Marina Kastela by night
Having spent a few days at Kastela marina for some crew battery recharging and some maintenance we were getting ready for this summer seasons last charter. We now had all missing stainless steel bits for the deck swim ladder and portable gangway as well as new deck covers. Engines got a change of oil and filters. I met some of my ex crew and enjoyed a good dinner at Barba restaurant in Trogir. Then unfortunately I got a flu from somewhere and spent 2 days on the bottom of my bunk trying to get rid of the bug by drinking copious amounts of lemon, ginger and turmeric concoction with honey. Not sure if it did the trick but on the 3rd day when we were on our way to Bol to pick up the guests I was definitely on the mend.
New covers
New covers
Smoke on the horizon at sunset
Despite the good weather it was hazy everywhere due to the forest fires in Bosnia, according to news nearly 200 sq.km. was on fire and the smoke was everywhere. No wonder the Bosnian barbecue is best according to Balkan people. The smoke made for some awesome sunsets but as everyone should know, the redder the sun the more pollution or dust is up in the air. We arrived Bol in good time and confirmed that we have a berthing slot on the fuel dock.
Bol fuel dock
As I received news that the guests had arrived I called in and got permission to approach. Luckily there was hardly any wind so it was easy to approach bow first and ease ourselves forward until we were far enough to rig the gangway, our stern stuck out a few meters. Then we waited another 10 minutes, received the guests and luggage, everything was piled onboard and we cast off, it was a quick half hour operation from tie up to departure.
Mosaique at fuel dock
Makarska
Makarska
Makarska yellow submarine
Makarska keys to heaven statue
From Bol we headed for Makarska to pick up another guest, it took us about 1.5h to motor, I dropped anchor off the marina and waited for the guest to arrive. The city looked pretty busy with plenty of tour boats and jetskis on the water. As soon as the guest was onboard we weighed anchor and headed for north side of Hvar to anchor for the night. The weather was calm but the ever pervasive smoke was still everywhere and was making my throat itch. Eventually I dropped anchor after dark south of Zecevo island near Vrboska, as the sun came up the next morning it was not so beautiful as I would have expected and soon got orders to move the yacht somewhere else so I weighed anchor and set heading for Tiha bay close by.
Sailer in need
As we were sitting there at Malo Stupisce I watched a small sailing boat having issues with their anchor winch, it looked like the anchor was snagged on the bottom or the winch itself was having clutch issues or something else technical. I sent my crew to give them a hand and in the end 4 guys on forward deck pulled the anchor up and advised the Slovenian couple onboard not to anchor straight away so they went and moored in Stari Grad waiting for some repairs to their winch.
Our C/E for assistance
Malo Stupisce
Malo Stupisce
Stari Grad port
Stari Grad port
In Tiha bay I anchored in the Malo Stupisce inlet, it is a very picturesque location and got a few nice drone shots off. Then later in evening we moved in front of Stari Grad and eventually was asked to get a berth to which I managed to get one in the last second. We moved in and anchored stern to next to another yacht, Tirea. The next morning I had to exit and come back in as Tirea needed to leave at 0800hrs, I ended up going astern all the way out and I waited for them to exit and then I got back in and moored at same spot. Then I got in a small walk on town and circled in the back of the old old town and saw the multiple churches there and the archeological site. In general it was a very neat and well kept town. To me it reminded myself of Bonifacio with the narrow fiord going inland although not as tight and busy as there.
Stari Grad
Stari Grad
Stari Grad, boat ramp
Stari Grad
Stari Grad
Stari Grad, archeological site
Stari Grad
Stari Grad, inside church
Stari Grad
The next day we headed for Sibenik and stopped enroute for a swim at Maslinik island, it had a cave cave named after Count Monte Cristo, we could not see any hermits inside. The weather was good and it also enabled us to anchor close by on the seaside. The island itself is pretty small with some vegetation on it, on the north side there were some sailing boats at anchor and after a few hours we weighed anchor and continued.
Maslinik island
Monte Cristo cave
Fisherman
As we approached Sibenik we had to ask permission to pass through the Jadrija channel to reach the town. The mouth was guarded by a massive chunk of a fortress that first came in view like 2 lumps that then grew to larger and larger into a square fort in the middle of the sea. We got permission to proceed and slowed down to 8 knots, the channel went in zig-zag fashion but most 'curves' could be motored straight, there was a lot of small boat traffic too.
Sibenik
Sibenik, view to south
Sibenik and the town quay
Sibenik
We arrived Sibenik at sunset and had an alongside berth in front of the old town and cathedral. At first there were a couple of old chaps sitting on the bench watching us arrive but as it took awhile to muscle us to the jetty there was a crowd once I rang finished with engines. The scenery was quite stunning of a mix of inland lake and seaside. Crew got a chance to go ashore for a quick meal in the evening but I stayed onboard minding the fort. We slipped lines at 0800hrs next morning and headed upriver towards Skradin, the speed limit in the fiord, or what you want to call it, was still 8 knots so we motored on at dead slow and made about 7 knots, some of the turns were like 180 degree eye of the needle turns and for those I stopped the inside engine to get a better turning momentum. It didn't take us long before we were at the next 'lake', Jezero, and we motored around the deep areas. Guests did not fancy a swim so we carried on towards Skradin. After the lake the channel got a bit narrower.
