Croatia harbour and anchorages

[sailaboutvic]

If anyone interested I am compiling a list of harbours and anchorage which we will be visiting over the next coming months , which will included any harbour and anchoring charges , supermarket , fuel , state of holding and our personal opinion ,
The site isn’t a blog , just usefully information and some charts for Croatia for anyone who are planning to visit there .
There are so many contradictions about the country that we come to see for our self’s .
The site will be up dated as we go .

www.bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com

I like to thank Richard for the info he has given me .

 

[dslittle]

Vic. Great initiative. Thanks very much. It will be interesting to see how Croatia has 'developed'.. Cheers

 

[alexsailor]

Croatia has "developed" into a overpriced country for a sailing cruiser.
Every year there are more and more bays with mooring buoys that you have to pay (aprox. 20hrk per meter; that is 2,7eur/meter)
But that is not all!! They also have a law that forbids anchoring around those areas with buoys in the range of 150metres (used to be 300).
If you anchor there, you pay the same price as on buoys.
Map of those bays are done by a German sailor and can be seen here: http://www.wosamma.at/bojenfelder/map.php

I keep my sailing boat in island Krk and I do sail most of the year since my home is not far away.
Croatia has a beautiful coastline, lots of islands but it should be visited outside the main season (July, August).
Nautical tourism is oriented towards charter boats. And you'll find mostly them. It is not like in Greece where you have flotillas and you know when and where they will go, so you can avoid them. Here flotillas are not common. People rent boats (sailing ones mostly) for a week with (drinking)friends and I had a lot of bad experience with them (I am 38 years old and I like to party; but not harassing everybody around).


So that is why I sail to Greece in the summer. Also if the new tax will be implemented, it will cost me less and people are much more hospitable than in Croatia.

But nevertheless, enjoy Croatia...

Lots of info also in English here: http://www.adrialog.com/en/ (not updated but still, nothing has changed)

And one thing more: Croatian Custom office went mad with hyper checking boats on the water (even during sailing) since they want you to have a T2L form on board.
T2L is issued by your country custom office and it shows that VAT has been paid.
The whole problem started last year, when they joined EU and you can read more here (also in ENG): http://www.marina-punat.hr/en/custom-clearence-registration-of-vessels
They just love bureaucracy.

If I'll have time I'll also write some nice things about CRO but it won't be much (beside beautiful nature).

 

[RupertW]

We have just left Croatia after 3 years and have had the opposite experience of mooring - I've only ever had to pick up mooring bouys in one trip north of Sibenik and I'm sure I could have found free anchorages if I had tried a bit harder. I would cruise there forever if it wasn't for the nagging feeling that the point of getting the boat was to explore new countries.

Mid and south Croatia had more free anchorages than we could ever use so unless we had guests who needed the sanity of stepping ashore every other night at a town quay we anchored without charge in a bay.

Marina prices are fierce, and restaurants not so cheap but my experience in Corfu this season doesn't seem noticeably cheaper - far too early for a proper opinion on Greece though.

 

[sailaboutvic]

Hi Alexalchi , we not been here long enough to really comment , but I have to say it comments like you have just made that have kept us from exploring the country , over the last four years if we talked to an 100 people about Croatia it be almost a 50/50 spit , so that is why we come here our self to make up our own mind .
Wolfgang webs site is a very usefully place to start www.wosamma.at/bojenfelder/map.php but as he will tell you him self he only info people where the marinas and paying buoys are found , there nothing about anchorages that are free and if you look at his site and compare it with Croatia I think you will agree there is a lot more to Croatia .
also there is the 777 book but so far it as not been publish , we understand it may be the end of June now , not much good for us .
what I will say is the little time we been here everyone been very kind and welcoming , the port police and the harbor master very friendly and help full ,all the forms that had to be done was done at a fraction of a time it take the PP in Greece just to stamp the cruising log . the two food shops we done so far , we found the prices are no more noticeable then you find any where else including Greece ,
the seas are very clean that include the main harbor .
the only thing that did P me off a bit was as we moored up to the custom quay the guy wanted six Euros , well i can tell you he waited a long time for his Six Euros and I swear he is still waiting .
enjoy Greece , I have sailed around Greece for well over 13 years and it not as wonderfully as you may think, it also have it problems , for a start too many boats , if it wasn't such a lovely place to sail I not sure I would go back there . but as I says it a lovely country to sail around .
we are here for the next ten weeks and I just hope that our stay here will be enjoyable enouigh to want us to come back .

http://bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com/

 

[charles_reed]

