Paradise Regained. Sailing again.

The weather continues to improve, although the northerlies are still pretty stiff. We went to Palmižana again and were pleased to see that the waves are nothing like the monsters of yesterday.
In the marina I had a pleasant chat with Josip, the skipper I helped dealing with the charter havoc of yesterday. He was full of compliments for Mekićevica and crew, but when I asked his advice about setting off for Šćedro, he thought we shouldn't go. We decided to give it a try anyway. We could always take shelter in one of the bays on the south coast of Hvar.
We motored out of the marina, and hoisted main with one reef. The wind was about 5Bf and aft of the beam, so we were going well. The only problem was that the waves continually increased, to the point when careful steering to avoid a gybe was becoming very difficult. So we decided to stop in the small harbour of Sv. Nedelja and wait for the waves to calm, as they usually do in the afternoon.
We had some light meal in the restaurant (octopus salad and a delicious, local ham), chatted to people in other boats and by 6pm we decided the sea was calm enough to proceed.

Sometimes, sailing a small boat in big waters requires patience: waiting for the sea to calm-down in Sv. Nedelja.

We started cautiously with two reefs on the main, but soon we were back to first reef and even some jib for the final, beam-reach approach to Šćedro.

Šćedro used to be out of the beaten track, but somehow it has been "discovered" and there were many boats at anchor. Little Mekićevica motored past them all, moored at the peer among their dinghies, and we just had to walk a few steps to be served a delicious dinner of freshly-caught, grilled fish.

During the night I was awaken by the slap-slap noise of waves on the hull. Waves coming into this deep bay in the middle of the night can only mean one thing: the bora is back.