Swapping cameras

  
To date, majority of photos on the blog are from my trusty point-and-shoot camera. If you’re in the market for a new digital camera it’s a Canon Powershot SX220 HS and takes easy, vibrant photos with plenty of cool features like 'colour accent'.  

Though a recent hello email from a friend, who was also the inspiring teacher of a photography course I attended almost two years ago, prompted me to stop procrastinating and pull out the SLR camera to reacquaint with the manual settings. 

The ease and convenience of the pocket size point-and-shoot means I’ll likely rely on that camera most of the time. But the SLR sure takes a beautiful picture when you dedicate some time and patience.  

The photos below are with a sweet 50 ml prime lens that has a short focal length. A few boat lifestyle moments aboard and our last two weeks in a nutshell – reading, researching, planning, repairing, entertaining and drinking, baking, intermittent rain showers and Garage Band assisted guitar lessons. 

Yesterday we finally received from AMSA, by hand-delivered courier, finally my darling’s original Australian Registration papers, plus from Raymarine our adjusted VHF radio and navigation system. This morning (after exactly two weeks there) we dropped the ropes from Vlaska Marina in Milna and have begun heading north to Rejika (pronounced Ri-ek-a) for the shipping container and later to Venice, Italy where mum’s sister Robyn is joining us – our first visitor! Tonight we are overnighting alongside a fairy-tale like village – Primosten – honestly it could be something straight out of a movie scene. We are alongside a stone quay-side with the immediate backdrop of the 1,300 year-old village. Breathtaking. 

The boat was hammered early Thursday morning in a gale and I was wide-awake from 3:30 am. Dad estimates around 60 – 70kmh winds (no accurate reading as our electrical equipment was not re-installed until the next day). It was a SE wind and the usually well-protected marina offered little shelter as the wind howled down the narrow bay hitting directly on our starboard side. Me, still new to this life on the water, there was no way I could sleep through the noise and rocking, but also understand that I need to experience all these different extremities to increasingly become more comfortable in a life strung so closely to the whims of the weather. Those are the moments you must put all your trust in your stern and bowlines and the thrashing jetty from not breaking apart. Of course the jetty never would have failed – but that was not how I was feeling at the time. Dad got up a few times through the early morning hours to check on lines and make other minor adjustments, but I was definitely missing the solid four walls of our dear old Manly apartment!   

We’ve also said farewell to Frank and Viv on DominoS from Gladstone who’ve been our helpful and gracious neighbours for the past two weeks and long before that, a most generous information source for dad since boat shopping last October. After a year in Croatia, they are now currently headed to Corfu, Greece. Last night we had the company of Filippina, a lovely (Italian born) lady from Melbourne, Australia who, after only a few sailing lessons, bought a brand-new Fontaine Pajot 40’ sailing catamaran in France early last year and has been sailing mostly single-handily ever since. Her stories and experiences were simply inspiring and proof that you can achieve anything if you really put your mind to it. I can see already that the intriguing and varied characters we will meet along the way will become a large part of what makes this nomadic yachtie lifestyle so special.  

We’ve now officially been in Croatia one month – look forward to seeing what the next month brings. Do vidjenja!

 

Our safe haven for this evening (there we are on the right), quay-side at stunning Primosten.