Back Onboard

It was early evening when we arrived back in Croatia and were very pleased to find that ZigZag was still where we had left her and everything looked okay on board. Her relaunch was booked for early the following morning, so we took the opportunity while she was out of the water to quickly add a couple of coats of antifoul around the waterline before the sun went down.

Having no food on board we visited the very nice marina restaurant looking out to the gardens and swimming pool. The food was excellent especially the tuna tartare which is now my new favourite starter.

The following morning Ziggy was collected from her stand, launched back into the water and tied up in the marina.

The temperatures were rising and we could see plumes of black smoke up on the hills which were getting thicker and spreading rapidly, with the wind blowing them southwest towards Trogir.

A fire had started in Seget Gornji, in the hills of Trogir, several sea planes and helicopters were continually flying overhead to collect water to drop onto the flames. This continued all day until dark when the fire seemed to have died down.

Apparently firefighters and volunteers on the ground continued working all night and the sea planes returned at first light when the fires were eventually extinguished. Thankfully, they had managed to contain it to the upper hills and mountains and the houses in the neighbourhood were not in danger.

As the wind changed direction and started blowing the smoke towards us it was coating the boat with a layer of ash so I had to get my deckhand out there with his scrubbing brush!

After a couple of hot days, there was a thunderstorm forecast so we went for a cool down swim in the pool before it arrived.

The thunderstorms eventually came bringing strong winds and rain which continued throughout the night. The following morning the storms had passed so we prepared to leave the marina. There was still a good force 6 wind blowing us onto the pontoon but we managed to time our departure between the gusts and thankfully all went well. Our next stop was just 5nm across to the western corner of the bay, as we sailed along the coast we passed several beach resorts, hotels and waterparks.

We anchored in the bay of Marina Agana where we would have good shelter from the strong northerly wind which was due to continue through the night.

In the evening we enjoyed a firework show over the town to celebrate the snappily titled ‘Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders’, a National holiday in Croatia to remember Operation Storm which marked the end of the war in Croatia in August 1995.

This was not our favourite anchorage as there were a lot of fast boats entering and leaving the marina and jet ski’s weaving in and out of the anchored boats all creating an uncomfortable swell. So we left the following morning with a force 3 wind from the south and had a gentle sail 22nm along the coast to Rogoznica. We anchored in the familiar bay of Podglavica where we found that the bougainvillea on the seafront houses was now looking sun parched and brown but the sky was very colourful after the sunset.

There was a strong southeasterly wind so we sheltered here for a couple of days to wait for it to pass, then lifted our anchor and continued 20nm to the island of Žirji. This is situated approximately 22nm from Šibernik making it the most remote permanently inhabited island (with a population of 103) in the Šibernik archipelago.

We were heading for Uvala Koromačna, a small fishing town on the east coast where there are three mooring buoys which are free if you use the restaurant. We had read good reviews so wanted to get there quickly in the hope that there would be one available for us. As there was only a light wind from behind, we motorsailed all of the way so that we kept a good speed. As we approached the bay an Italian boat was also heading in so we ramped up the speed to try to get there first, unfortunately we were no competition for them but luckily there were two buoys available.

Feeling very pleased to be securely moored we went for a swim in the crystal clear water which is now 27.3°. We were then visited by the restaurant owner who apologetically told us we couldn’t stay on the buoy as we hadn’t booked and it was already reserved for someone else. Fortunately he did say that we could moor up against the restaurant quay, he was very friendly and we had a lovely meal in the evening of fresh giant shrimps and shark fish while watching the sun set over the bay. It felt good to be back onboard and looking forward to exploring northern Croatia.