It all started so well.

Seems a bit of a tradition now, we like to rent a boat on our holiday for a day of exploring.

Set off just after half 8 on a silky sea with barely a breath of wind. Toby on the helm for a good distance. We found a lovely quiet cove with a small beach. Moored up and spent some time swimming in the sea and had our lunch.

Then the day changed.

The wind was building up and up, the sea had many white horses.

We decided to get going and explore further.

I managed to flood the outboard motor on the first pull and couldn't get it to start. (Think I had the throttle too high).

We finally managed to get hold of the rental guy after some phone issues. (Not being able to make outgoing calls). And he talked me through the process of clearing the flooded engine.

So we headed off into a rough Adriatic sea. It was a head wind with a lot of short swell. The 18ft open boat with a measley 5hp outboard was slow going and we often had a lot of spray soaking us through.

There were tears. J was not impressed.

To the credit of the boat it was a traditional design and coped well with the waves.

Things didn't get better when dropping hard off the back of a big set, the bench seat j and Eva were sat on came off it's mountings on one end.

We eventually got back to bol. Couldn't find a spot to moor up so dropped anchor just off the beach. Our man came out on the shore to get the boat. bit whilst waiting the anchor rope wrapped around the prop, which I cleared, and after pulling the anchor up I restarted the engine and it promptly stalled! Luckily it restarted quickly, as the rest of the family couldn't wait to get off!

Back to the apartment for dry clothes and a big drink!