Yellow Gale Warning at the Wall of Oštrica 

We are at the Wall of Oštrica – a pretty, medieval wall dating from the Middle Ages, and built in fairy book style. It runs across the neck of the Oštrica peninsula like a weighty yet elegant limestone rock necklace. 

And we have the absolute pleasure of having Rich, Ann and son Alex as our guest crew from England. They joined us in Split on the weekend and we have been working our way north, up the central coast.

This place has been inhabited since antiquity and a Roman road station known as ‘Ad Pretorium’ was placed here. The area is now known as Grebastica; the village of Grabast appears in historical records back to the 13th century and was once an important settlement.

The wall was constructed to keep the Turks out. This land was subjected to constant attacks by the Ottomans., and thus the Venetian and local governments of the day financed the closing of this hinterland and the building of the defensive wall. A couple of centuries later, the wall provided physical segregation for the healthy from those sick with the plague. 

We took the intrepid route and climbed up and over the rocks of the fortress walls to clamber up stairs that features stone steps that are each ankle to hip high, to the top. It is impressive being 10 meters high and 1 meter wide, and widely regarded as the best wall of its kind.   

There is a yellow weather warning for gusts today so a safe anchorage has been our priority.  In keeping with the colour of sunshine, citrus yellow sea sponges are abundant in the sandy bottomed, crystal clear water and a high temperature of 35 degrees has meant we’ve been snorkeling so much we’ve lost count of how many dips we take each day. The water is 25 degrees and one of our new favourite pastimes has been diving on the anchor to check out our set.  It has been so hot; luckily we like it that way. And our friends from England are enjoying it too. It’s a bit of a swelter, but cooling off is just a few steps away with a plunge into the Adriatic.

The morning included dolphin sightings off the starboard bow and starfish spread-eagled on rocks under the boat. Current sightings in the aquarium like water world below Sailing Waiata‘s two cruising hulls are 2-banded bream, striped bream and annular bream along with healthy schools of blue mackerel and sardines, serving up a menu of deliciousness for the eyes.

Today’s track is appropriately by Power Station, the 2005 remastered version of “Some Like it Hot”

‘Some like it hot and some sweat when the heat is on
Some feel the heat and decide that they can’t go on
Some like it hot, but you can’t tell how hot ’til you try
Some like it hot, so let’s turn up the heat ’til we fry