Missing Spearguns and Blazing Temps
DISPATCH 6, Kornati 06/08/05
Paddling yesterday on the outside of a tall Kornati island, 15 miles off the mainland, what we desired more than anything was a respite from the blazing sun. Temperatures were in the high 90s, the Adriatic Sea was perfectly flat, and we were cooking in our own juices, snugged into the cockpits of our sea kayaks.
Rasip Island in Kornati National Park. To check out more photos, click here
Spying a slight overhang in the 200-foot tall cliff casting a small shadow over the sea, we each -- independently -- headed for it. Arriving first, before I could bask in the cool of the shade I spotted something glimmering on the surface, next to the rock wall. Initially I thought it was a metal pole used by sailboats to hook buoys, or maybe a fishing rod. On closer inspection it turned out to be a fancy speargun.
The Croatian paddler accompanying us during these first days, Domagoj Pac, took it upon himself to try and wrest the spear from the depths. It was either stuck fast in the rocks below the surface, or hooked to something very, very big. Tug as he might, nearly flipping his kayak in the process, he could not get it to release. Cutting the line with his knife, he stuck the gun into his cockpit. We were, after all, in national park boundaries. Getting caught with a speargun, innocent or not, was not a good idea.
Minutes later, both a police boat and an official park boat zipped past. Only an hour later, pulling into the marina at Piskera, did we discover that the speargun had belonged to a marina employee whose body had been found earlier in the day, floating -- dead -- near where we had recovered the gun. Turning the speargun over to police, we asked few questions, and stood respectfully distant from his grieving friends, gathered on the dock hearing the news . . .
DISPATCH 7, Hvar Town 06/11/05
We spent awhile yesterday off the coast of Brac, one of Croatia's biggest islands, 15 miles off the mainland. It was gray, windy and cold...100 degree temperatures last week, it's barely in the 70s now. Locals are saying we're seeing the worst stretch of June weather...The morning was spent on a big tuna farm just off the coast of Brac. We climbed aboard a 50-foot trawler trying to load 10 tons of Norweigan herring, which is being shoveled into the circular net. Inside the net, 93 giant tuna, the biggest was 550 pounds...soon to be sashimi in Japan. With cameras, Pete and Alex dove into the net. The look on Pete's face when he surfaced, just after the first quarter-ton tuna brushed his leg, was of pure panic and delight. "Oh. My. God." he yelled. In the early afternoon, with the whitecaps mostly calm and the skies still gray, we kayaked across a 10 mile channel to the isle of Hvar. The seas were pushy and unpredictable, but with the winds mostly at our backs we made it in 2 1/2 hours across the channel and turned the corner on Hvar just as the sun goes down.
Paddling yesterday on the outside of a tall Kornati island, 15 miles off the mainland, what we desired more than anything was a respite from the blazing sun. Temperatures were in the high 90s, the Adriatic Sea was perfectly flat, and we were cooking in our own juices, snugged into the cockpits of our sea kayaks.
Rasip Island in Kornati National Park. To check out more photos, click here
Spying a slight overhang in the 200-foot tall cliff casting a small shadow over the sea, we each -- independently -- headed for it. Arriving first, before I could bask in the cool of the shade I spotted something glimmering on the surface, next to the rock wall. Initially I thought it was a metal pole used by sailboats to hook buoys, or maybe a fishing rod. On closer inspection it turned out to be a fancy speargun.
The Croatian paddler accompanying us during these first days, Domagoj Pac, took it upon himself to try and wrest the spear from the depths. It was either stuck fast in the rocks below the surface, or hooked to something very, very big. Tug as he might, nearly flipping his kayak in the process, he could not get it to release. Cutting the line with his knife, he stuck the gun into his cockpit. We were, after all, in national park boundaries. Getting caught with a speargun, innocent or not, was not a good idea.
Minutes later, both a police boat and an official park boat zipped past. Only an hour later, pulling into the marina at Piskera, did we discover that the speargun had belonged to a marina employee whose body had been found earlier in the day, floating -- dead -- near where we had recovered the gun. Turning the speargun over to police, we asked few questions, and stood respectfully distant from his grieving friends, gathered on the dock hearing the news . . .
DISPATCH 7, Hvar Town 06/11/05
We spent awhile yesterday off the coast of Brac, one of Croatia's biggest islands, 15 miles off the mainland. It was gray, windy and cold...100 degree temperatures last week, it's barely in the 70s now. Locals are saying we're seeing the worst stretch of June weather...The morning was spent on a big tuna farm just off the coast of Brac. We climbed aboard a 50-foot trawler trying to load 10 tons of Norweigan herring, which is being shoveled into the circular net. Inside the net, 93 giant tuna, the biggest was 550 pounds...soon to be sashimi in Japan. With cameras, Pete and Alex dove into the net. The look on Pete's face when he surfaced, just after the first quarter-ton tuna brushed his leg, was of pure panic and delight. "Oh. My. God." he yelled. In the early afternoon, with the whitecaps mostly calm and the skies still gray, we kayaked across a 10 mile channel to the isle of Hvar. The seas were pushy and unpredictable, but with the winds mostly at our backs we made it in 2 1/2 hours across the channel and turned the corner on Hvar just as the sun goes down.
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