Off to Artaturi

The Italians are coming, the Italians are coming!!  Sounds like a cry that should echo about the sentry posts of the world. The summer holidays start on the 15th July in Italy, and every man and his dog jumps on a boat and heads for Croatia. I'm not kidding, the harbours here are just packed now, predominantly with Italians. Many of them are naked too, so Megan has made up big score cards out of 10 to hold up and rate them after a performance. Its mainly for men who like to show off their pink bits to the whole world from the sugar scoop stern of their boat. She felt that they deserved some kind of feedback for the impressive shows they put on.

Anchorage at Brbinj

Sun and Sea

Quiet and peaceful anchorage

After Zadar, Megan and I wanted to get away from the crowds for a bit, so we headed for Dugi Otak, which is a long island north of the Kornatis. It is also a national park, but unlike the Kornatis, it is lushly forested. We spend some peaceful few days at Lucina/Brbinj on the north-east coast. It was one of the few harbours that did not charge for anchoring on this island. We walked across the island to the next bay, and generally just unwound. Next, it was off to a small channel between the islands of Morat and Ist. We initially chose the Morat harbour of Zapuntel, but when the man turned up wanting mooring fees, we told him we'd leave. It was on dusk, so we motored across the small channel and anchored behind some other laid moorings. Sure enough, a little man appeared and asked for money as we were "too close to his moorings", even though it was dark and these buoys were unused. We asked how far we had to move, and ended up moving 10 metres nearer the shore. Every one now happy.

Island hopping

Island of Ist! Ist was?

Light and shade

More deserted islands, that's a church on the top of the hill

Really a stunningly beautiful maritime environment

From Ist, we headed up to a rather unusual town built on a small channel that passed between two islands. The islands were Ilovik and Sveti Petar. It was a charming anchorage, but we stayed on a buoy only long enough to pick up some bread. We were still wanting peace and quiet, so we headed for the large island of Losinj. We tried three anchorages, at Luka Cikat, Koludarc and Mali Losinj before finding what we were looking for at Artaturi.

Townlet of Ilovik

Shady parks and gardens

Main street of Ilovik

Ilovik garden

The town sits on a narrow channel between two islands.

Artaturi is a large but sheltered bay, open only to the south. The holding is great on sand/mud and there's lots of room to swim. Although there's a lot of boats anchoring in here, its a 'family atmosphere' and quite friendly. The swimming is great off the boat and we feel really secure here. We're almost at the height of summer, the daily temperature is hitting 32 - 34 degrees and its HOT! The main goal is to do as little as possible, and stay as cool as possible. Megan has even invented some shade awnings suspended from the boom to stop the hull heating up so much inside. Clever girl!

Great anchorage at Artaturi

A great swimming site with good holding and crystal clear water.

Our days of island hopping are over however. Tomorrow, we're heading for Istria, the northernmost mainland district of Croatia. We plan to leave Pavlov in a marina near Pula, and catch the bus into Slovenia. Its a lot easier to cross the border that way rather than take Pavlov in, which would involve paying for a new cruising permit. Once we get to Ljubljana, we plan to rent a car to visit Bled and other places Megan knows in Slovenia. See ya then.

Cruising in the Kornati Islands

After dragging Michael over the Krka National Park waterfalls, we agreed to head out to the Kornati national park, a string of largely uninhabited islands off the coast of the Central Adriatic.  We came down the beautiful Krka river, accompanied by thousands of swans, to Sibenik. We decided to treat ourselves to a night in a marina.

Nav mark on the Krka river

Another submarine pen in the Krka river

I find these nav marks strangely attractive

Pav in the Mandelina marina in Sibenik

Portico entrance to a Sibenik house

After a day wandering around Sibenik, an attractive medieval style town, we headed back out of the river system and across to the Kornati chain of islands.

Leaving the river system, back out to sea.

Venetian fort guarding the entrance to the Krka river

Lighthouse at the river's entrance

First glimpse of the Kornatis.

Michael on watch.

There's 140 islands in the Kornati archipelago, scattered over about 320 square kilometers. Eighty five percent of the islands are stony, and this gives the archipelago an other-worldly lunar quality. The sea-scape was beautiful, the water was clean and crystal clear. It was quite an experience sailing by these islands. George Bernard Shaw described them thus: "On the last day of the Creation god desired to crown his work, and thus created the Kornati Islands out of tears, stars and breath".

Stony islands in the Kornati

Running down the length of the largest island, Kornat

The islands had a lunar landscape quality

Another view

A lunch stop anchorage.

We spent a rather windy night in Lavsa on a mooring ball. Leaving the park, we had an exciting sail in 25 knots of wind, back to the island of Pasman. We almost ran aground while beating through the narrow channels of the islands in the north of the park, the depth meter went to 1.5 metres (we go aground at .9 metres). Quick U-turn put us right, but it shows you not to trust our computer charts completely!

Michael chilling.

