Dovidjenja (Goodbye) Croatia
31 August 2015
Photo: Lastovo
We left Zminjan and headed south for Rogoznica. A little less than an hour into the trip thunder and lightning appeared in front of us, right where we wanted to go. A quick discussion and we dropped the sails, yes we were sailing, and motored into Kosirina Bay on Murter for morning tea and to wait until the thunder storm had passed. After 45 minutes we were on the move again. The weather forecasts in Croatia are quite good. We listen to the 07:45 forecast from Split radio each morning on the VHF, the channels for each area are listed in the cruising guide. Essentially, Croatia or the Adriatic is divided into three areas, North, Central and South and each area has its own forecast. Coupled with Predict Wind we have found the forecasts reasonably accurate.
Once the thunder had passed through, we were again back to motoring with no or little wind. As we motored past small remote islands, of which there are hundreds, we could not help but comment on the number of stone walls, who built them and why? Early afternoon, after motoring in a sloppy seaway, we arrived at Rogoznica and decided to go around into Stupin for the night, leaving Wednesday morning, 12th August, and motor sailing to Stacinska bay, Solta.
We arrived at lunch time and could not believe our luck, no-one was stern tied to the bollards, our favourite spot. We quickly got ourselves sorted and stern lined, rafting Wind Pony alongside until early evening when the launch that was free swinging left and Wind Pony could drop their anchor and stern line. This was the bay that Brian decided to do the varnishing this year, with no sun on the boat till mid-morning and the sun going down earlier behind the high hill in front of us, it was ideal. So one day was spent preparing and putting the first coat of varnish on, with the second coat early the following day.
Stern lining can be very social. We had several recommendations of places to visit in Italy, three guys who worked on cruise ships knew NZ well, had crossed the Atlantic several times and thought we were very brave to do it in our small boat; one lady who sat on the foredeck next to us decided to do some ‘lady gardening’ and proceeded to pull out pubic hairs with a pair of tweezers.
Friday night we booked the restaurant on the advertising hoarding in the bay, 2kms away with free transport. At 19:30 we went ashore and were met by a driver with a mini-van who took us along very narrow, winding roads with dry stone walls on either side, a couple of the turns were steep hairpins, would be interesting coming back in the dark. The restaurant was inland in a cute village, population 180, stone houses and very narrow streets probably the width of a small car. The restaurant was popular with the locals with most tables full or reserved. After a very nice meal, the driver managed to get us back along the roads to the anchorage, albeit in a low gear and very slow.
We stayed one more day, then left on Sunday 16th August, sailing in 25kts of breeze to the Pakleni Islands. The Dol loved stretching her legs and bowled along at 8-9kts. We anchored between 3 islands near Marinkovac Island, well protected from all wind angles and with thunderstorms in the forecast we were cautious. As it turned out, we needed to be. Several spectacular thunderstorms came through, one with wind up to 40+ knots and rain so heavy it was like being in fog, we could not see the front of the boat. That caused a few exciting moments as boats dragged their anchors, mainly those in the areas where weed was mixed amongst the sand, and came close to colliding, none did, but there were a few close calls. The rain continued most of the day and night with the temperature dropping considerably from what we have been used to. After a sleep interrupted night, we left Monday morning, motoring in sloppy seas to Lastovo Island National Park, anchoring in a land locked bay at Luka Veli Lago. The bay could have been at Gt Barrier Island.
Lastovo is a little gem, it became part of Croatia in 1945, before that it was under Italian rule. As Lastovo is a National Park, the Park Rangers came around each evening to collect the 30 kuna per person per day park fee. The first night we saw them they gave us lots of information on walks and what to do and see on the island. Tuesday we went ashore and took a taxi into the main town, which is in the hills not on the coast. The taxi driver stopped to give us photo opportunities and told us the history of the island. The town is small, and is famous for its chimneys, which are unusual with some dating back to 17th and 18th century. We spent time walking around the town, up and down the stone steps that once surrounded it and visiting churches. The streets again where very narrow, with stone walls and houses. Our taxi driver on the return trip was a delightful young lady helping her brother out as she was on leave from her job as an air hostess on Emirates. She gave us a good insight into life on the island, it’s ageing population, the problems they have keeping the young people, how the schooling works and lots more. Wednesday we took the dinghy around the shore line and into the next bay where there was a tunnel that we decided was used to hide submarines. The bay we were anchored in was an old navy base with tunnels in the hills and many abandoned buildings. Each morning a local boat arrived selling wine, olive oil and bread, always welcome. Thursday 20th August we upped anchor and moved around to Skrivena Luka. This end of the island is a lot more barren than the previous anchorage, even though there is only 5nm between them. Skrivena Luka was landlocked with holiday houses around the edge with Struga lighthouse, built in 1839 at the entrance. We anchored and walked to the lighthouse, which is in operation so we could not go in, we stopped at the café/bar for drinks on the way back to the boats and booked dinner at the restaurant, which turned out to be very nice.
Friday we motor sailed in sloppy seas to Polace, Mljet, the National Park we stopped at in June on our way north and stern lined to the shore. The 80 kuna per person park fee is for 7 nights so spent a week in Polace, walking trails we had not done previously to Govedari, Pomena and across the peninsular. On Sunday we hired a car to drive around the island for a day. We drove the length of the island in a bright orange, open topped mini Brum, visiting the small communities, driving along very narrow roads with steep sides and drop offs and stopping for morning tea and lunch. The small village we stopped at for morning tea had grandfathers walking their grand-daughters to church, and the café was filled with locals, old folk’s playing cards, and young people chatting to the older folks and not a cell phone or iPhone in sight, wonderful. After lunch we walked down the trail to Odysseus cave, as folklore has it, it was the place Cyclops was kept for a while. Then it was back to the boat for a swim and relax.
Finally on Friday 28th August, we lifted the anchor and motored 31nm to Mali Zaton to meet up with Wind Pony who had been in Dubrovnik for minor repairs. Mali Zaton lived up to its reputation with the wind regularly 18knots in the bay and only 2 knots outside. Saturday we took the local bus into Dubrovnik for a final look at this beautiful town. We decided it was a good decision to visit Dubrovnik on our way north in June to walk the walls and visit the sites, August was 33 degrees Celsius and very crowded. We had an enjoyable day and great lunch. For those who follow the Game of Thrones series, it is filmed in Dubrovnik, one of the nearby islands, Lopud, and half an hour inland from Dubrovnik. There are many Game of Thrones souvenir shops and tours, we must re watch a couple of episodes.
We initially decided to leave Croatia on Monday but looking at the forward weather forecast for the overnight trip across to Italy later in the week, we decided we needed to leave for Montenegro to give ourselves flexibility if the southerly winds eventuate later in the week. So it was up anchor and off to Cavtat to clear out of Croatia. Clearing out was hassle free and very easy and in no time at all, we said goodbye to Croatia and motored around the corner heading for Montenegro.
We have really enjoyed our 10 weeks in Croatia, yes the weather helped, endless blue skies and sunshine only a few days of rain and thunder storms, but the people were wonderful, the cities are awesome and as Brian frequently commented the navigation buoys etc are the best maintained of anywhere we have been.