As I write, we're sitting in a hotel in France, on the last leg of our long journey across Europe and back to Jersey, so clearly the boating season has come to the end for another year, but before we get home I just wanted to detail the last couple of weeks, which turned out to be some of the best of the whole year.
We picked Adrian up from the airport early on a warm Saturday morning and sped back to Sibenik in order to take advantage of the calm seas and beautiful conditions. A few hours later we were on our way back down river and out to open sea, with a course set for Zadar, a town on the Croatian coast that we had read about but hadn't previously visited. It was a relatively long trip, mainly because we were pottering along at only 10 knots, and there were a number of islands along the route that we hadn't stopped off at this summer, so when we reached one of them, Pasman, we decided to nose into an anchorage for a quick look. It turned out to be simply sensational, a small, almost perfectly circular inlet bordered by trees all along the shore, and as the yacht that was anchored in the best position was just leaving, we immediately decided to take his place and have a swim before moving on. Our stay was relatively brief, but the beauty of the spot made it memorable, and we promised ourselves a return visit if time allowed.
Zadar, on the other hand, turned out to be a complete disappointment. It's probably a very nice place, but the marinero waved us first of all into a really unwelcoming spot on the quay which we rejected and then agreed to let us go alongside in front of a catamaran in a slightly better position. But once we had tied up, we realised that the whole quayside was getting a regular battering of wake from the ferries arriving and departing regularly on the other side of the harbour, so before we had even plugged in the electrics and water, Frank went up to the marina office to tell them that we weren't staying, and instead we crossed the channel to Ugljan, the nearest island from Zadar, and the quaintly named Olive Island Marina (Ugljan meaning olive). Once tied up, our spirits lifted - the environment was beautiful, a really peaceful, pretty marina, neatly tucked in where the only wind that would affect us would be the bora from the north east. We checked the forecast: a bora was due in from the northeast! Fortunately a huge Azimut - Zaffina's much larger cousin we think - was tied on the other side of the pontoon, offering us a fair degree of protection, so we were relaxed about our position. In the morning, the Azimut suddenly departed! We debated whether to move on, but decided to sit out the predicted weather conditions where we were, which turned out to be just as well, as the winds never materialised and we had a lovely, peaceful couple of nights in the marina. The three of us took a long walk along the coast, through little villages that are probably humming in the height of the season, but by October were extremely quiet, and had a great lunch at a small restaurant in the largest resort on the island, which itself was little more than a small village.
We departed from Olive Island Marina over a still-as-glass sea, heading northwest to an island we've visited several times, Dugi Otok, but this time our destination was an anchorage that Frank had spotted from overhead when flying home, on the northernmost tip of the island. The trip was a delight, and when we got the anchorage at Veli Rat there were hardly any boats around, so again, we were able to take a great position in an empty bay. Adrian and I went straight into the water and had a really good swim; his idea of a really good swim is about a mile at full speed, whilst mine is a fraction of that distance at a lazy breast stroke! Although it was hot, the weather was really close and there were a lot of black clouds hanging around, so it wasn't a great surprise when, as we were eating dinner at a restaurant in the nearest village, we heard grumbles of thunder and saw the unmistakeable signs of a storm approaching. We quickly finished our meal, but by the time we were piling into the dinghy, the rain was pouring down and flashes of lightning illuminating the night sky. We must have been quite a sight as we zoomed back over the still calm water, me sitting in the bow of our little dinghy with an umbrella over my head, whilst Frank and Adie, laughing in the storm, got utterly drenched behind me. Our way was lit by the lightning, briefly giving us a snapshot impression of the sea ahead before we were plunged back into darkness and when we eventually got back to Zaffina, I dragged Frank into the sea for a skinny dip. That was before I realised we could have got electrocuted, and it was fab!
In the morning we moved on again, taking a different route back to the island of Pasman and although the weather was a bit iffy the sea was calm and the trip was beautiful. The further we went, the better the weather got and as we cruised along the south coast of Pasman, the views were simply gorgeous, as were the conditions. We dropped the hook back in the anchorage we had found a few days earlier, this time with a couple of lines to shore holding us neatly in position and there we stayed for two nights, enjoying perfect, perfect conditions and loving every minute of it. To add to the perfection, a flash of bright blue skimming along the water resolved itself into a tiny kingfisher which was soon joined by another, giving us another exceptional memory of this lovely place.
We ate on board the first night and on the second, we went across to the tiny konoba set into the corner of the little cove and had a very simple but very good dinner, with warm friendly service - just as it should be! The anchorage was a real discovery, and so late in the season it was lovely to know that there was still a lot of Croatia to be revealed to us.
Our third and final trip through the Kornati Islands was just as special as the previous two had been. The sea was still smooth as silk and the beauty of the islands as impressive as ever as we meandered slowly between them, eventually stopping at the biggest settlement on the Kornati which comprised 40 houses and 3 restaurants. We tied to a buoy just offshore and for the rest of the day just savoured our surroundings before hopping in the dinghy and visiting the tiny church we had passed en route with a ruined castle towering on the nearby hillside. The climb up to the ruins was quite an effort in the still heat but the view from the top made it worthwhile; it really was extraordinary and with the sun moving down in the sky, the particular light of late afternoon just added another dimension to the picture.
Back on Zaffina, we ate in the cockpit and enjoyed a glorious sunset before one of our most peaceful nights at sea, without a single wave noise on the hull to disturb us. Emotions were mixed when we rose in the morning; this was to be our last day at sea, but Croatia was determined that it should be a memorable one (another!) Frank called me out into the cockpit as I was getting the breakfast things together - half a dozen donkeys were wandering loose around the little village! We watched them for a while as they meandered along the shore, poking their noses into restaurants and clattering along the narrow streets with their noisy hooves! I went in for an early swim, which was to be my last of the season, and swam to where I could watch these docile beasts, at which point one started biting another...not so docile after all! After breakfast, we set a course through the southerly Kornati and back to Potkucina, an anchorage we have come to know well, where we dropped the anchor for one last time. Well, it should have been the last time, but a breeze came up in the afternoon so we had to move from our previously sheltered position to a site around the corner and re-anchor out of the wind! And then, all too soon, it was time to make that last journey back to port, up the Krka River and into Marina Mandalina, which is to be Zaffina's home until we return to her next year.
What a season it has been - the best ever, and that's saying something. Thank you to everyone who joined us along the way and contributed to the adventure, thank you to Zaffina for being the star of the show and to Frankle for being the most amazing skipper, companion and husband, and thank you to you, for reading my blog. See you next year. x
