Northern Dalmation Islands
11 August 2022
Phil Heaton
There are so many islands, islets and rocks about that we are almost spoiled for choice. As always, the question is can we anchor in good holding with protection from the wind? Needless to say, meeting this requirement is not necessarily easy, but so far things have been fine.
The anchorage at Vovisca on Unije was great, and Silba East was fine albeit that it was not well protected from the north and north-east which is the Bora wind direction, but then the forecast was for wind more from the north-west and west.
The island of Silba is very popular with land-based tourists and has three mini-markets, and lots of cafes and restaurants. The harbour on the east side is jam-packed with small motor boats and it took some time to find a spot where we could tie up the dinghy. More provisioning and iced coffees made for pleasant shore trips.
There is an intriguing tower in the middle of the island with an external staircase, which can be climbed. It was built by a sea captain in the 19th century – he had been in love with a local woman, gone off to sea and not returned for years. In the meantime, she got fed up of waiting, married someone else and had a daughter. Sea captain returns and having vowed to build something so his love could look out over the island, he built the tower and determines that since the love of his life has married another, he will marry a woman as close to his ideal as possible, waits for the daughter to grow up and marries her. She gets the tower and they all live happily ever after. Sadly, with all the development of housing and holiday apartments the view is now mostly of rooftops.
We stayed four nights at Silba and then moved 17nm to Molat on Tuesday 26th July. On passage we took the time to calibrate the new log that we had fitted over the winter – all you have to do is set up a fixed 1nm run, do it there, back and there again at a fixed boat speed and hey presto all calculated and adjusted for you. Magic … until the log paddle wheel gets clogged up with weed and growth and no longer turns … diving under the boat sorts that. The first time we remove the new log/speed/depth transducer will be when the boat is out of the water.
Our anchorage at Uvala Podgarbe on Molat was great. We dropped in 8 metres and took two lines ashore and tied to rocks. The water was clean and clear. The kayak was deployed for some exploring. Unfortunately, despite what appeared to be constructed “harbours” at the west arm of the anchorage it was not a good place to leave the dinghy and walk to the village as the rocks were jagged and sharp. So we dinghied the 0.8nm to the harbour at Molat. There is a not very good Studenac mini-market in the village up the hill but a pretty decent fruit and vegetable shop by the harbour, which also has waste disposal bins – this is very important as no rubbish/waste is going in the sea. Sadly, no iced coffees but a very decent cappuccino in the harbour café.
We liked Molat so much that we stayed six nights and then moved on to Ugljan, anchoring at Muline South in 8 metres where we stayed for two nights en route to Preko marina, Ugljan as a base to visit Zadar.