18-VII-1976.

The day of the big storm in Vrsar. I feared for the tent, because it was exactly on a ridge, above a curve of the road going through the camp. There wasn't much rain, but the wind was strong. The soil where we put it was rather soft, being poured to fill the space above the low wall protecting the road. Most of the spikes went in easily. Vasa and Dragica stayed in his škodilak, which was by then a regular room, with backrests down, all the blankets raised to provide curtains etc.

This was shot when the worst was over. Our tent would be a few meters to the right outside the frame.

This was shot when the worst was over. Our tent would be a few meters to the right outside the frame.

We lay in the tent, eating risotto from those foil packages, cold, with just spoons (did we bring them or just lifted them somewhere?). The tent was the two person crawl-in thing, where even sitting wasn't easy. We watched the people in the neighboring tents trying to prevent them from flying away. The lines snapped, the rods bent, awnings flapped... Zaka was in Poreč or Rovinj at the time, and later recounted how trashcans were rolling down the slope to the boardwalk, and he saw them smashing both outboard Johnson engines on a modest yacht.

Next morning we saw several damaged tents downwind from us, deeper in the bay, not on the ridge like our was.

But nothing happened to our tent. The entrance was downwind so it didn't get inflated much, and the side facing the wind was aerodynamic as much as possible. And later, when we were packing, we could pull each spike out with two fingers.

Mentions: Dragica, Radoslav Kajganić (Zaka), škodilak, Vasa Šančev, in serbian

11-III-2020 - 31-X-2025