Hi Alexalchi , we not been here long enough to really comment , but I have to say it comments like you have just made that have kept us from exploring the country , over the last four years if we talked to an 100 people about Croatia it be almost a 50/50 spit , so that is why we come here our self to make up our own mind .
Wolfgang webs site is a very usefully place to start www.wosamma.at/bojenfelder/map.php but as he will tell you him self he only info people where the marinas and paying buoys are found , there nothing about anchorages that are free and if you look at his site and compare it with Croatia I think you will agree there is a lot more to Croatia .
also there is the 777 book but so far it as not been publish , we understand it may be the end of June now , not much good for us .
what I will say is the little time we been here everyone been very kind and welcoming , the port police and the harbor master very friendly and help full ,all the forms that had to be done was done at a fraction of a time it take the PP in Greece just to stamp the cruising log . the two food shops we done so far , we found the prices are no more noticeable then you find any where else including Greece ,
the seas are very clean that include the main harbor .
the only thing that did P me off a bit was as we moored up to the custom quay the guy wanted six Euros , well i can tell you he waited a long time for his Six Euros and I swear he is still waiting .
enjoy Greece , I have sailed around Greece for well over 13 years and it not as wonderfully as you may think, it also have it problems , for a start too many boats , if it wasn't such a lovely place to sail I not sure I would go back there . but as I says it a lovely country to sail around .
we are here for the next ten weeks and I just hope that our stay here will be enjoyable enouigh to want us to come back .

http://bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com/

Well done Vic - a worthwhile contribution.

My experience, of the 3 seasons in the Adriatic is that there are plenty of free anchorages available - PROVIDING YOU KEPT AWAY FROM THE CHARTERERS - who are the ones being systematically fleeced. On one occasion an attempt was made to get me to pay for anchoring off Trogir, I refused andmoved over the municipal boundary.
The 777 book has been ungraded, I believe, to the 888 book and reprinted (certainly in German).
Though very friendly, I think you'll find a steely glint to an avaricious eye. Up N in Istria I found the best and Monfalcone and Venezia are musts.
On the whole, though, I have to disagree with you about Greece compared to Croatia - far more free anchorages, far more genuinely friendly and hospitable people, even though the Limenikos Soma grapple vainly with their arcane and constantly amended (or misunderstood) rules. As one of them mentioned to me "the girls we're recruiting for the charm offensive are certainly prettier than the ones we used to have".
From Vic's recent post, the Ionian seems to be less popular than it was, but here in the Aegean it's really busy. For the charterer-threat, substitute the Turkish-threat, a wide berth to all Delaware-registered vessels and those with a crescent and star on the stern.
As for problems - by definition they have a solution, usually in the hands of the complainant.

 

[sailaboutvic]

As I said Charles , we not been here long enough to comment really , maybe we will find we get more then we bargain for and wish we never came , we are full time Liveaboard for those who don't know us and as full timers are interests is to explore places of interest to us , we very rarely use marina our winter months in marinas are about 4 months too long that's why this winter we will be living most of the winter on our hook .
harbours like fiskardo Nidri kithons Kos to mention a few don't interest us any more we been there and done that years ago when the charter yachts were few and sailor where more interested in helping each other when someone anchor drag then shouting at them , sailing and cruising have change and some of it isn’t for the good I am say to say .

www.bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com

 

[RupertW]

This book has been our bible and (particularly in the North) we didn't get to most of the places he recommends.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18486295-the-best-adriatic-anchorages

Nearly all were even better than described and often stunning. A couple were disappointing but that was a good hit rate for me.

 

[RichardS]

Hi Alexalchi , we not been here long enough to really comment , but I have to say it comments like you have just made that have kept us from exploring the country , over the last four years if we talked to an 100 people about Croatia it be almost a 50/50 spit , so that is why we come here our self to make up our own mind .
Wolfgang webs site is a very usefully place to start www.wosamma.at/bojenfelder/map.php but as he will tell you him self he only info people where the marinas and paying buoys are found , there nothing about anchorages that are free and if you look at his site and compare it with Croatia I think you will agree there is a lot more to Croatia .
also there is the 777 book but so far it as not been publish , we understand it may be the end of June now , not much good for us .
what I will say is the little time we been here everyone been very kind and welcoming , the port police and the harbor master very friendly and help full ,all the forms that had to be done was done at a fraction of a time it take the PP in Greece just to stamp the cruising log . the two food shops we done so far , we found the prices are no more noticeable then you find any where else including Greece ,
the seas are very clean that include the main harbor .
the only thing that did P me off a bit was as we moored up to the custom quay the guy wanted six Euros , well i can tell you he waited a long time for his Six Euros and I swear he is still waiting .
enjoy Greece , I have sailed around Greece for well over 13 years and it not as wonderfully as you may think, it also have it problems , for a start too many boats , if it wasn't such a lovely place to sail I not sure I would go back there . but as I says it a lovely country to sail around .
we are here for the next ten weeks and I just hope that our stay here will be enjoyable enouigh to want us to come back .

