The Pasha II

Rather than bore our expanding fan base that religiously check this blog for updates and leave comments, I will not detail every island and town we visited whilst with the Pasha II. However, I will briefly recount our trip to Modra Spilja (the Blue Grotto) near the island of Vis.

The cave was guarded by a dishevelled, smoking woman in a small boat with 3 dogs. The boat was tied across the entrance and she demanded money of anyone who dared enter. Some locals deemed it their right to go in without paying. The woman’s paddle was too short so she assaulted them instead with an array of Croatian vulgarity (roughly translated by Zejlko as: “You zucchini! You unripe banana!”).

Undaunted, we braved the swell in our rubber dinghy, paying off Medusa and her hounds, and ventured into the deep, dark tunnel. We howled at each other to paddle faster, slower, to fend of the sharp volcanic rocks, and once inside the tunnel and out of sight of daylight our howling subsided. We rounded a corner and it felt like your first horror ride at the Easter show. We contemplated turning back but kept going, the water still rising and falling with the waves that rolled in, until the water began to brighten. We kept paddling until we were inside a lofty cavern adorned with large round stalactites. The only sound was the dripping of water and our breathing. The water was a fantastic silvery blue on account of the sunlight refracting through the underwater entrance. We let out a simultaneous “Wow…”, then a large bubble burped to the surface next to the dinghy. Then another. We looked down and were surprised to see, way down below us, tiny yellow scuba divers. The cave was huge! The water gave new meaning to the word “azure”. Enough of my kindergarten imagery, here is a thousand words:




Most of us later swam into the cave via the water entrance (pictured above). Bit of a rush. There would have been some photos of us swimming in the cave but sadly Em’s camera got wet during all the excitement.

We did have plenty of other fun during the boat leg of our trip, like the 15 minute monastery walk on Brac island that ended up taking over an hour; the fender-plank-raft challenge; Dave’s unannounced sail trimming; seeing wild dolphins (okay, at a distance); Tim and Mel’s inaugural chicken risotto; and ritual morning coffee runs (please, anyone, feel free to add to his list).