We're still alive and well... and Heron too

It's been a while... again. Winter is the time when not much is happening that would be worth writing about. Days are short, weather cold and we mainly wait for the spring to come. One of the things that bring some joy to grey days are the birds, that come to our birdfeeder. From sparrows to great tits, to several kind of finches, and robins and blue tits, and sometimes even woodpeckers, they are all there.

In the beginning of February we drove to Croatian coast town Crikvenica, that is on mainland just across the island Krk and the bay where Heron is moored.

Looking across the channel towards Krk.

We found a small boatyard there that has a big enough lift to get Heron out of the water. We made arrangements to get Heron a new antifouling and some minor (hopefully) repairs in April.

At last days got a bit longer and sun stronger and snowdrops finally started to bloom...

... and saffron too.

Normally this post would end here - but here are the latest news. On Thursday we were hit by cyclone Rea - yes, here the storms are also sometimes named, just like hurricanes. The wind that Rea brought was up to 100 knots, it caused a lot of troubles along Adriatic coast and it also brought lots of rain to Italy and eastern Adria coast and lots of snow to Balkan. Of course we drove to Krk yesterday to check on Heron. Luckily the bridge to island Krk was open again, on Thursday and Friday it was closed because of strong wind.

Heron was ok, but the motor yacht next to her was not so lucky. If you scroll down to third photo in previous post, you can see how it looked.

Somehow the platform at the back of the boat broke off, and ended on the beach together with the dinghy that was tied on top of it. The boat started taking in the water and sunk. It is really a sad sight. 

The life raft got inflated and is floating near the sunken boat.

We checked Heron thoroughly and everything was ok, it is just unbelievably salty. Wind must have really been strong (on the bridge to Krk 100 knots were measured) to get so much sea water on the boat to create such salty stalactites...

... and even changed the colour of the lazy bag on the mast from blue to almost white.

We are now hoping for a good rain to wash the salt away. Otherwise all the stainless steel will start to rust  and then in the summer we'll have to polish it instead of sailing.

Although the day was sunny, wind was still strong and very chilly, so we didn't stay long. We'll have to come back another day to enjoy coffee on the pier.