http://bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com/

Hi Vic

You may have seen this already:

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?vps...d=207241514525393009702.0004d53521e718b73c6d4

The 2014 777 is now on sale in the UK as I bought it this week. It's in colour now. My old one was in black and white but that was a few years old so maybe the colour is not so new?

We've never had any difficulty in doing just what we wanted to do. Usually anchoring, sometimes mooring to buoys and occasionally marinas. One thing which has caught me out on several occasions are the different types of line / buoy arrangements which we discover in Croatia. I wrote a long post about the variations in Aug / Sept 2013 after ending up with the keel stuck on a rock, which you might have seen. I'm not complaining about the different systems as discovering new stuff is one of the things I love about sailing.

Found previous post: http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...nt-disaster!&p=4341014&highlight=#post4341014 - see last entry.

I'll follow your travels on your website. Enjoy your time in Croatia.

Richard

 

[sailaboutvic]

Hi Richard
Thanks for that info , and the other info in the past , after our past email we decided to give Croatia a go and see for our self , so far so good ,sorry we have missed you .
I am surprise how friendly the local people are and how many speak English , old and young but what surprise me most of all is how helpfully they are , one guy in the street to day spend over 40 mins setting up our internet , take us to a kiosk buying us the right Sim and then making calls on our behalf on his phone to Tele2 to make sure we got what we wanted , and he wouldn't even except a drink ,
we just spend three days anchored in Zanot , incredibly beautifully , we been offer water from people garden , and another have let us log on to there internet from their home for free . maybe we just been lucky , we still waiting to be ripped off .
to morrow we will move off and see where the wind takes us so there will be another update soon on our site .
the only really down side as been the weather , its been one thunder stormy after another , but the forecaster is for it to get better .
we have try to get the 777 or 888 book but every shop on the UK that sell it have told us the new issue will not be out till the end of June , I guess its came out earlier but we here now and it some time more exciting not knowing whats around the corner .

www.bluewatersailorcroatia.webs

 

[BrianH]

we have try to get the 777 or 888 book but every shop on the UK that sell it have told us the new issue will not be out till the end of June , I guess its came out earlier but we here now and it some time more exciting not knowing whats around the corner .

The 888 edition that I have has been published for a couple of years now - in the author's native German. No doubt the text for the extra 111 harbours and anchorages has taken longer to translate into other languages - I noticed the current Italian version is also still the 777 version.

 

[sailaboutvic]

The 888 edition that I have has been published for a couple of years now - in the author's native German. No doubt the text for the extra 111 harbours and anchorages has taken longer to translate into other languages - I noticed the current Italian version is also still the 777 version.

Thanks for that Barnacle , I was trying to buy the latest edition , there a 2014 which is just printed , I start to try and order one in March and was told by almost everyone I emailed it would be on the sells by mid May , when I tried in may I was then told it would be the end of June , but so I understand from RichardS posting it on sale now , bit too late for us now so we just enjoying doing it the old fashion way , finding out for our self .
Just updated a few more anchorages for those interested .
www.bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com

 

[BrianH]

Thanks for that Barnacle , I was trying to buy the latest edition , there a 2014 which is just printed , I start to try and order one in March and was told by almost everyone I emailed it would be on the sells by mid May , when I tried in may I was then told it would be the end of June , but so I understand from RichardS posting it on sale now , bit too late for us now so we just enjoying doing it the old fashion way , finding out for our self .
Just updated a few more anchorages for those interested .
www.bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com

Even the last 777 version is well worth buying. I have quite a few Adriatic pilot books - even an ancient Denham, which is good for a nostalgic whiff of what used to be - but the Beständig is the one I always reach for first.

You may be interested in the Google maps site that Baggywrinkle of this parish started way back - by the way, what happened to Baggywrinkle? He was a profuse and knowledgeable contributor to these forums and sorely missed. It is: https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=207241514525393009702.0004d53521e718b73c6d4&dg=feature

Correction: I see the site was started by "KrakowKev" and not Baggywrinkle - but he was a staunch supporter and commented frequently about it.

