Mari Losenj

We arrived in Mari Losenj an outer island of southern Istria at 6pm. The port was full of boats and the Marina was overflowing. Our pilot guide indicated that the customs office was in the main township, so we backed up to the dock and I jumped off with our papers. Darren and Marie circled in the bay until I got back.

Again finding the port authorities proved difficult, and the tourist office directed me to the wrong building.

I got back on the boat, and we decided to anchor until we could figure out where to go. While anchoring a police boat went by twice. I waved at them frantically but they weren't interested in coming over to help.

We went ashore (which is a big no no) to have a meal. We found a restaurant owned by a couple of brothers. Each of the brothers obviously thought the other brother had taken our order because everyone else was served but us. Eventually we got our meals and some wine, contented we went back to the boat.

The next morning I went ashore and found the "real" harbormasters office. They told me where the customs office was and said we had to see them first. So we pulled up the anchor and docked at the customs pier. There was a little confusion about Marie's Visa, but after showing them that she had already been in Croatia a month earlier, he seemed content to let us in.

The next step was to go and see the harbormaster, which was very straight forward because we already had a valid cruising licence (Vignette) and had already paid our tourist tax from our previous stay.

We tried to start the outboard engine, which if you remember was lost and then recovered after a storm in Italy. It wouldn't start, and after taking it to pieces found that the throttle had broken. Until it was fixed we could only row... luckily we had Darren :)

We stayed in Mari Losenj for 3 days just chilling out.

All this time I was unable to use my new credit card because the BNZ would not put a PIN on it. They insisted that I didn't need one and that I could just sign for purchases. But all terminals in Europe require a PIN for cards with chips on them! After 8 calls to BNZ, they conceded and directed me to talk to Visa International who sent me a temporary visa, which would arrive in Split in a few days.