July sailing

Last week in July we were sailing again with couple of friends. We got to Mali Lošinj rather late in the afternoon on Sunday, stops and heavy traffic prolonged the traveling time. It was really hot and we were hungry, so we sailed just around the corner to bay Uvala Engleza, first jumped into the water to cool off and then started the grill. After plenty of good food and some more swimming we were all in good mood and decided to stay there for the night. 

In the morning weather was cloudy and there were waves rolling into the bay. The South wind has started earlier than forecast. We decided that the best place to be in such weather was the wide bay in front of town Olib that is well protected from South. We anchored there in early afternoon in strong SE wind but we were lucky and even had some sunshine and swimming. The night was still very windy but we slept well.

Next morning was cloudy but not so windy any more. After breakfast we saw a small boat visiting anchored boats and Captain assumed they were fishermen selling fresh fish. As we had plenty of food of all kinds I said I was only interested in an ice cream. And what do you know - they only had ice and ice cream, so we had to buy some. Yum! We were very much surprised that the prices for the ice cream were the same as in supermarkets.

In the meanwhile the wind turned to North and soon the waves started to roll into bay and it became uncomfortable. After studying the forecasts (we always check several different ones) we figured out it was time to escape to one of the bays between island Pag and Vir, nowhere else in the area we would be protected from all sides. The forecast was predicting SE wind turning to W then to N in the night and then to strong NE the next day. So after some sailing, in early afternoon we anchored in bay Uvala Jasenovo just S of island Pag, where we already anchored in the beginning of July and it then proved to be well protected and not busy and even quite pretty. After some swimming and a few drinks, two friends on a motor yacht joined us and in the evening we had a great evening meal with plenty of different dishes from grill and also plenty of drinks.

The night was pretty wild, wind from the West was pretty strong and in the morning the NE wind was also blowing with over 30 knots for couple of hours. But it didn't bother us too much, we had a great coffee break on our friends motor yacht, with coffee made by proper coffee machine, with good cookies and even better company. 

In late afternoon we sailed off and anchored  in front of town Vir for the night. The NE wind was still strong but it was mostly the loud music and shouting from the shore that was very annoying. So next morning right after breakfast we sailed to Ist where we hoped to have some more peace again.

The wind was forecast to turn to SE again in the night, so we anchored in North bay. It was empty and very peaceful, just as we hoped it would be. We had a lazy afternoon of swimming, reading and I even went snorkelling.

In the evening Captain and the rest of the crew climbed up the hill to the church to watch sun set.

In the meantime I was taking photos of sun set from the boat.

Before going to bed we had to chase an Italian sailboat away, they had the idea that best place for them to anchor was right next to us, although there were no other boats in the whole bay. But they didn't argue and re-anchored a bit further away. Which was absolutely right, the wind turned in the night and had they stayed where they were originally it would not end well.

Next morning we sailed towards Olib, on the way we stopped just N of town Olib for a swim. Not far from us this beauty was anchored, it is Black Pearl and is the second longest sail boat in the world. At the time - these things are changing often.

After a nice meal and some swimming we sailed on to N side of Olib that is more protected from S wind and more suitable for the night. There were already several boats there, obviously others were paying attention to weather forecast as well. But we still found a good anchoring spot a bit away from the crowd in W side of the bay. Again we had a nice afternoon of lazying, reading, swimming and snorkelling.

Here are some photos from both my snorkelling expeditions, the one in Ist and in Olib. None of the places are great snorkelling spots, but in the absence of other choices I was glad to even had these two opportunities.

What I saw under water were all the usual suspects, no big surprises. This is the Red sea squirt (Rdeči kozolnjak or Halocynthia papillosa).

I saw several Red tube worms (Pisani pokrovčkar or Serpula vermicularis)

This is another Sea squirt, in Slovene named nagubani kozolnjak ali mali svet (Microcosmus spp.). It is named mali svet or Microcosmus because it is usually overgrown with all kind of organisms, as a true "small world".

Here the Red spotted horseshoe (apnenčasti cevkar or Protula tubularia) on the left is in company of Red tube worm (Pisani pokrovčkar or Serpula vermicularis).

This is the Brown Kidney sponge (ledvičasta spužva or Chondrosia reniformis)

Three Twin fan worms (dvoperjaničarji or Bispira volutacornis)

This is a Slender goby (peščeni glavač or Gobius geniporus)

Here the Red tube worm is in the company of Stinker sponge (snopasta hrapavka or Ircinia fasciculata)

This pretty sponge is a Crater sponge (Rjava skorjevka or Hemimycale columella)

As is often seen, there are small Mysid shrimps (mizidni rakci or Leptomysis spp.) in protection of the Snakelocks anemone (voščene morske vetrnice or Anemonia viridis) 

These are the Mediterranean sand smelts (veliki gavuni or Atherina hepsetus).

I didn't see many Mediterranean fan worms (Spalancanijev cevkar or Sabella spallanzanii) this time.

I don't know which clam this is...

My first octopus this year.

This is the Rocky shore hermit crab (Zelenkasti rak samotarec or Clibanarius erythropus) with chequered eyes.

Young Salemas (salpe or Sarpa salpa) were grazing on algae.

In absence of other fish I took photo of this Two-banded sea bream (fratrc or Diplodus vulgaris).

The Violet sea urchin (belobodičasti morski ježek or Sphaerechinus granularis) was adorned with fashionable accessories.

This is the ink of Sepia (sipa or Sepia officinalis), I didn't see it bust must have frightened it because the amount of ink was quite huge.

Here the red algae (obrobljena luskavka or  Peyssonnelia polymorpha) in the middle is growing on Brown Kidney sponge (ledvičasta spužva or Chondrosia reniformis). The lighter brown sponge is Chicken liver sponge (krompirjasta spužva or Chondrilla nucula).

Here is another sponge - the Red encrusting sponge (rdeča skorjevka or Phorbas fictitius) 

Next morning we already had to sail back. We made the first stop for breakfast and swimming near Ilovik. Then we sailed along Lošinj and made a second stop for lunch and some more swimming N of little island Murtar.  At 2pm we were moored in our marina. Captain stayed on board of Heron and I drove back home with our friends. Although the weather was not ideal, we had a very nice week.