GHOST

We left Mljet and headed north into the islands between Split and Dubrovnik. First stop was a town called Brna on the south coast of Korcula. This was a special place for us being where we got engaged 4 years ago! When we visited here then, the town was alive with activity as they had a festival of some sort on with live band, games and a carnival atmosphere. They were rowing across the harbour in bath tubs and playing tug-of-war across the water. This time however it was dead quiet with hardly any tourists at all. Generally the town was how we remembered it but it was like sailors had turned their backs on the town of Brna or perhaps Brna had turn its back on them. The most noticeable change was that you now get charged for anchoring around the corner from the town - 50% of what you would be charged on the quay! No surprise that there are fewer yachts here then, and this seems to be a bit of a theme running through Croatia now. In this case this was an initiative by Korcula town, i.e. one half of the island. The downside of this bright spark idea is that the local restaurants in smaller towns see a lot less people coming through. Perhaps someone needs to give this country a lesson on economics. After a nice dinner in the same restaurant we ate in before Brad popped the question last time, we headed back to the anchorage for a very peaceful night and a lovely swim in the morning.

Thursday we then headed for Vis which was our favourite islands on our last visit. We preferred Komiza on the west side as it is a great town where you moor up to an extended breakwater wall. Or at least that's what we did last time when we had two fantastic nights here. After finding out that they now see fit to charge you more than any marina in the UK, the ripe ol' price of 600kuna (70GBP or 80 euros), we just filled up with water and headed out to anchor in the bay - this was only EUR 10! Which while we are still whole heartedly against being charged to anchor, this seemed a comparative bargain at the time! The night was a little bit rolly, but real no problem. To top off our "bargain" we even found free WIFI from the boat, which is a real bonus for us!

It is such a shame that one of the Med's great cruising grounds is being spoilt, not physically, by a country and administration, be it at country or local level, that has become greedy and money grabbing. Croatia is now one of, if not the most expensive places to cruise in the Med and therefore likely, most expensive in the world. We had been harsh on the Greeks but actually one thing they aren't doing is destroying one of their biggest exports by way of sailing tourism. They've been doing it longer and one feels will continue to prosper for longer than Croatia, as now everyone you speak to is annoyed and gobsmacked by what the Croatians are doing/charging and in many cases people are opting out of coming here this year, charter companies are moving their fleets, or part of them at least, south to Greece. Fingers crossed they wake up to themselves sooner rather than later and it can return to a great place to come again.

Anyway enough about that. Today we continue heading north back to the mainland, on route to the waterfalls in the Krka national park which are supposed to be spectacular.