Skradin
After some 30 minutes more of this we arrived Skradin, it looked quaint and had a small marina. After here is a bridge with 10m height so we could not pass under and further on are the waterfalls. The guests did not fancy staying for awhile nor the night so we turned around and made our way back to open seas, passing the same 2 bridges again, the first at 30m and the last 50m height, we only have 15m of airdraft so it was no biggie. In a way I cold understand guests as the bottom was muddy, it made the waters look murky and not enticing for swimming, especially if one had turquoise waters on their mind. In Skradin there would have been a a lot of activities to do but alas, we headed out. On our way we stopped and bought fresh oysters and mussels from one of the farms that are on the banks of the river. I sent my Mate Nikos ahead with the tender and followed dead slow with one engine, when he was done he caught up and we took the tender on tow again.
Skradin
Sibenik - Skradin plot
Local boats in Sibenik
The Sv. Ante channel outward entrance
Sibenik fortress
At the Sv Ante channel leading out to open sea we had to wait at the traffic lights until the incoming traffic had cleared, it was no hardship as the wind was not pushing a lot. Once we got permission to exit, we did, and headed towards Murter Island, the wind was pretty stiff from south and I tried doing a stern to mooring for the guests but they did not like the winds so we ended going a bit north of Murter where there is a group of small islands and anchored in the lee of them. For the evening we moved closer to Murter main town for guests to go ashore to enjoy dinner but conveniently a balmy night turned in a split second to a thunderstorm, one moment it was calm and the next it was blowing nearly 30 knots with heavy downpour, the temperature fell some 6 degrees. Luckily we were on the ball and let out some more chain to prevent us from dragging anchor. The thunderstorm fizzled out pretty soon but the wind lingered a bit longer and slowly abated to force 2-3 for the night.
Murter, some islands N of it
Murter, some islands N of it
Murter
Murter
Murter
The next morning we weighed anchor again and left for Kornati island, the outer island group at this latitude and the scenery changed drastically from lush green islets to a windswept moon landscape. The islands were streaked by the predominant NW or SE winds and looked really rugged, nothing really seemed to grow there apart small patches in a few sheltered copses. It reminded me very much of the Cyclades in Greece. We anchored off a couple of places for lunch but they were either out of food or closed, the guests did not fancy the views so we headed south towards Hvar. The wind picked up from a southerly to a northeasterly and we were going against the seas. It was overcast and not so pleasant looking, finally it took us 5 hours of motoring to reach Necujam bay where we stayed overnight, the guests enjoyed some drinks ashore but dinner onboard.
Kornati
Kornati
Kornati
Kornati, Zakan island & restaurant
Kornati, ACI Piskera marina at Panitula Is.
Kornati
Kornati, no 179
Kornati, Opat
Then early morning we heaved up anchor and headed for Tiha bay near Stari Grad once more and got the Malo Stupisce inlet all for ourselves. The holiday making sailing boats were clearly less now. Weather is still summery but we got just some minutes after tying up a pouring summer rain shower on us, after that the southerly wind turned to northwest and drove the clouds away and we had sunshine again in our sheltered cove. In the afternoon we packed up and moved to Stari Grad for the night where guests enjoyed dinner ashore at the Eremitaz restaurant.
Malo Stupisce
Malo Stupisce
Next morning was travel day for our guests and we departed Stari Grad in good order for Bol to disembark our guests. After having dropped them off we set heading for Split to check out of Croatia and do a few crew changes as our summer season had come to a close. Our next stop was in Bar for some fuel and then we would set course for UK.
Stari Grad
Stari Grad
As we were motoring for Split we passed Zamorski Rat on Brac and saw the advancing forest fire first hand, 4-5 airplanes were doing constant loops picking up seawater and dumping it over the fire. Pretty sad sight to see green vegetation going up in flames at a distance, the fire was of massive proportion. Many years ago I still remember in Hong Kong watching brush fire on the surrounding slopes from miles away with binoculars and the flames were clearly visible, just goes to tell how large the fire was.
Forest fire
Croatian forestry planes over the forest fire on Brac island
As I entered Split port to get to the Customs pier for the exit formalities one of my ex crew came for a quick coffee before we set off. We chatted for awhile and very soon my Mate informed we had completed all paperwork and could leave. So I shook hand with my friend, we fired up the engines and off we went.
Coming into Split customs dock
(credit A. Sosic)
As we exited the port I could still see the fire was raging on Brac, a huge mushroom cloud was over the island and I could see the planes doing their rounds and dumping water on the slopes. Instagram was full of small clips of these fire fighters, one can only hope nobody lost their lives in the process. The town of Milna was evacuated and nearly 30 sq.km of forest had burned down.
The smoke from the fires has just gotten worse
Slowly we left the Croatian archipelago behind us and we set course for Bar. Crew had already since Bol been securing for a longer sea voyage putting on storm shutters and stowing gear and covers. The wind was pretty fresh blowing from astern and later turning to our side, I could see the smoke from the wildfires following the coast. I met a few fishermen before sunset and then we settled in routines for the passage, crew mostly catching up on sleep.
Fishing boat off Lastovo
Sunset over Adriatic
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