Ühelt kaldalt teisele, ehk Trogiri-Elefsina I osa.

In English, please see below.

Jutustan Sulle, oh Blogi, sest Hoppetist, Trogiri linnas,

ootas kes Nordica lennult, uusi meeskonna liikmeid!

Sõidu algus sai venima, metsiktugeva tuule tõttu,

ilm aga rahuneb ja kurss võetud sai, Dubrovniku,

et Horvaatia maalt, välja saaks möllida meid.

Külastama Corfu saart Kreekas oli esimene plaan meil ruttu:

Seiklused selsamal saarel merel Joonia me seilame seega

Jälle istume sadama äärel sööme grilli peal küpsetet liha -

Odysseusest erinevalt me õigeaegselt saime Elefsina.

Aga asja juurde.

Peale 40 päeva Horvaatias oli aeg hakata liikuma Ateena poole, et Hoppet saaks jällegi näitlejarahva käsutusse. Juuni alguses saab ometi alguse Meeting the Odyssey kolmas etapp - kaks kuud seilamist, proove ja etendusi Kreekas. Tegelikult oli alguses plaan, et projektiga seotud rahvas tuleb peale juba Itaalias, Splitist mitte kaugel, Aadria mere vastaskaldal, kuid kuna neil igasugu ettevalmistusi väga palju, siis palusid nad, et kohtume alles Kreekas, Elefsinas.

Siis avastasimegi vaevalt paar nädalat enne sõitu, et meil on üle 10 päeva sõiduks, laevas ainult meeskond - ühesõnaga tekkis küsimus - kas peab sisuliselt tühja laevaga tegema maailma ühe ilusama sõidu? Sellest oleks ometi paganama kahju ja saigi veidi sõna levitatud, et huvilistel on võimalik osaleda. FB teeb imet, Lemps saatis Hoppeti abipalve purjetajate listi ja see sõnum levis kiiremini kui kulutuli. Mõne päevaga oli kümmekond huvilist olemas! Mure murtud - laev, mis mõeldud rahvale sõitmiseks, ei pea tühjalt üht maailma kenamat otsa tegema ja meeskonnal ka palju asjalikke abikäsi juures.

Plaan oli küll samal päeval välja minna, kuid otsustasime jääda Trogirisse veel üheks ööks, vaja oli veel varustust ja tuulutuas ka korralikult (muidugi vastu). Lisaks oli äsjatulnuil ka võimalik siis tutvuda muljetavaldava Trogiri vanalinnaga - see on vaatamist väärt.

Esmaspäeva hommikul käisime turul värsket kraami ostmas, see kujunes üsna lihtsaks. Meie turuagendiks sai proua Moment, kes ise vist müüs küll ainult mune, kuid kui midagi küsisime, siis vastas ainult ühe sõna - "moment" ja kadus korraks ja tagasi olles oli vajalik produkt käes.

Keskpäeval andsime otsad ja asusime trampima korraliku vastutuulega Dubrovniku poole. Kuid vaja oli veel võtta kütet, seega peatusime veel Splitis. Kütet seal saimegi (diisli hind kuskil 1,1 eurot liiter), aga kuna arvestasime, et sellise vastutuulega ei jõua me eriti edasi ja kuna lubas öösel tuule vaibumist, siis jäimegi juba tuttavasse ACI Marinasse kai äärde. Rahvas linna peale vaatama.

Sadamakontoris tuli jutuks, et meil suund Kreeka poole. Selle peale rääkis letitagune töötaja, kuidas üks erapooletu Itaala reisiajakirjanik oli kirjutanud, et Kreekasse ei ole mõtet minna, seal ainult tugevad tuuled. Olge parem Horvaatias! Aga meid ei suutnud ta ümber veenda, eriti kui vaatasime seda arvet, mis ta ühe öö seismise eest välja kirjutas. Seda summat pole mõtet siin välja tuuagi, keegi ei usuks...

Aga hommikuks oli tugev tuul vaibunud ja meie saime sõitma hakata Dubrovniku poole. Vahemaa ca 55 miili ja algas tavaline laevaelurutiin. Määrati vahikorrad kes kellega ja millal roolis, kes teeb mis päeval süüa jne.

Aga jällegi huvitav jälgida, kuidas klapib seltskond, kes enne pole teistest mitte kui midagi kuulnud. No muidugi, põhimeeskond ju ometi tundis üksteist, kuid 9 inimest, kes üksikuna oli sisuliselt pea ees ilma mõtlemata tundmatusse vette hüpanud?

Kuigi meeskond jälgis toimuvat pidevalt olles pingelistel hetkedel valmis sekkuma, peab ütlema, et mitte mingisugust jama ei olnud. Kaugel sellest! Kas oli tegemist Hoppet erilise aura või Udu rahulike vana meremehe monotoonsete juttude mõjuga, igaljuhul oli vägagi meeldiv tõdeda, et koostöö klappis eeskujulikult. Ju vist oli asja võti pigem selles, et kõik kes tulid, olid ikkagi kogenud rännumehed ja laevaelu polnud neile ka kaugeltki võõras. Ühtu möödus kui Udu rääkis ühest toredast vanast meremeeste kombest esitada üksteisele elulisi mõistatusi ja kõik püüavad sellele leida vastust, mis aitaks neid edaspidisel eluteel...

