perhaps) "You will have to go to marina."
"Oh no, but it's full! Whatever shall we do?" Mum began to sob uncontrollably. (fabrication)
He shrugged in the way they do. "It is forbidden to anchor inside the port"
"So we drown?" Becky and I hugged. (fabrication)
"Yes but anchoring is prohibited inside the port." And with that he was away revving his huge engine, creating a ridiculous wake.
We anchored just outside the port and before long heard his engine again. He had a stupid hat this time.
"There is big storm coming tonight - be careful." uuuhhh thanks?

Hvar is interesting, beautiful buildings and streets. It definitely has more of a 'cool' culture than the other places we've stopped at so far meaning it is a bit more trendy and less "yachty". We went for a meal at Val Marina Restaurant which was very pleasant indeed. Not least because of our new love, Vanja the waiter. Hard to describe, really. One of a kind. Not a looker or anything, not that kind of love. (Becky says an exterior more suitable for radio, but then felt immediately bad about it because of the love - she is sat next to me swooning at the memory of him.) The other major highlight of the meal for me was the lady from another table getting up after she finished her meal and walking into the glass door. Hysterical. (Jessie)

As ever the various weather forecasts do not agree on just how windy it is going to be. Estimates vary from 20 to 40 knots which is the difference between unpleasant and unsafe - so thanks for that! I will be sleeping in my clothes tonight. Right now all the boats at anchor are pointing out to sea as there is a light onshore breeze. However the wind is forecast to shift round 180 degrees and it's hard to know how this is going to affect the spacing as that will depend on how much chain each boat has out. So we need to be alert when the wind changes to make sure that we don't swing into other boats and that our anchor continues to hold when the pull is from the opposite direction. I wish we were in a marina but it's over an hour away and I was not prepared to flog over there on the off chance of getting in. As Jessie mentioned, we emailed them to try to reserve a berth but they didn't even have the courtesy to respond. All the marinas here are run by a company called ACI - there is no competition. As a result they have a dismissive 'take it or leave it' attitude bordering on contempt. There is no service culture whatsoever. Hopefully we will be OK tonight! I would like to get to Sibenik tomorrow night - but probably we will have to stay here most of the day. We will see what it looks like in the morning.