First day in Split

The last 24 hours have gone by in a bit of a haze of exhaustion. The easyjet travel weight restrictions of 23kg per hold bag plus 10kg hand luggage has just about exceeded my capacity to carry stuff. We got delivered to about 100 yards from the bus station in Swansea and then headed for the pub for refreshment/sleeping tonic. After 5 paces something pinged in my left hip region and it has not been quite right since.It is time they brought in age/fitness related weight limits.
 
We arrived in Split and Toni's driver met us as planned and dropped us right at the boat. Toni's team were actively engaged in doing stuff. It seemed the boat had only come been put back in the water an hour before we arrived so there was lots to do. We absolved ourselves of all responsibility and went and lay in the grass for a couple of hours. It just seemed the right thing to do.

 By the time we recovered much of the work had been done and the team reassembled this morning to finish off.
So sails fitted, various new halyards fitted, cockpit table re-furbished, navigation lights all replaced with LEDs, new bed mattress, cushion covers all repaired and cleaned, engine serviced, extra 50m of chain installed and new Rocna anchor fitted (thanks Mum) and inside and out cleaned to within an inch of its life.
The Big Box of Stuff I had sent out was delivered this morning and everything has found a place, pretty much. The only thing missing is Margaret' bed  linen which is probably in the warehouse somewhere.
I then spent a while going through all the paper work. Apparently the Port Police in several localities see overseas yacht documentation irregularities as a reliable source of additional income.
I found that one of the several Croatian tax certificates had expired and needs to be renewed. That is not a problem as Toni's mate in the Harbour Office can be invoked. However much more seriously the ship VHF certificate is both out of date and in the wrong name. Worse than this it is French.
So I went online to the Ofcom website to see if I could get a UK license. I will explain a bit about VHF licensing. There is a VHF user license , which Margaret holds as our Communication Officer, There is then a Ship's VHF license which is married to the vessel.
This marriage is cemented by a whole range of registration numbers. These are the MMSI number, the IMO number, the call sign, Accounting Authority Identification Code, the Small Ships Register number and the Selcall number! The French also have a whole range of other numbers all of their own fabrication. So there was I trying to identify each of these on the French registration papers using Google Translate.
You then have to declare whether this is a replacement, a new application or the re-registering of a renamed vessel. I started trying to say the vessel had been re-named. It then transpires that some of the French numbers are uniquely Franch and are not transferrable into a UK license. So I ran into the buffers on that route. If I was renaming a UK vessel in the UK that would have been feasible, or re-registering a French vessel in France that would be OK, but registering a re-named ex-French vessel with a UK license is not possible. Not and keep the original numbers.
 The main problem is the MMSI number which is meant to be fixed to the vessel. This is transmitted automatically during an SOS and identifies the vessel to the coast guard and SAR authority in an emergency. The MMSI number cannot be altered on the VHF set and it self destructs if you try.
In the end I gave up on this and declared it was a new application for a new vessel to the UK, which I suppose it is. So I managed to get a brand new license and set of numbers, which don't match those on my VHFset - but better than being fined by an Albanian policeman.
This afternoon we went for the 3 mile statuatory walk into Split. We visited Diacletian's palace and took the waters while watching the tourists from the cruise ships photographing everything with their own image in the foreground using Narsisticks.
The other main point of human watching is the promenading by the very stylish locals on the Riva. This is obviously very important and the local lovelies have it down to a fine art. The consistency of performance is such that I suspect there must be a course in the local finishing school or FE college.

 Views from inside Diocletian's palace.

Not sure what Nicola Sturgeon would make of the booze prices here. A litre of Vodka for 40 Kuna. Around £4.70! Stick to beer I think.