Öösel jõudsime Dubrovnikusse ja otsus oli end riigist välja regada pealelõunal, et saaks linnaga tutvuda ja söögikraami järele vaadata. Jällegi ilus linn nagu ikka. Tore vahejuhtum oli sadamas meie peale sattunud eestlasest noormehega, kes oli enda sõnul juba 10 aastat Horvaatias ühe jõuka mehe kaatri peal elatist teeninud ja nüüd alles esimest korda nägi siin Eesti lippu. Ja veel siiram rõõm oli tal muidugi sellest, et laev tema enda kodulinnast Haapsalust. Elu keerdkäigud on imelised - kaugel võõrsil ei usu tavaliselt hommikul ärgates, et samal päeval saad lihtsa vaevaga korra kodulinnas ära käia...

Varaõhtul andsime otsad Dubrvniku kailt. Hüvasti igatpidi kallis Horvaatia... 

Meid ootab ees Kreeka.

Kaasreisija.

Vaade Dubrovnikule ülevalt mäelt. The view on Dubrovnik from a high hill.

Udu valmistub päikeseloojangul vanu meremehejutte vestma. Udu prepares to tell old seamen stories during sunset. 

Kambüüsitoimkond valmistab ette õhtusööki Dubrovnikus. The gambus duty preparing for dinner.

Kreeka lippu heiskamas. Hoisting the Greece flag. 

I'll tell you, oh dear Blog, of those travels on Hoppet, who, in city of Trogiri, 

was waiting for her comrades, coming from the great flight of Nordica, 

aye, to the land, which was to be the beginning of our journey, 

howbeit adjourned by the powerful winds almighty. Yet even so

once the gods calmed and winds brought down, we headed to 

another city, called Dubrovnik, to say farewell to a land called Croatia.

Our longing, amongst others, was to meet the flourishing island of Corfu, 

for it became the place of our adventures, in the middle of the Jonian sea,

aye, and then we cooked the meat and ate, again on the sea side of the city,

to gather our strengths. For yet we had a purpose to full fill, differing from Odyssey,

the man of many devices and wanders, to reach, as expected, the city of Elefsina. 

But now, to the story. 

After 40 days in Croatia, it was time to head towards Athens in order for Hoppet to meet again with the actors. As of course, in June there’s time to start with “Meeting the Odyssey” third part - two months of sailing, rehearsals, and performance in Greece. The preliminary plan was to meet the theatre company in Italy, not far from Split on the other side of the Adrain sea, but they had so many preparations still to do that they asked us to meet them in Elefsina, Greece. 

Then, barely couple of weeks before setting sails we realised that we will have more than 10 days to cross the sea and only the crew on board, we asked ourselves, do we really have to make one of the most beautiful trips with an empty ship. That would have been sad, so we shared the word to those who would be interested to come on board. The Facebook makes miracles, Lemps sent out a cry for help in a sailing community and the word got out faster than wind. With a few days we had gathered about ten interested parties to sail with us. The problem solved - the ship who was meant to carry people didn’t have to make one of the worlds nicest trip being empty and the crew had additional helping hands. 

The plan was to set sail on the same day, but we decided to stay in Trogiri for one more night to gather more supplies and the wind was also very strong (and of course blowing aback to us). It meant an unscheduled possibility for the guests to meet the old town of Trogiri, which is very impressive indeed. On Monday morning we visited the market for fresh goods which was a very simple task. Our market agent became to mrs Moment, who, at first sight sold only eggs, but if we asked for anything else she said only one word, “moment” - disappearing for a once and reappearing with a necessary product in hand. 

In midday we set sails towards Dubrovnik, with a strong headwind it was a real tromping, but we needed to bunker. We reached ACI Marina and got our fuel (for 1,1 a litre for diesel) but we decided to stay the night on the already familiar quay, as it was hard to make any progress with that heavy wind and the weather forecast promised a change over night. Everybody got a city pass. 

In the office of the marina we mentioned heading to Greece. To which we got an answer from the local worker that supposedly a neutral Italian travel writer had said that there is no point to go the Greece, as there is only strong gusts of winds and we were suggested to stay in Croatia. But we weren’t to be influenced, specially when we glanced the bill we got from staying for one night. That sum is not worth even mentioning, no one wouldn’t believe us anyhow. 

An in the morning the wind had died away and we could head out towards Dubrovnik. The distance was about 55 miles, a regular routine life on the ship began. The watch hours and teams were set, the cooking and other tasks got divided. 

And again it was interesting to see how those, who had never met before or heard of each other got a long well and created a good team. Of course the main crew knew each other thoroughly but the other 9 people had came a long into the unknown. The crew was alert and ready to interfere on complicated moments if there were to come up a reason, but nothing happened much and everything went smoothly. Was it the special aura from Hoppet or Udu’s long lasting monotone seas stories, in any case it was pleasing to acknowledge that all kind of cooperation was very good. Probably it was just the fact that everybody on board were experienced tavelers and familiar with life on the sea. One night even went by with du telling sharing the old seaman habit of telling different life puzzles to which everyone had to find a solution that would also help themselves in the coming future. 

At night we reached Dubrovnik. We decided to check ourselves out of the country on the afternoon to be able to meet the city first and gather some more goods to the ship. As it was again a new city to us. A funny story happened on the marina with a young Estonian man who had accidentally found us. He had been in Croatia for 10 years already, working for a wealthy boat owner, and never he had seen the Estonian flag before during that time. Even more sincere was his happiness when he heard the Hoppet’s home town is Haapsalu, the same as his. The ways of life are curious. You can wake up on a regular day and not even imagine that it would be so easy to visit your hometown during the same day with such a little effort. 

Early in the evening we cast off from Dubrovnik. Good by dearest Croatia, Greece is waiting for us… 

By a passanger.