Summer sailing in Croatia

This time we decided to book boats still during a high season (August) in Croatia and were looking forward for the trip very much. The start and finish was planned in the village Sukošan near Zadar - a home to as many as 1200 boats (D-Marin marina).

The planned roundtrip route had a new overnight stop every day, passing through two national parks: Kornati and Sibenik. The overall distance was 260km or 140 nautical miles.

Saturday (24 Aug) - D-Marina Sukosan

The crew from all three boats was arriving during Saturday. Our boat was the largest in a fleet and was called "Verdi" (55 ft Bavaria), second was "Bach" (50 ft Bavaria), and the last one was Liana (46 ft Bavaria). We were listening the classic music all the way up to the marina in a car in order to become closer with a boat named "Verdi". went to the sea on the first evening just after the check-in. The calamity of the sea and slow sunset were so meditative that we immediately had forgotten about the recent rush of a big city.

Sunday (25 Aug)

We could do swimming and sunbathing only early in the morning or evening, as the weather was unusually hot in August - 30-33 °C during the day. There was rarely windy enough weather, so we couldn't even hoist the sails.

We woke up early in the morning and set off at 7am. One hour later we'd already arrived at a calm bay and were the only boat there for some time. We've quickly learned how to use a paddle board and had fun with it during the whole morning.

There was a skilled swimmer among us - he could dive deep up to 10 meters without any additional equipment. He lifted two finger fishes, sea cucumber, sea-urchin, and some old bottles where we hoped to find some message.

A place for night was Veli Rat marina in Pantera bay with amazing sunset.

Monday (26 Aug)

The next day was no better than previous - it was hot from the morning and we desperately wanted to swim. Two ropes into the water and boat at a low speed made it possible for the whole team to enjoy bathing while on the go and just chilling.

We went around the Kornati archipelago to stay in the natural resort Telašćica. The views were stunning. We were not alone with the idea to visit the park - almost all buoys were busy with the boats, and we had to put two boats on one buoy. A short hike to the lake Jezero Mir was also a highlight of that day.

At night it was like a disco party on the water with lights of all possible colours and shapes around us. We don't have party pictures, but the night view of the bay with many boats also was a good highlite of that nights stay.

Tuesday (27 Aug)

Slowly coming in the late morning towards another place in the natural park - Piskera.

Deserted but beautiful island - only the marina was functioning and rocks around. The island was facing the West and we gathered to take pictures of a sunset and the scene illuminated by the glow of twilight. We enjoyed our homemade Italian dinner with pasta and chorizo under the open Sky.

Wednesday (28 Aug)

A glassy sea in the morning. We saw big human-size fish (tuna and swordfish) jumping from the water, but they quickly disappeared when they heard the sounds of a motor from our boat.

We left the national park area and arrived at the coastal city Primošten. We'd taken the last buoys available for our boats and went to the restaurant. The full team of ten people reaches the land only in three roundtrips of our small dinghy. The place was a great spot for beautiful photos with nice views as well as there were many bars if you like to have a night out with cocktails and music.

Thursday (29 Aug)

On the road to the second national park in Sibenik region. In order to reach the Skradin marina we had to go through a long channel, and the most dangerous was not the risk of running aground, but that we had two bridges on an unknown height and tall 22-meters mast on the boat. It was a scary moment that we may not fit under the bridge. We went to the very center of the strait, where we still felt like it was not more than one meter between the mast top and the bridge. It was the most dangerous part of our trip.

In the end of the passage there is a large marina Skradin open not only for visitors, but to many locally-owned boats. Fo the rest of the day we went to observe the waterfalls and the territory of Skradinski Buk, which is a small part of the whole territory of a Krka National Park. Beautiful 1 hour route with waterfalls views and rainbows, you even can swim in some of waterfalls.

Friday (30 Aug)

We went several times by the floating pontoons on our way to the national park Krka. Finally we "catched" someone on one of these Oyster&Mussel farms the next day.

During a quick chat we learnt that it is a hard business with low margins. Even if under the water there are tons of oysters and mussels - they rely on the demand from tourists, which is not always consistent.

We made a nice photo session with open sailis while going back to the home marina. The only way to make the picture like this is to get close to another boat of you friends, then captain should set up sails and run to the crew very fast leaving boat without managing it, meanwhile another team is ready to make the best sailing crew picture with open sails!

There was a large queue of boats waiting to top up the diesel tanks before the check-out. Boys practice physical exercises of hand-towing a boat after a week of relaxation. In the video you can see how to move a sailing boat with no speed.

Imagination came to a next level - we could recognize a symmetry in three close masts. These boats were home for us for the whole week.

Thank you for being with us and reading our story.
Ivan & Dasha