With both of us officially on vacation starting end of May, we took a few days to get the boat ready for a month tour of Croatia. In particular, it was rather difficult to get new parachute flares as regulation requires some special pyrotechnic closet in shops, and none of the ship chandlers contacted in Pula could get any! We finally got them from Rijeka.
On 4 June, late afternoon, we depart from Oula for Banjole, a few miles out. Night at anchor.
Sunrise in Banjole, 5 June
5 June, to Krk bridge
On 5, departure around 10:00 for a 56 miles to the Krk bridge. Nice sailing for the first half, followed by a couple of hours on engine for lack of wind.
Entering Rijeka channel
Approaching the Krk bridge by 18:00. At anchor in the bay for a lamb diner sousvide!
Nights at Krk bridge are very nice as the bridge is changing throughout the night with its illumination and the levels of darkness.
6 June, to Goli Otok
I start the day with cleaning the bow thruster that was no longer generating any thrust.
No wonder with so much barnicles, small weeds and shells. Quite a job with the boat in the water, first to remove the propellers, then to clean, mount and put new anodes. I ended-up bleeding like mad because of the micro-cuts under water along with my anticoagulants. Fixed now!
By noon, we engage in the Velebit Canal, well none for its lunar landscape, visible from google maps (see below at the southern tip of Krk island) resulting from the regular katabatic winds that are destroying everything on the way, including any vegetation! But today, no wind and we have to cruise on engine, since we do not have much time to escape before the next announced burst of Bora in the night of Monday.
Velebit canal, with Goli Otok, the white island on the picture.
Goli Otok is our objective for today. It had been Tito's goulag since 1959 until its closure in XXXX. It is abandoned now, and there are old building everywhere, but no museum or even information about its past. We are visiting it tomorrow and will let you know our experience...
Only boat there! We feel lonely! While mooring along the pier, we need to consider the magnitude of the tides to adjust the mooring lines. The magnitude is 50 centimeters, so not much, but still significant if you tight too much your lines at high tide. And we come across the very interesting nature of the tides in the Adriatic. I will not expand here, but consult the "Tides and currents in the Adriatic sea - 9 April 2023" page. Amazing!
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