#10: first leg back towards mainland

It turns out that our stopover in Vis was our furthest point from the charter base this sailing vacation. Virtually all next steps bring us closer to our point of departure.

We leave Vis at around 11 am and a few minutes later we start to congratulate ourselves for our luck of staying last night and not this night. It’s The Yacht Week time in Vis now and about 20 catamarans and yachts arrive for one purpose: party. For the next hour or so we keep seeing boats with Yacht Week flags heading for Vis – and surely a great party night without us 🙂

The sailing today is much similar to two days earlier when we reached Komiza on one tack for 25 nm, only a bit shorter.

We arrive at Marina Vlaska with a fairly stiff breeze, something we hadn’t experienced much this sailing trip.

Lucky find: a bar/restaurant/café sells us an entire cake for Lukas’ birthday tomorrow. It is a local type almond cake and far better than the cakes, croissants or cookies we have seen during our trip so far.

Other events worth noting: we found the water pressure of the on board sweet water not building any more. First thought: a water tank must be empty. So when switching tanks it appeared that water had leaked into the inside of our boat! Clearly fresh water, but how to find and repair a broken pipe?? After a short search by the water tank valves, the pressure pump and the water filter a small connection between the pressure pump and the water filter showed to be loose. Result: water pumped directly into the hull… lucky for us: a clickable system of pipes, so with minimum effort this problem was solved with a click.

Distance of the day: 20 nm
Destination of the day: Marina Vlaska, Milna

#9: attempting an excursion

Today, we leave Komiza only for a short leg to the other side of the island, it’s main town Vis.

Before we head over, we want to visit the famous Blue Grotto. It’s only one hour away from Komiza with our boat and we manage to leave reasonably early. We reach there between 9 and 9:30 am. Good timing – we thought. After mooring at one of the mooring buoys – all of which have short distances to the neighbours – we wait. There is one taxi boat. The driver goes to the other boats that arrived before us. Then to another catamaran that arrived later. He passes by us and promises to pick us up next. We wait a bit more. He returns and happily loads the next crew from a catamaran. We get it. More people (and no children who pay a reduced price). In the end, we decide to leave after an hour wait. What remains is Myles, one of our two 2-year olds on board, keeps asking “where is the taxi boat?” for the next two weeks sailing.

Arrival in Vis: we want to stay in Vis only for groceries and then move over to the west side of the bay, Kut. We are allowed to moor sideways – first time this sailing trip. It goes smoothly with only about 1.5 m space front and back.
By the time we finish grocery shopping Kut harbour marina is full and we are lucky that the Vis marineros assign us a spot just next to where we are.

Distance of the day: 18 nm
Destination of the day: Vis town on Vis island

#8: sailing at its finest

We decide to swim in the morning and leave before noon.

After leaving the blue lagoon we set sails for Vis island. The wind is constant at around 12 kts from NW picking up considerably in the afternoon. That means: set course 190º once and sail for 4 hours and 25 nm straight. “Cash” sails very nicely and we make around 6-7 kts boat speed constantly.

We arrive at Komiza at 4pm at a mooring buoy and make a small land trip in the afternoon.

Distance of the day: 26 nm
Destination of the day: Komiza, Vis island

#7: Blue Lagoon

Our departure from Sibenik is smooth. We set sails after leaving the river Krka.

Today we have our longest distance yet. With the good wind we are having not a problem. We pass by many coves, bays and small towns on the way that are most certainly worth visiting. Our goal, however, is the blue lagoon.

Because for most charter sailors Saturday is the first day with boarding the boat we hope that it will not be too busy. And it worked – see for yourself:

Challenge of the next morning: after a good night’s sleep the wind has picked up in the morning. The anchor isn’t holding! When we get quite close to the neighbours (1 m) everyone has to quickly leave the water. We set anchor again twice – the second time on the other side of the bay. Now better, we can all go swimming again before taking on our next leg of the journey.

Distance sailed: 30 nm
Destination of the day: Veli Drvenik

#6: meeting the sail maker in Šibenik

Instead of sailing down the coast as we had originally planned we stopped early today at Šibenik harbour for repairs to the bimini. The bimini had unfortunately started to rip and we wanted to prevent further damage.

We decided to moor at the city harbour. No shore power, just water. Plus we’re in the middle of city life! Well, maybe we didn’t really need live music until late at night. But a self service laundry and the ancient cathedral were only a short walk away 🙂

The sail maker arrived very quickly after we had parked our boat (we had announced our arrival time). He took the bimini top and after our grocery shopping we came back to the boat with a freshly repaired bimini already installed. Great work and great service!

Challenge of the day: the distance between our boat and the jetty. We wanted to make sure we’d not make contact. But this distance led to an unwanted splash of the skipper. Luckily a) on the way to the laundry, b) landing on the jetty, only feet and legs in the water, c) water proof mobile phone and, maybe most importantly, d) a strong passer by who quickly lent a helping hand to get back onto the jetty.
Early in the next morning we then needed every bit of distance to the jetty as swell and wind were pushing us on shore…

Distance of the day: 9 nm
Destination: Šibenik harbour

#5: fresh mussels on the way to Skradin

Today’s leg brings us along the Krka river. The first thing we notice are mussel and oyster farms. They sell directly to the boat!

Quickly we exchange 50kn with a bag of 2kg fresh mussels and off we go.

There is still time for a short stopover for bathing and we reach picturesque Skradin in the early afternoon.

With a little help of online recipes dinner is cooked: mussels in white wine and zucchini risotto. Yummie!

Distance sailed: 19 nm
Destination: ACI marina Skradin

#4: a long wait for the mooring spot and an unexpected find

We arrived at Tribunj in the mid afternoon. There was still quite a breeze going, so we quickly decided against mooring directly at the old town.

The transit pier of the marina is just opposite of the fisherman’s pier. A catamaran and a monohull were first. The catamaran took considerable effort to moor so we waited about 20 minutes, doing rounds.

Suddenly we saw something floating in the water. With Tim’s good manoeuvring skills we managed to retrieve it: an almost new full-face snorkeling mask! Super addition to our range of water toys!

Other log-worthy event: Heard a Mayday call over the radio, received and confirmed by Split Radio. We couldn’t hear the source but only replies from Split Radio. First reply by Split Radio: “Boat that has called mayday, please switch to channel 07”. This confirms it is a good idea to have the crew briefed on how to issue a mayday call over the radio – including the own vessel name.

Distance sailed: 17 nm
Destination: Marina Tribunj

#2: First night ⚓ anchoring

On our second day, we move SE to the small island 🏝️ called Babac for swimming in the afternoon. We also find out that the dinghi is leaking… I come back to the yacht with the two kids almost in a bathtub with a motor…

In the evening we change our position to the other side of the island to have a sheltered bay for the night.

A calm night and morning follow – great start of the sailing adventure!

Distance sailed: 8 nm
Destination of the day: Babac island

#1: Tropical nights

Our first day at sea! We take baby steps with just a bit more than an hour of moving the boat. But we start to feel comfortable. We know what the kids are doing (besides wearing life vests) and we get to know the boat. It sails nicely.

Almost no wind and 27°C past 10pm marking the end of successful sailing day #1.

Distance of the day: 2 nm
Destination: Kukljica harbour