Cruising in Croatia In 2006 we sailed into new waters. Before that, however, we had a massive clean up on board Chispa in Corfu. The interior was ankle deep in water on the port side and the rest was dripping with humidity as the bilge pumps had seized up, and, together with a number of leaks through the windows, the place was a MESS. Five days later we were able to launch just in time for our first 'crew' members to come aboard.

Unfortunately, getting to Croatia was rather uncomfortable. We set sail from Corfu around mid morning in lovely calm weather with nice flat seas. Our destination was Dubrovnik. However, some ten hours later our peaceful crossing became a rather rough, cold and wet affair with storms, thunder and lightening. I then retired to bed for the next thirty odd hours! Erik and Kurt seem to love these conditions and thoroughly enjoyed the crossing. As we had already been touring Croatia by coach, it was lovely returning to Dubrovnik, this time by sea. Everyone has heard of the old walled town but the main commercial harbour area and sprawling city is huge. We pushed our way in amongst large ferries and boats of every size and shape and managed to find the customs and immigration sheds. The main marina is some miles inland, sailing, first, under a very large motorway bridge over which we'd traveled over some weeks previously. Dubrovnik, having never been taken in it's 900 odd year history, managed also to withstand the 1991/94 seven month Serbian bombardment. The motto on Dubrovnik busses is 'Libertas'. The old city within the four kms walls is a World Heritage site. Our six week trip along the Croatian coast was at a crawl as we stopped over every night at some of the many of the hundreds of islands dotted all over. Ston was a delightful and friendly village where they had just celebrated the anniversary of their men joining up to fight the '91/'94 war. Feeling still run very high in the villages which bore the brunt of the fighting. Jan found this out whilst watching neighbouring Montenegro play Holland in the soccer World Cup. On apologising that he would be supporting Holland against their Croatian brothers, a young woman remarked that 'brothers and sisters don't kill each other'. Korcula, surrounded by 13th century walls, was a longer stop as we found it most fascinating. At this stage of our journey we still visited every church we saw. By the end we were saying, ABC ( another b… church)! Korcula has maintained the traditional spectacular fighting dance with swords. We actually witnessed a number of real injuries! In Hvar we had a crew change with Erik leaving and my Canadian cousin arriving. The town was brought to a standstill when Croatia played Australia (soccer). Flares were sent off all though the match. Braç Island is noted for it's beautiful white stone. Diocletian's Palace in Split, Dubrovnik and the White House in America all boast of being built of this beautiful stone. We also found a 400 year old winery in Milna where we stocked up on plastic water bottles filled straight from the barrel. On the subject of water, we found that Croatian water is absolutely safe to drink, even from the many fountains. Then we were back in Split ( been there on the coach tour) for yet another memorable visit. Diocletian's (retirement home) Palace build in 305 AD and covering 215m x 180, dominates the harbour area of Split. This is an elegant town with lovely tree lined walking areas all along the sea front. Here Kurt left and a young Australian (son of friends) joined us. What a pleasure having a young strong and agile guy on board. Our last familiar port of call was Trogia (settled from 380BC). The magnificent St Lawrence Cathedral had just been renovated and we were able to see the wonderful Radovan Portal (1213) in it's full glory. Šibinik was yet another spectacular city with the 15th century St James cathedral standing proudly near the harbour. This is yet another world Heritage site. Even the roof is made of stone. Šibinik lies at the mouth of the Krka River along which we sailed for 12 kms upstream. The trip took us through narrow gorges and open lakes. We, once again, crossed under the A1 highway. As Skradin is the last stop before entering the Krka National Park, the marina is very busy. We watched an Italian charter yacht (about 50ft) reverse at full speed whilst berthing stern to, and crash into their friend's yacht! This was one of many very incompetent 'parkings' we saw. The Krka National Park has a series of lovely small waterfalls before opening out into a large lake with an pretty island, Visovac, and an old …. Monastery. In the central part of the Croatian Adriatic Sea, the amazing Kornati Archipelico is situated. From a distance these many islands look just like sand dunes rising out of the sea. The Kornati National Park occupies an area of 117 square kilometers and contains 89 islands and reefs. We arrived in Murter in a 29 knot wind having navigated through very narrow channels down to 2.5meters deep. It was in this little town that we experienced the highlight of our 2006 trip. We had listened to traditional Croatian capella singing (klapa) by men in different places but this time we were in for a surprise. We walked about 2 kms through town and out into the 'suburbs' and then up a very steep hill to a tiny church. First of all we saw a number of the Kornati islands laid out before us at sunset. Once in the church we were entertained by a group of ten women (unaccompanied) who sang like angels for about two hours. Unfortunately none of us had a camera of recorder. John joined us here and sailed with us to Pula right in the north of Croatia. After losing our way in the very large harbour of Pula, we eventually tied up in sight of one of the largest Roman forums. Everywhere one walks in Pula you see Roman gates, archways, temples and walls, many of which date back to the second century BC. Unfortunately Chispa is spending winter in the water as the people were unable to lift her out. This is the first time Jan has not left 'his baby' on the dry.

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