Exploring Croatia - Summer 2003

We untied from the dock at Gaeta, Italy April 30, starting our journey down and around "the boot" to cross the Adriatic Sea and mark another country on our ship's log.

The trip down and around took 27 days and covered 704 water miles (808 land miles). Waited out some weather a few times. Anticipated the whirlpools at Strait of Messina to be a big deal, based on its history. Forgot I had been through a whole bunch of straits in the Northwest and Alaska with no problem, so it became an almost "ho-hum" event. Yet I felt close to ancient sailors who had rowed or tried to row their big ships through the turbulence that could happen when the tides change and the water has to squeeze through the narrow opening between the Tyrhennian Sea and the Ionian Sea. Once through there, we pointed the bow east and began to get more excited about Croatia.

All vessels have to clear in with the authorities in one of several ports. Dubrovnik is the main one. So we headed straight across from Brindisi, Italy to Dubrovnik, Croatia, a trip of 20 hours, in the company of two other power boats whose people were not accustomed to overnight crossings. All went well. We cleared into Croatia at the commercial port of Gruz , paying our annual cruising permit fee of $320, then got some rest. With new charts in hand we felt ready to go, but an opportunity to take a land trip into Montenegro (the country just south of Croatia and north of Albania) came up and we couldn't say no. Left the Teka boat tied up at a marina near the border and went by car to explore for a couple of days and stay overnight with friends of friends-the best kind.

Then we started our journey in earnest. First stop the walled city of Korcula, an interesting place to poke around. It's the reported birthplace of Marco Polo. Imagine him as a young lad sitting at the open window, gazing out to the sea and making his plans to be the big time explorer. But, did he bring noodles from China, or take them there from Venice?

Next stop: Stari Grad on Hvar Island. Denis and I were heading up this year's Croatia Cruisers' Rendezvous, a 4 day event in late June for cruisers in the area to meet and enjoy a special place while sharing with each other all our sea tales. We met with the harbor people to discuss where we would tie up, and set up some tours with the local agency, then left with a good feeling about the upcoming event.

We chose to go north and save the southern Dalmatians for when Dawn, Larry and Megan arrived in late June for two weeks on board. Croatia boasts over 1,000 islands as well as the immediate coastline as places of history and pleasure for vacationers. We had much to choose from to poke in and around.

Trogir's town wall provided me with a cultural experience. People walking along do not hesitate to stop and talk and ask questions of boaters tied up, no matter where. In Trogir one couple, he a middle-aged Brit and she a much younger woman, stopped and asked, "Are you really from America?" During the conversation I confessed it continued to be hard for me to try Croatian as a language because they had so many consonants. She said, "Welcome to the globalization of consonants!" Then I found out she was from Split-as Croatian as can be, speaking perfect English. The amount of English spoken by the natives surprised us, and crippled us because we didn't have to struggle to get by with another new language.

From there we headed to a quiet cove, where a man came out from shore in his dinghy waving his restaurant card, soliciting our business. It so happened we had made prior arrangements to meet another cruiser in the bay and go to his favorite restaurant-that one, the Mastrinka. What a deal!

Rogoznica, fondly referred to as "Rosie's Knickers" by English speakers, provided a protected anchorage next. On to Sibernik and the famous National Park Waterfalls up the Skradin River. Spent two nights in a cove along the entrance to the Skadrin, swimming in the fresher water and cleaning the Teka's sides. Dinghied up to the tourist area, caught a ferry to the falls, walked all around the park, and then continued walking back to pick up our dinghy for a return to the mother ship. Didn't swim in the falls as others did. Directly below the falls had been roped off and the swimming area didn't seem too exciting. But after our hot dusty walk back we couldn't wait to jump in the river from the boat's swim bridge at the anchorage.

Sukosan, south of Zadar, gave us protection the next night, and then we followed a convoluted route up to Pag on Pag Island, where we were the only boat at anchorage. Still too early in the season for lots of boats, so spent the night alone. Here we came right up close to the Velebit Mountains which rise 5-6000 feet straight out of the Velebit Channel. This area is Bora land. The wind climbs up and over the granite walls and swooshes down clearing everything out of its path when it blows long and hard. Mostly in the winter I might add, but we met cruisers who have sat out boras in the summer. You just have to hunker down and tie to shore and listen to the wind howl for anywhere from 16 to 36 hours before it blows itself out. We were fortunate and had no bora activity during our time in Croatia.

Next stop: Rab on Rab Island. This is a place of churches, all in a row on one street , but none were open when we visited town. They still looked very interesting from the outside. From Rab we hit some rough water due to 25 knot winds making 2 meter (6 1/2') short, choppy waves. Detoured to Punat on Krk Island and waited for morning to see what would occur. Still some chop (about 5'), but not as bad, so continued on to Cres on Cres Island for the night. At each of these places we took the dinghy to town and walked around to get the feel of the place and normally bought some supplies. Fresh vegetables and fruit are always targets of opportunity, wherever we went.

