14 November

Sweetest Thing
Anthony Richards
Thu 15 Nov 2012 10:49
Finally we are blogging!!!
14/11/2012
 
41 07'5 N
16.59'9 E
 
 
(Italy's heal....)
So..... Where to begin....
I arrived on this boat on the 21st October, and we are just beginning the second leg of this journey...
We left Zadar, on 2nd November fully aware ofa few issues the boat had, shes old and has been left sitting still for four years untouched so she needed some attention.. 
Once we sorted the essentials, we set sail in fairly breezy conditions bumpy seas and headed to Italy, on route we discovered the batteries were knackered and not charging properly, water leaks out of various holes when we turn the pump on, bildge pumps tripped out, gauges are not even a little bit accurate sails are baggy and old, one of the anchor winches is seized up.... and we hit an unidentified object in the water that left a mild blemish on the port bow...
some say mild blemish some say big hole!!! We needed to be lifted out of the water and patched up..
We headed back to Croatia... Where we stayed on a very quaint little island of Murter, more wind more swell, Guti (spaniard) caught a tuna which we ate whilst spending a night on anchor sheltering from 50 knot winds..Delicious!!!  
On arrival we were hauled out of the water and they fixed the hole, changed the batteries and we sorted out the plumbing situation... in a mannor of speaking.. We now have 1 out of 4 showers functioning..3 out of 4 toilets workable, although only 1 'fully' functioning...  
2 weeks later we set sail again...
Motoring straight from Murter to Bari... On route I saw the first dolphin of the trip, Anthony had an Owl land on the mast, and we made good time.
Arrived yesterday afternoon picked up the 4th crew member, David from Australia... enjoyed a real italian pizza.
At 7 am this morning we began the second leg of this trip..off to Gibralter, if we run out of water, we'll make a pit stop at sicilly..