 

[sailaboutvic]

Thanks for the link , it be interesting to see how things have change since the map was produce .

www.bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com

 

[nigelmercier]

... [Greek] people are much more hospitable than in Croatia...

Most Croatian harbour officials appear to have been trained by the Stasi.

 

[BrianH]

Most Croatian harbour officials appear to have been trained by the Stasi.

A bit harsh; some of the younger ones I have met are almost normal.

But old ways die hard. No one was fired when the Yugoslavian federation crumbled and modern Croatia emerged from the ruins. Suddenly all the old guard could no longer throw a skipper in jail for a misdemeaner as happened to the German who moored in Marina Veruda and got a taxi to nearby Pula to clear into the country. After four days and intervention from the German embassy he was allowed out with a heavy fine. I don't think that could happen now .... could it?

 

[sailaboutvic]

Most Croatian harbour officials appear to have been trained by the Stasi.

As I said before we not been here long enough to comment , but I really wonder where there comment are coming from , in the time we been here we had nothing and I mean nothing but helpfully Croatians , we was in of the harbour office for about 5 mins when we went to check in , try checking into Greece in that time , the harbour master there turned draws side down to find us a map of the national parks and there regs , the port police welcome us to Croatia with a smile unlike the PP in Greece where you can't even have a joke with them most of the time .
We love Greece and over 13 plus years ( maybe a lot longer , years just fly past ) we seen most of it and we will return , unless the tax comes in and event then we still might , but to compare Greece to Croatia you would have to go back at less 13 years then you might get some where near it , what I seen of Croatia so far remind me of my first impression of Greece when we arrived all them years back .
No disrespect to you but sometime I think these bad comments about Croatia are coming from people who never been here and just repeating what they have heard .
The comment that you have to pay for anchoring almost ever where , I can tell you for sure that a lie because so far we not paid a cent , and at the moment we are anchored in one of the national parks and up to now no one has asked us for any payment .

I sure Croatia has its bad parts too , but so far we not come across them , maybe because we more interested in anchoring rather then heading t for the first town wall that we see . So we can say to the local ," hey look at us we have a boat "
One comment I heard for a couple on Greece was the guy saying to his kids , wave to the poor people . Don't you just love I them , NOT .

It started to remind me about comment made about our trip the other year which covered west Coast of Italy, Sardinia Corsica and the south coast of France , people just try to put us off with how expenses it is to sails them parts , no where to anchor safe mooring fees that make your eyes water , where some of the comment made on YBW .
the six months we took to explore them part , our mooring fee in all was 95 euros in all and we paid for water twice once from a marina in Toulon the cost ? Four euros .



www.bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com

 

[BrianH]

As I said before we not been here long enough to comment , but I really wonder where there comment are coming from [...] sometime I think these bad comments about Croatia are coming from people who never been here and just repeating what they have heard .

I have been known to express my prejudices about unfriendly Croatian officials and the mercenary mentality in much of the leisure boat administration there. However, I can assure you that I have been cruising there, the entire coast and islands, continuously for over 30 years - less the madness and horror of the civil war - so I have had experience of both the communist days and today's democracy. I did keep clear last year during the EU accession because, with so many years experience of the sometimes distorted bureaucracy there, I did not trust them to not demand VAT payment on my boat's difficult-to-prove, 'deemed VAT-paid' status. When I declared into Umag two weeks ago there was no request for a T2L document or VAT-paid proof. But then, the crusty old harbour-master, who once refused me entry on a copy of insurance instead of the original, has retired.

Having made that point I can also state categorically that I have met much friendliness and kindness among non-officials. Especially the fisherman on Pag with whom I remain in contact and who drove me many kilometres across the island in his rickety old van on unmade roads, to the only hospital for an antidote to the weever fish spine injection I had suffered on my single excursion into Adriatic fishing.

 

[Jamesuk]

Marina Preko - excellent - Taxi boat (250 hp) to Zadar running when ever you want and the airport from boat is 30 minutes.

 

[eagle160]

We arrived 5 weeks ago in Croatia and can only copy your sentiment. Heard many negative stories but we really love it here. Bays galore.

Spent £75 on mooring & anchoring in 5 weeks covering dubrovnik to split, of which £20 was outside korcula on a mooring buoy but we were lazy and could've moved a mile away and anchored for free, the other £25 was on a town Quay (we could've anchored but were lazy again)

My one encounter with Aci marina indeed made me feel staff were statsi trained - the charge for water and a couple of hours in the marina while taking on water and running to the shop (trogir) came to £30... Avoiding Aci is easy enough though and otherwise people have been very friendly