Pics from our Croatia / Montenegro / S-Italy summer cruise 2014

[Hardmy]

Bonjour à tous,

I haven't been the most assiduous contributor to the forum. After having learnt so much about boating just through reading your postings, I thought it was time to give back!

The pictures below show some places we've visited during our summer 2014 cruise from Losinj (Croatia) down to Montenegro and S-Italy. I do not claim being able to reach the level of Scubaman's Finland reportages, but at least you inspired me K.!

Losinj

Port of entry 24/24, passport control is left hand side when entering the bay, right next to the turning bridge. Paying the annual cruising fees and permits at the harbour's master building next to the breakwater is straightforward and well organized. The town offers lots of eating possibilities there are also well-stocked supermarkets.

Fish is best purchased directly at the fish market

A fine English beauty whose name I unfortunately forgot.

Old ferries like this one (built 1955) are still in activity. I did hear that because of EU regulation, such old ships are not supposed to be used in regular service anymore? If this is true, it's really a shame.

There is a shortcut that connects with the N-side of the island. The Privlaka canal has a depth of 2.50m. and the turning bridge opens at 09:00 and 18:00.

Depending of winds and tide (yes there is some little tide in the Adria) there can be a strong current in the canal. I had to cross with some speed because of S-wind which caught me broadside, hence the use of fenders.

It is a bad idea to attempt a crossing in adverse weather. The passage is not only narrow but not too deep. It has been reported that some sailyachts did hit the bottom quite hard. This one didn’t ground, but got away with some scratches:

Veli Losinj

One can go alongside directly in front of the restaurants. However, there is not too much space for swinging the boat around; hence the probable expectation from restaurants guests for a docking spectacle. But this time, I didn't cock it up. It's fully open to the North, wind was picking up and we had to leave quite quickly.

Ilovik, the mooring field. A really enchanting place.

Both Ilovik and Sv.Petar (the island just opposite) are worth a walk.

One could really feel the slow pace of life on those islands. There are no cars and there is no music or whatsoever other noises with the exception of the church bell.

Olib, an island where I’d definitely would go back. We tried 2 secluded bays with clear blue water, but there are much more of them. There were surprisingly few boats on 1-2 July 2014 when we were there. On one night, we even had the bay for us alone.

Silba, it's E-harbour. There are laid moorings, because of the lack of space and the shallow waters they like to get tangled in props. In addition, I wouldn't want the 3-4 outer spaces starting in front of the bollard shown in the pic. A bura of medium intensity came in during the night and those parked there had to keep watch all the time to avoid damages to their boats. Electricity was available, but no water (June/July 2014).

Like Ilovik, cars are not allowed on the island. There is no lack of restaurants and you’ll find two small supermarkets.

to be continued...

 

[Hardmy]

Croatia, cont'd

I wasn't able to add a second video in the first post of the Privlaka canal in adverse conditions. Here is how another one, much but better boat handling!

Next comes Nin, on the mainland: We anchored on the NE shore of this wide bay in front of woods. This felt familiar with the Saimaa Lake (those woods combined with the mozzies who were also at the rendez-vous gave us this impression). We had good holding grounds in 6m. depth.

Nin itself can only be reached by dinghy. Follow the buoyed channel (~1.00m. depth) which starts at [44.248785, 15.180322] and watch out swimmers who walk across. It is a very old fortified town; unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me.


The Velebit channel and the Novigradsko / Karinsko seas are one of the least known boating regions in Croatia. Because of its sometime barren landscape or the looming bura which blows there very strong? For sure, compared to the islands, the water is less clear but it feels good to navigate nearly alone in the height of the season!

Near Pag

Between Vir and Pag

In the Velebit channel

Novigrad. The town lies along a ½ NM long inlet in the South of the Novigrad sea which access is made via a natural channel:

There are remains of a castle with a view.

One can feel that the place with its sleepy character is off the main tourist routes. Some historic buildings like the church suffer from lack of funding.

The wounds of the civil war are still visible.

The visitor quay (on the bottom right of the picture) is unfortunately fully open to the N / NW, but there was water/electricity available.

Eastwards of the Novigrad sea, one will find the Karinsko sea. They are linked together with a well buoyed canal with a minimum of 2.50m. depth.

After crossing the Karinsko sea, (actually more a lake with its 5.7 km2) we dropped the anchor in front of the Franciscan monastery. We experienced good holding in 6-7m. depth but it gets shallow quite quickly. The lake was just totally glassy while we stayed there, but again there is no protection from the north and its potential Bura there.