A highlight of the trip south (Cres and Krk were the northernmost islands in the Croatian chain) and a not to be missed place was at the bottom of Dugi Otok called Luka Telascica. We stayed two days at that Nature Park grooving with nature, and watching other boaters.

We had to head south for the Rendezvous time by then so a quick stop at Primosten and a rolly night got us closer to Stari Grad. There we had a mini rendezvous with our co-planners in a small cove approaching Stari Grad proper and got caught up with their activities and shared information about our travels. And I got my domino fix!

Twenty four boats attended the Rendezvous-9 flew the Stars and Stripes, 7 the Union Jack, and six other countries were represented by French, Australian, Luxumborg, Norwegian, New Zealand and Slovenia flags. We had a history tour of the town, a bus ride through the central island villages and wine tasting experience, shared among ourselves where to go and what to see going both east and west from Croatia, ate a special island dinner arranged by local people, and just enjoyed being in Stari Grad with each other. Made new friends for life.

An unexpected, unplanned event left us with mouths open. A huge squall came through about 6 a.m. one of the rendezvous days. All boats got a healthy wash down, but the ooh and aah came when we watched the water surging in and rapidly leaving the harbor (like water out of a bathtub). The water line on the concrete pier moved up and down 5-6 feet every time and we kept busy fending off our ladders (access to the dock) and sterns. The man in charge of the harbor moorings told someone that ten years ago in November the water completely disappeared out of the long fjord for 15 minutes in one of those rises and falls of the sea, leaving all the fish high and dry and dead. Wow!

Dawn, Larry and Megan flew from Germany to Split and took the ferry over to meet us at the Rendezvous for the last 2 1/2 days. I wanted the cruisers to meet the family and family to meet our extended family-the cruisers.

We took off the day after all the festivities were finished to the Palkeni Islands, then over to Hvar town on Hvar Island. What a place! Boats just kept coming and a man raced around in a fast runabout directing traffic, telling each boat captain where to anchor and sometimes getting them much too close to each other and especially to us! We remarked to him how incredible it looked to us. He said, "It is more incredible the middle of August when 150 boats anchor right in here!" We are glad we didn't plan to be there then. Before we could leave the next morning we had to climb the castle walk and see the scene unfolding below us from the parapet.

I couldn't go for the walk until the French boat behind us had pulled up anchor because I didn't trust him not to hit us. We swayed back and forth past each other after he anchored the afternoon before. Ended up his anchor chain was directly beneath our boat and we had to crank up and move out of his way so he could leave. Several charter boats did thump in the night. I had self imposed myself to be anchor watch during the dark hours and saw some near misses near morning, and then some clunks as people tried to haul anchor and leave.

We actually left Hvar with a bad taste in our mouth as upon returning from the castle, the "valet parking man" came over and accused us of cutting the mooring line of a fishing boat. We had no way to do that, but he hauled Denis into the harbor landing and we ended up paying the equivalent of $60 to buy the fisherman a new line. The next morning on the cruisers' radio network we put out the word and there may be less people to spend money in Hvar for a while.

Three areas on Vis Island have our anchor marks in the sand/mud/weed. The main harbor sheltered us from a southeast breeze one afternoon, but we were hit with a new 50 kuna ($9) charge to anchor there, so didn't want to stay longer. Wind to blow hard from the northwest next and we headed quickly around to the southeast corner and found a hole to stop for a while (actually two places) before moving on. On the west side we had wanted to do the Blue Grotto Cave on Bisevo but too sloppy and blowy, so anchored in Komiza on west side of Vis for the last night.

Wind and waves kept us moving around all night. The 57' American catamaran anchored just in front of us came very close, while swinging on its anchor. The next morning as we maneuvered our boats during a squall rain storm he told us over the VHF radio, "We almost came over to your boat for breakfast at 3:30." Wind and waves were not any better later that morning, so we had to abort the cave trip and pointed the bow to western side of Korcula for the night.

Korcula offered us two more bays near Korcula town on the eastern end of the island, and we enjoyed both before the National Park on Mljet called. Two days there, then on to the highlight of the trip for Dawn, Dubrovnik town. Walking the walls of this historic town gave us the perspective of what it looked like then with all the red-roofed houses crammed tightly to each other for protection within the walled city.

From Gaeta to Dubrovnik TEKA III put 1,439 nautical miles (1,655 land miles) under her keel-almost 200 nautical miles with the family on board.

We did a lot of swimming, watched folks on day trip boats as well as charter boats, and Megan ate lots of Croatian ice cream. The charter boats had unique styles with anchoring and we needed to watch them to protect ourselves sometimes. Theirs was just a charter boat for a vacation; this is our home.

Another bit of interest to share with your readers-with over 1000 islands here, there is no such thing as a sandy beach. It's all rock! People don't seem to mind and get to the beach early to pick a good one for the day. I never met a soft rock, but when that's the only game in town, you work with it.

Croatia has been discovered, by Europeans and cruisers from afar. Let's hope it doesn't get ruined too quickly.