Beautiful Beaches, New Friends

Out of Dugi Otok we turned north to visit a beach called Sakarun. There is not a lot of sand in Croatia but we finally found some at Sakarun. We anchored out in 7 meters of water and took the dinghy ashore and spent a good part of the day on the beach. Fortunately there is also a bar there for refreshing ice-cold Heinekens! After a day of fun on the beach, we mounted up and sailed the 2 hours north to the harbor of Veli Rat. It turns out that Veli means large and Meli means small so there are loads of Veli and Meli harbours all over Croatia.

In BC we’re accustomed to being in deep water all the time (except for the occasions where we hit rocks like at Worlecombe Island) but there are pretty good sized patches of water here in Croatia that are fairly shallow – like less than 5 meters. We went through a pass in Veli Rat into the inner harbor that had (no lie) about 2 meters of clearance on either side of the catamaran. The depth sounder was reading 1.2 meters deep as we went through. We anchored in 1,5 meters of water (Catamarans don’t draw much) and had about a 30:1 anchor scope out with our 30 meters of anchor chain out.


The kids didn’t like the look of the water so less swimming than normal occurred. Marina and I decided to get up early and head back to the beach. The kids woke up just as we were anchoring. We said we’d play on the beach until noon and then head to Zadar for provisions and fixing the $#@%#^ T-Mobile internet stick (again). On the beach we were playing volleyball in the water and a couple of kids went by looking like they wanted to play. Their dad (Pavle) came by and everyone joined in. The kids Jan and Hannah and mom Milke played for a half hour and then we headed off to Zadar. But…it seemed too far so we altered plans and went to Molat.
On Molat there is a beautiful little fishing village and harbor with a historic clock tower and monument for participation in WW2. The plaque named about 25 people who had died – most in their early 20s and what was sad was many had the same last name. It must have been devastating to such a small village. On a lighter side, after a walk and a swim we decided to eat out at a small pizza café, 6 bar type tables outside a camper looking kitchen. What was fun was that in the hour we spent there (it takes a LONG time to get your order taken and even longer to get the bill…they’ll let you sit forever…you have to ask for it), we had people at tables around us who were British, French, Italian and Croatian (and Canadian of course) – and the boat beside us had an Austrian couple in it and Germans as well at the dock. Very international! A peaceful night in Molat and then up early to get to Zadar.


Docking in Zadar was interesting. I did about the best docking job ever, then the dock hand pulled the mooring rope up into our prop and loop-loop-loop … it was wrapped around our starboard prop. So … in classic ‘get out of Dodge’ fashion, he said, “looks like you wrapped your prop … Don’t lose the connection to our mooring … Bye” and he ran away. So I had the pleasant job of diving in the harbor (kind of gross) and unwrapping 2 very loose loops around the prop … took less than a minute but frustrating none-the-less. Lesson learned …. Make sure the on-board crew manage the ropes .. not the drunken helpers on shore.

Anyway … guess who else was there …. Our new friends Pavle, Milke , Hannah and Jan. Pavle is a pilot with Croatia Airlines and has a couple of boats – one in charter and one for personal use. He’s a very interesting guy who has lived in the USA, Russia and Croatia, speaks several languages and is very engaging and entrepreneurial. Jessie and Ross have been entertaining their 8 year old twins and we’ve had a coffee and evening drinks together.

Yesterday we decided to go through to either the island of IZ or Dugi Otok through a narrows between Pasman island and Ugljan island. According to the pilot book the clearance is 16.5M. According to our book on the specs of the Lagoon 38 Catamaran, our mast is 17.5M high. But I remember reading that a new bridge was installed with a higher clearance. So … we thought we’d try it out. Going through we ran into Pavle and family again. We tied up beside them for a swim, and then thought we’d go for it. He has a Bavaria 38 and has passed through many times. Our rigs looked the same size so we thought “no problem”. Marina was driving and the bridge looked very high. We were steaming along at 6.5 knots about to go under and the bridge started looking lower and. As we passed under the bridge our mast cleared by maybe a foot or so … maybe less. Talk about pucker power. The thought of hitting a bridge with the mast at that speed … it would have been spectacular – ripping the mast out of the deck, tearing off one or more of the chainplates, and we’d probably go aground …. Lesson – if you’re not sure …. Go slow … or better yet, don’t do it.


Now that (hopefully) most of our navigational errors are behind us, we’re reminded about how careful you must be sometimes in order to be safe – and of how many things there are on a boat that can go wrong. It has given us new perspective on the spares we should carry, how we should manage dock-hands and that we should never make assumptions …. And if you aren’t sure, don’t do it.


We’re also buoyed by the nice people we’ve met like Pavle and family, a guy I was sitting beside at a coffee shop that we had a great conversation with, and a young guy named Stefan from Toronto who is a professional football (soccer) player trying to get on a team in either Russia or Italy. I also talked to a fellow for a half hour in a coffee bar in Zadar who was from Toronto and now lives in Zadar. It's nice to have a conversation with people who have a full grasp of your language plus are interested in how you are reacting to their country.