cruise in croatia (51 images)

Croatia - The dalmatic islands in schooner

"Dolphin! Dolphin!" shouts the captain. Suddenly, all the passengers are rushing on the starboard side. Surfing on the bow wave under the prow, the playful cetacean is escorting us for some ten seconds.

With almost 3300 miles of coasts bordered with creeks and cliffs and 1 185 islands swarmed in the Adriatic (inclunding only 67 inhabited), Croatia is a true cruising paradise. The Kontesa schooner is our home port....
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Croatia - The dalmatic islands in schooner

"Dolphin! Dolphin!" shouts the captain. Suddenly, all the passengers are rushing on the starboard side. Surfing on the bow wave under the prow, the playful cetacean is escorting us for some ten seconds.

With almost 3300 miles of coasts bordered with creeks and cliffs and 1 185 islands swarmed in the Adriatic (inclunding only 67 inhabited), Croatia is a true cruising paradise. The Kontesa schooner is our home port. Built in 1927, this 50 feet long wooden ship used to ship freightage between the continent and the islands. Now completely fitted out for cruising, it coasts between the dalmatic islands, with Zdenco at its helm, previous captain of an ocean-going vessel, rough or pleasant, depending on the wind...

The schooner speeds along on a smooth sea to the Korcula island. Covered with dense forests of green and black oaks, pines and cypresses, it still deserves its nickname given by the ancient Greeks: "the wooden island". We pass around the sparkling city of Korcula, where, according to the legend, Marco Polo would be born, and finally accost on the Badija islet.

We unship the kayaks in a tropical clear water. Spines of the black sea urchins seem within reach. We pass along the Planjak islet recovered with juniper trees and fragranced flowers.

Heading for the Vrnik island. The old village is almost abandonned but we come here to visit its stones quarries. Millions of tons of white stones have been extracted from Vrnik and Pucisca on the Brac island. Since the Antiquity, these quarries have been giving to Venice its most beautiful palaces, to Istanbul the Saint Sophie's cathedral and to Washington the White House! After the bombings of Dubrovnik in 1991, the quarries have even been re-opened to extract the stones necessary to the restoration of the citadel.

We now leave for the Vis island where Tito hid during the war. Military area forbidden to strangers until 1992, Vis is now getting more open to tourism. The boat has been berthed at the quay of the quiet harbor of Komiza while the beautiful stones walls houses are turning red in the sunset. The island has become famous because of its intrepid fishermen who scoured the full of fish deeps on the Palagruza islet in the middle of the Adriatic. From the XVIth century to the thirties, the sailors have been waiting for the mistral to arrive to leave on their "fakulsa" -light, fast and 36 feet long wooden sailing boats- laden with nets and salt to preserve fishes. As the island is very tiny, crews used to practice real regattas on the 42 miles between the two islands to be the first to arrive on the best fishing areas.
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