Coast off Zadar

Radar walls and municipal buildings

We made an overnight stop at Landin, on Pasman to avoid a bit of wind. We then circumnavigated the island of Pasman, going south, to get up to Zadar.  Zadar turned out to be a wonderful town. It was old and Venetian, but it was also a lively cultural centre without becoming a husked-out tourist town. We booked into Borik marina, but if I was going again, I'd anchor in the small bay just north of the old walled town. The marina was not well sheltered, very rolly, and with poor facilities. It was 75 Euro a night.

Sunset over Zadar

The bay inside Zadar

Zadar street music 

Town gate

Lively thoroughfares in Zadar

Megan stepping out

We had a great meal out with Michael in the old town. Michael was to leave the next morning, catching a bus back to Split and then on to Barcelona. Megan and I were pretty exhausted after playing tour guide for nine days, so we bit the bullet and paid for another night in the marina. After seeing to Pavlov's never-ending needs, we pulled our bikes out, and had a wonderful ride from Borik into the old town (about 6 km each way). The path went along the waterfront, which was filled with small harbours, old palatial homes and interesting 'stuff'.  

Town square in Zadar

Cultural centre in Zadar

Street musician

Beautiful architecture

Croatian accordionist

After the emotional roller-coaster of Michael's visit, Megan and I needed a few days just watching the world flow by, so we headed out to Dugi Otok, another national park 12 miles off the coast of Croatia. We found a nice and protected anchorage (with no fees!) in Brbinj on Dugi, and we settled in here to just catch our breath.

Setting sun

Swanning around Skradin

We'd been idling in Vinisce, partying with a couple of Australian boats. John and Denise on 'Mia Sirena' and Earl and Di on 'Saturn'. Vinisce was one of those large but protected anchorages, with a good holding bottom, where you can just sit back and relax. And so we did, with some great company.

Pavlov at anchor in Vinisce

A Croatian wedding procession, every horn is blaring.

But the day of Michael's arrival loomed, so we headed back south to Trogir and anchored just out of the channel, and managed to get our tender into the little creek that divides the medieaval town of Trogir from the mainland.

Trigger's little creek that makes it an island.

Venetian castle in Trigur

The ferry dock in Trogir

The main promenade.

It's only 6 km to Split airport from Trogir, so it was an ideal pick up point. We wandered around Trogir which is quite a charming and busy little town, Megan even managed to score a hair-cut, which for this Leonine mane is a major event. The next day, we caught a bus and met Michael at the airport.

Gate into the walled city of Trogir

Interesting Venetian architecture

Church tower

The town loggia, a kind of coat of arms.

Fantasic stone masonry

Clock tower in the town square

Michael, Megan and Pav on the dock in Sibenik

With Michael ensconced in Pavlov and after another night on the hook just off Trogir, we made our way north, dropped into Kremik and had our new alternator replaced again!, and then settled down in a great little anchorage in Morinj. This is a large lagoon just south of the entrance to the Krka river. There was an arched suspension bridge with a charted height of 20.5 metres under it. Pavlov's mast is about 18m from the water, but it was still a nerve racking moment to see if we'd get under it alright.

Chart of the Krka river to Skradin

Anchored at Rasline, in the large lake on Krka river

Bridge on the way to Skrandin

River banks

The town of Skradin

From there, we headed into the Krka river, and stopped briefly at the large town of Sibenik. We docked at the town quay, and the port authority gave us two hours there for free. If we stayed 10 minutes longer, the fee went to 350 kuna (about AUD$70). We hurriedly explored Sibenik, then decided to get off and go up-river to the major attraction of the area, the Krka National Park waterfalls. First stop was a great little anchorage outside the village of Rasline which is on the lake that swells out of the Krka river. After a delightful and calm night, we headed off the Skradin and found a great and free anchorage tied to the shore just in front of the marina (where folks are paying 450 Kuna per night!)

The main street of Skradin

Pavlov anchored in Skradin

Ferry taking us to the falls

The Krka river north of Skradin

Our ferry docking at the Krka National Park

Skradin is a very pretty town that provides services for visitors to the Krka National Park which is one of the crowns of Croatian natural heritage. We were able to catch a ferry from here up to the base of the waterfalls. We spent a wonderful day, hiking around the falls, looking at all the wild life and swimming in the refreshing fresh water pools.

Michael and Megan in the park

Swimmers at the base of the falls

A small section of the falls

Another view

Further up the falls

The Krka river, linked travertine pools with falls.

The wild life was fascinating as well. Megan trod on some snakes as she swam the line to shore while we were anchoring, so we had to find out more about those. The rangers told us about the snakes in the park. There is only one that is poisonous, lucky for Megan. We loved watching iridescent blue dragon flies and carp swimming in the river.

Can you spot the sea snake?

Old mill at the upper falls

Fish and lilies 

Carp swimming against the flow

Megan on the trail around the upper falls

More views of the upper falls.

The falls are majestic and very beautiful. The whole river system, with all its sheltered anchorages is well worth exploring for a few days. Today we are heading off to anchor in a secluded little cove  at Beretusa, that we saw on the way up-river. After that, we'll spend some money and go into the marina at Sibenik. Megan is dreaming of a Lidl (the large German shopping chain where we can cheaply buy goods to restock the boat), and Steve clearly has the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Megan asking whether she can go the distance

The skipper, holding it all up as usual

Parental bliss