It has been some time since our last post – but we now have time to catchup. At the moment we are back in Australia – Julie has a job at Curtin University and I am working for one of the last wooden boat shipwrights in Perth – Aaron Woodall (but more about that in [...]

The best reflection of the Dalmatian locals’ rediscovery of their maritime heritage is the yearly increase in the number of participants in the Latinsko Idro (Latin Sail) Regatta. We have mentioned Latinsko Idro previously. A Latin-rigged boat has a single triangular sail – only such boats can enter the regatta. The fleet of gajetas and [...]

Early this morning the Aussie expats and Aussie tourists in Split gathered at Cafe Libar to watch the Aussie Rules Football Grandfinal via satellite from the MCG in Melebourne. The game between the Geelong Cats and Saint Kilda Saints developed in the one of the greatest finals ever. Most in the cafe were cheering for [...]

Today we decided to go to the Irish Pub in Split to watch the rugby union test match between Australia and Italy (Australia won 34-12). There wasn’t a large crowd – just a nice group of 6 Aussies (for Queenslanders) who have just finished a week out on the islands. One of the group turned [...]

Today the local newspaper, Slobodna Dalmacija (Free Dalmatia), published a story about our plight to get our boat, the Labud, out of Arista Nautica‘s shed. It was a good article, describing how we want to use the boat to promote ‘real’ Dalmatian tourism. Unfortunately it doesn’t mention the work I did for Arista Nautica and [...]

David Hicks, of Arista Nautica and Arista Yachts, was questioned today by Croatian police in Split, regarding threats he made to us (Julie Morgan and Shane Braddock) on May 8th to harm us himself or use Ivica Viljac as a weapon. David said on the day, “I want to scare you to protect my friends, [...]

Whilst away on a trip this week I received a text message on Friday from David Hicks, an owner of Arista Nautica, who has been holding our leut, Labud, for several weeks, advising me I had some mail at my office. After weeks of trying to approach Arista and deal with this issue respectively, David’s [...]

Arriving this weekend in Motovun to check on the house renovations, we thought we had passed through a time warp back to World War 2 Italy. All signs of modern life had been covered and period props were everywhere. It all was a result of Lucasfilm being in town to film their latest production,, Red [...]

This weekend Rugby Club Nada in Split held the Croatian Rugby Sevens tournament. Over 2 days the 10 competing teams – Croatia, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Bosnia Herzegovina, Cyprus, Belgium, Serbia – played pool and final games. In the end the French held the trophy aloft, after beating the Italians in the final. Next [...]

The last two weeks have been a little disappointing – and between trying to fix the problems and run tours we haven’t had time to post regularly on the blog. Its written somewhere that bad news comes in threes – so hopefully we have good times ahead. #1 – Time Out Croatia We provided numerous [...]