Vis, the furthest offshore of Croatia's inhabited islands, is a delight of green hills and sheer cliffs.
The Greeks called the main town "Issa" when they established it in the 4th century but there are few remnants of those early days with 18th century houses built by Hvar's nobles now lining the palm-fringed shores of the three main towns; Komiza, Kut and Vis town.

Komiza was our planned rendezvous anchorage with boat buddies Sandra and Chris aboard "Deep Blue" and we had a very happy reunion on Saturday followed by a British sponsored 4th of July barbecue on Sunday with burgers, cole slaw, salads and a second round of Sandra's birthday cake. (see Deep Blue's sailblogs for the birthday party aboard Sangaris!) Sangaris herself was "dressed" for the occasion with the Stars and Stripes flying high atop a home-made pig-stick flagpole and her crew then arrived for the barbecue as "Miss America" and "Captain America".

This birdseye view of Komiza harbor was taken from atop "Hum" the highest point on the island of Vis. We'd hired a motorscooter to tour the island but it overheated and needed a rest, so we hiked up an overgrown stone stairway leading to one of Tito's caves in a group of caverns from which the Marshal was briefly spirited away by the Allies to direct the resistance effort in relative safety during 1944. Whilst we hiked the scooter cooled down and we could backtrack along the winding cliffside road to Komiza.

We had begun our sail to Croatia just a few days before when we finally untied the overwintering docklines from the Nautec Mare marina in Monfalcone, Italy. Sunday evening's "shakedown" sail was a lovely three hour, broad reach to Piran, Slovenia where we anchored just north of town under the fortified church after marveling at the postcard perfect view of the old town at sunset.

The next days were ideal for making tracks as NW winds filled our sails, first to Novigrad, Croatia where we tied to the town quay, completed our Croatia country check-in and had a quick stroll and some ice creams before sailing another 35 miles to an evening anchorage. The next two days were also "50+ milers" and the sailing was perfect with 12-15 knots carrying us down wide canals flanked by dramatic scenery of very green Dalmatian islands and then, just a little further south past the barren wind-blown Kornatis. This sunset photo was taken off pretty Premuda where we had a wonderful cockpit dinner and a very calm anchorage.

So four days and 220 miles topped off by a Fourth of July celebration in Vis. We've now happily reached the southern Dalmatian islands for a couple weeks of cruising and exploring with our Deep Blue pals whilst enroute to Dubrovnik.