The next morning was spent with a shore visit

Zrmanja river

This is truly one of the most interesting boating experiences I had in Croatia. One can navigate this river up to Obrovac, with comfortable depths of 4-5m.

To be continued…

 

[Harpsden]

What a great set of pictures. Thanks for taking the time to post them all.

The Zrmanja river looks very different to all the other locations.

 

[Aardee]

Brilliant report & beautiful pictures, perfectly timed as the days get colder and shorter.

Thanks a million for sharing

 

[BartW]

Wow V, what a post is this !
you posted so little and now this
absolutely briljant,


I've never been much interested in North Croatia, nor Kornati's, but now I am

Didn't you make pics in Cavtat. I remember we must have crossed there, I'll post some pics later

apparently you had very good weather everywhere,
we had many cloudy day's all summer

when was the time you were looking around for a boat, pls reveal what you have now, and tell the story about your long trip !?
and where do you keep her?
did you spend time in the south of Italy ?

I'm sorry we didn't meet in PM in september,
at that time / day I was a little stressed with a damaged engine, as you know now,
and also we were preparing the boat for winter (longer periods of absence)

good to hear from you !

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

Fab pics and write up, thanks for posting.

 

[Hardmy]

I've never been much interested in North Croatia, nor Kornati's, but now I am

No worries, I will come along with additional pics of the Kornati, Telascica, etc. And if there are other questions left, I would be glad to oblige.

Didn't you make pics in Cavtat. I remember we must have crossed there, I'll post some pics later

I have only those two of your boat (sorry for the bad quality).

In Montenegro, moving to your winter berth. I guess your damaged engine wasn't in use during your maneuvering?

Leaving Cavtat (we were arriving):

apparently you had very good weather everywhere,
we had many cloudy day's all summer

It is my fourth season in Croatia (albeit the first with my own boat). And it's the first time we encountered consistently weird weather:
- Lightnings struck our neighbors in Olive Island Marina on Ugljan with his electronics destroyed as consequence
- In a very protected buoy field at Punta Kriza (Cres). The wind was strong enough during the night to move our buoy including mooring block. I had to start the engines to prevent further drifting.
- We experienced our longest rainstorm in Zlarin. The downpour lasted 1 1/2 hour, it was raining so strongly that the scuppers at some time were not able to clear enough the water from the flybridge. We got a bathtub with up to 10cm. water! Some houses in the village were flooded. Consequently of those heavy rains, the water was declared undrinkable in the Sibenik county for a couple of days.

In general, it was more difficult to plan our cruises. I was monitoring the weather conditions all the time, winds were frequently shifting during the night so many anchorages were not suitable. Temperatures in general were cooler with substantial variations. The Med is not only sunshine and glassy waters!

At the end, we also enjoyed beautiful weather in between and remain happy about our boating season. What I've heard from my relatives in Switzerland, is that this year's hiking season was one of the worst in 30 years... so I don't complain.

when was the time you were looking around for a boat, pls reveal what you have now, and tell the story about your long trip !?
and where do you keep her?
did you spend time in the south of Italy ?

Yeah, I was regularly looking around. I visited many boats, mainly old Italian makes like Rizzardi, Ferretti, Mochi or Piantoni around 45'. As you know, there are crazy prices around. But, this doesn't come without any reason. Most of them had neglected engines, and this was a no go for me. From Mrs. Hardmy came other requirements in terms of habitability etc. It was also a learning process for me how things work in Italy, and the fact that most brokers are not interested to sell old boats. Until I found a very honest and efficient guy in Misano Adriatico who helped me in the search and who really knows something about boats. His mediation skills were instrumental in helping to finalize this deal. Afterwards, he walked me through all intricacies of Italian administration (actually his office did all the paperwork) and everything went smoothly.

So at the end, we didn't buy an Italian brand!!! We have a Kha Shing 480 (the yard of the Montefino boats). It hasn't the amazing hull of e.g. a Rizzardi 50' I've seen, but the CAT 3208TA of the Kha Shing were in mint conditions, interior space is amazing, and the build quality is better than I assumed before. Actually even better than many other boats I've visited. Admittedly, I had to fiddle a bit with the help of some local workers in order to fix some stuff. But know she is doing very well.

Our boat is a "sans domicile fixe". We'll move her all the time. She is now wintered in a yard for fishing boats with a funny entrance:

They were only 3-4 other leisure boats (some guys from N-Italy who want to enjoy the amazing wintering prices). It's in Monopoli, I will come back on this later:

On the program of next year: Albania, Corfu, the "inland sea" of the Ionian, etc.

I'm sorry we didn't meet in PM in september,
at that time / day I was a little stressed with a damaged engine, as you know now,
and also we were preparing the boat for winter (longer periods of absence)

good to hear from you !

