Short update from Zabnica

We're slowly settling into a routine of everyday life. The house and garden received some time and energy and care and are in good shape and they feel like "ours" again. Up till now the autumn was very mild, which suits me well, and there are still plenty of flowers and veggies in the garden to please the eye and to have fresh bio-eco salad every evening.

Some mushrooms grew in our garden, I have to figure out exactly which kind they are, so maybe we can eat them next year, when they grow again.

Cats are preparing for the winter, they are getting fat and hairy.

Remember Moon and Ben, that were traveling through the Caribbean with small catamaran Dick Brano (their blog is on www.dickbrano.blogspot.com) ? They came to visit last week on Tuesday with their friend Toby. We had very nice time together, on Wednesday morning we strolled through Ljubljana.

They only stayed for a short while, Toby was returning to Sweden and Moon and Ben traveled on to Venice already that afternoon. What a nice visit!

On Sunday we hiked the nearby hill Plesivica and found some mushrooms. This one was a big trophy, it was found by our neighbor Frenk, but it ended on our plate :-) and it was delicious!

Barcolana regatta

Two weeks ago there was a Largest single-start regatta in the world in the Trieste bay. This means all the boats that participate start at the same time, this year there were more than 1800 boats competing. The weather forecast for Sunday race was good so we decided to drive to the coast and watch the regatta from our boat.

The start of regatta was already at 10 in the morning, so we had to get up early. Te sun was just coming up as we were driving past Nanos.

Lots of clouds and a rainbow didn't suggest a sunny day.

The start was wet and cold. Our friends Alenka and Grega were with us.

As soon as we got out of the canal into the sea, the sun came up and some wind also. Of course we put our sails up immediately.

We sailed towards the starting line and we got there in time. By then the wind was already gone, of course. Soon we heard the siren and then the guns, but not much happened afterwards. Boats struggled to move forward.

Te boat with the black sail is Esemit Europa, the biggest boat competing, and one of the favorites. It won last 4 of Barcolanas, although in almost no wind bigger boats are not automatically better.

Slowly the weather improved and even with almost no wind the boats managed to move along the regatta field.

We stayed on the West side of the regatta field, we were even sailing for a while. Weather was better by the minute and once the wind was gone we anchored near the 3rd buoy of regatta field to relax, have a snack and wait for the boats to come sailing by.

Our plan didn't come true - regatta was shortened and already ended at 2nd buoy, so no boat came our way. Oh well... it was still a nice day. Later we found out that the winner was Esemit Europa, with average speed of 2,6 knots!

On our way back to marina we sailed close to Miramare castle.

Sailing into the canal.

"Parking" Heron into her berth.

On the way home we stopped in a restaurant and had a nice meal. It was already dark when we were back in Ljubljana. We all agreed it was a very nice day, well worth getting up before sunrise.