Croatia July 18 - August 18, 2004

We have continued our passage through Croatia, with a brief stop in Venice, Italy. Recent cruising notes will follow.

Rovinj (July 18-20)

Anchored in bay south of the marina, nice walk into town. It is quite ok for overnight anchorage even though the pilot book is vague about that. Very pretty old town. Lots of tourists. Excellent fish at local sailing club (something Ronhill). Cleared out with customs the day before we left as they would not be open at 5am. Cleared out with the police in the morning

Venezia (Venice) (July 20-23)

Motored over clear and shallow waters to Venezia. Water was filled with huge "monsters". Algae or giant jellyfish? Tied up at St Elena boat club on the main island. Helpful staff, quiet spot and the price was relatively good - 37 euros/night. 20 minutes walking to St Marco. We loved Venezia! We were taken by all the traffic going on by boat, so did not really have time for the museums. Took in some free concerts in the Biennale gardens, walked the narrow streets - and the wide and lovely street in St Elena. No cars, it's wonderful. Spent a lot of time in the vaporetti - the boat buses. A perfect way to find a breeze on a 40 C degree day. Restaurants were terribly overpriced but we found nice bars and eateries in an industrial area on the mainland where we went to have the fuel injectors cleaned. (At MOSE - they did it for free!)

Novigrad (July 23)

Cleared back into Croatia here but didn't stay. The customs dock seemed to house tourist boats too, we were shoved off rapidly.

Crvar (July 23-24)

Anchored at the head of the bay and tried to get some sleep. Nudist karaoke competition to port, disco to starboard. Can't recommend it.

Pula (July 24-27)

Revisited Pula to stock up and use the internet place. On day 3, the port authorities came out to our anchorage and wanted three nights pay. We refused, settled for one night. 55 kuna.

Losinj: Uvala Artaturi (July 27-29)

Started off from Pula in slight rain and ended up in a fullblown Bora (NE gale/storm). Very rough ride. Our dinghy flipped over and we had an "interesting" time rescuing it and the outboard engine, which amazingly worked afterwards! Uvala Artaturi is supposed to be a bora haven but we had a lot of wind there as well. Stayed two nights to let the winds (and ourselves) calm down.

Molat: Podgrade (July 29-30)

Revisited lovely bay. The water here is fantastic, crystal clear.

Dugi Otok: Luka Telascica (July 30-31)

Sailed along Dugi Otok, pretty, and anchored in the national Park Telascica. They charged 40 kuna/person which included anchorage or buoy for 2 nights.

Dugi Otok: Uvala Tripuljak (July 31)

Moved 2 nm to another bay in the park. Lovely walk to steep cliffs and salt lake.

Kornati (August 1)

Sailed through, did not stop. A must see. Barren islands with a peculiar beauty. Lots of nice anchorages.

Kaprije (August 1-2)

The bay in the village was crowded with fresh charter boats, many dragging. The village is worth a visit, very old.

Skradin (August 2-4)

There are several reasons to visit Skradin. The first is the National park Krka with the falls, which we saw a few weeks ago. This time we came back for a meal at the lovely Konoba Vidrovaca. We picked up one of their buoys, they also have a pontoon with mooring lines for dinner guests. Next morning we moved up to the town bay and anchored across the marina. Spent the day cleaning Olivia with the almost fresh water from the river - also a good reason to come to Skradin. However, we cannot recommend staying there overnight. There is a disco playing very loudly until 5 am. Pure torture. Bring earplugs - or dynamite!

Drvenik (August 4-10)

Back in a favorite place. Low key village on beautiful island and a favorite Konoba, Tramontana.

Otok Hvar: Stari Grad (August 10-11)

The anchorage across the bay from the marina is now blocked with mooring buoys. We picked one up for free but suspect they will charge next year. Our visit in June was much nicer, too crowded in August.

Otok Korcula: Vela Luka (August 11-13)

Anchored at the head of the town bay, very sheltered. OK supermarket, good pizza at Alfa.

Otok Lastovo (August 13-17)

Beautiful green island, but with a garbage problem that we haven't seen since Italy. We anchored in a large very protected bay north of Ubil. Very popular. "Kommunal" charges 4 kuna/person/day for garbage handling, we hope they will use some of the money to pick up on the shores as well. And in the water. Our anchor chain got very intimate with an old trawlers net. Here, we made the decision to spend winter in Venice, instead of continuing to Turkey. So we're turning back north.

Otok Korcula: Vela Luka (August 17-18)

Back in town, same anchorage. Very nice folk dance performance on Tuesday nights, including beautiful Dalmatian singing and sword dancing.