No worries at all Bart, we were quite in a hurry to leave Porto Montenegro, waiting for a refuelling rendez-vous which we got in the last minute (66ct. / l. all ancillary costs included). Then we left as fast as we could, because we didn't want to make our crossing to Monopoli in the forecasted perturbation.

I really do hope that we'll be able to catch up another time!!

 

[gjgm]

ohhh I wanna go there !

 

[scubaman]

Hi V,

Some beatiful pictures you've posted! The locations look pretty amazing, would love to visit the area some day. Thanks for taking the time to post this.

That canal does look pretty scary in those conditions...

I was wondering how your boat search turned out. Congratulations, she looks like a proper cruising boat!

 

[Portofino]

Fab pics thank you ( your IT skills beat mine )

 

[rafiki_]

Great post, many thanks. Loved the vids, but why no fenders? Is there an additional tax for using fenders in the crossing?

 

[AndieMac]

Excellent work H, thanks for taking the time to post. I was around Split and surrounding islands in June myself, sensational experience.

 

[rbcoomer]

What a great, unspoilt location! I love these posts showing a variety of cruising grounds, so thanks from me too for sharing and I'll certainly be keeping a look out for future posts :encouragement:

 

[Divemaster1]

Lovely pictures ... thanks for sharing!

 

[pks1702]

Great Post thanks for sharing.

 

[BartW]

I have only those two of your boat (sorry for the bad quality).

In Montenegro, moving to your winter berth. I guess your damaged engine wasn't in use during your maneuvering?

Leaving Cavtat (we were arriving):

yes indeed on that first pic, I was backing in to my berth, on one engine,
the picture doesn't show that there was a marinero with a rib on SB side, pushing the boat, to help me with nanouvring backward,
I have no stern thrusters, and never tried to manouvre the boat on one engine. I still don't know if this is possible after more practice.

the second pic shows the sad weather that we had several day's. In good weather this would have been a wonderfull pic, I'll show you later

actually the rain and thunderstorms you mention about,
we had one occasion in Korcula where the thunderstorm was extremely wild,
we were very Lucky we managed a berth on the west side of the city, townquai you probably know that

the other occasion was our last night before the engine broke, I believe you were in PM that moment, or in the bay ?
on Cavtat town quay, during the night, the swell was that big that my anker released, and we had to run the engines to keep save distance from the quay
we didn't sleep all night.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

ohhh I wanna go there !

You do. Croatia and the Dalmatian Island chain is a wonderful cruising area. We spent 4 seasons there and loved it. We've now bought another boat on the W side of Italy and are making our way slowly back there.
Hardmy many thanks for the superb pics which brought back some happy memories

 

[BartW]

Old ferries like this one (built 1955) are still in activity. I did hear that because of EU regulation, such old ships are not supposed to be used in regular service anymore? If this is true, it's really a shame.

for now, they are still used everywhere in Croatia,
there is almost the same boat (forgot the name) doing daily ferry between Dubrovnic and Elafiti islands (Kolocep, Lopud, Sipan)
and I remember that it still is the same boat when I visited the area as a kid ;-)

slightly bigger model is used for the traject between Dubrovnic, Split Rijeka Bari
the "Liburnia", the "Marco Polo", and the "Dubrovnic"
we have been on them with our trailable boat many years ago,
but they are still doing this traject.

if you think about the number of islands, most of them are served with a regular ferry, most are daily, or even several trajects on one day (between Korcula and Peljesac fe)
these ferry's must be a large business over there, with many workers...

 

[BartW]

The Velebit channel and the Novigradsko / Karinsko seas are one of the least known boating regions in Croatia. Because of its sometime barren landscape or the looming bura which blows there very strong? For sure, compared to the islands, the water is less clear but it feels good to navigate nearly alone in the height of the season!

...

Zrmanja river

we drove quite a few times over the Karinski kanal with our car, also this year when returning home,
and from there you could see parts of the bare and desolated valley.
I never new its interesting for visiting

I have been told that the bura can be very strong there, the Masleniki bridge is very often closed for trafic,
and we experienced ourselves, that the motorway passage over "Sveti Rok" also has often speed limits when strong wind is coming.

 

[BartW]

we were quite in a hurry to leave Porto Montenegro, waiting for a refuelling rendez-vous which we got in the last minute (66ct. / l. all ancillary costs included).

then you had a very good deal, did you get that from Kosmas; the official PM fuel station, or did you get it from one of the alternative (truck) suppliers ?
we alway's paied >0.75 iirc and that was for around 4000 liters