Sunday: Unstuck Anchors and Kornati Sunsets.
After a busy provisioning day, the guides, Heather, Gaffney, and I, woke up a little slow and sore, at least the 50+ contingent. We spent the morning filling coolers with ice, prepping the boat, and stashing supplies. Finally, after over a year of planning this thing, the guests arrive. Jane, Kevin, Kathy, Kendra, and Dana. They’re all repeat guests, and they are SwimVacation pros. We know with a group like this it’ll be easier to run our first trip ever in Croatia. We settle them into their rooms, and within minutes we’re pulling away from the dock.
Sailing through the channel out to sea, we say goodbye to little Šibenik, passing the formidable Fort St. Vincent. The wind is blowing 15-20 knots, but our boat is steady in the waves and the chop. This boat is a Lagoon 46, a catamaran with 4 cabins, all with private heads. It has a well designed galley, 3 different spaces on deck for lounging, outdoor covered dining for 8, a watermaker, and a lot more. This boat has been well maintained by our partners at Mare Yachting.
Our first stop was Zlarin Island, for lunch and a quick splash. As we pulled into the charming little harbor with pale blue water, Gaffney and I got the signal from our skipper Ante to drop the anchor. Unfortunately, it was stuck under the front rail and wouldn’t budge. Gaffney and I took turns with the mooring ball hook, trying to pry it off, but it wouldn’t budge. Ante jumped on it a few times, and it finally came loose. I was proud of Gaffney for keeping his cool and coming up with solutions under pressure.
Matea put out a scrumptious Mediterranean calzone/pie of sorts with greens from Skipper Ante’s garden.
Our first splash into the Adriatic revealed very clear water, maybe 72 degrees, lots of fish, sponges, and sea stars and cucumbers. Just a quick splash, as we have an evening swim planned, as well.
Once again we sailed up into the wind and into the boundaries of Kornati National Park. WIth hundreds of protected islands and waters, this place is a no-brainer for us. We passed islands with sparse vegetation, old stone walls, and the ruins of old farmhouses.
Our final stop for the day is Kameni Zakan Island. It’s ringed by blue water and there’s lots of little islands nearby. We plotted a course inside the bay and hopped in. At one point I said out loud “gosh this seems like a good place to see an octopus” while we were taking a break. 3 strokes later, I was swimming though a cloud of black ink, only to swim through another, and another, as the octopus darted away from me. I never saw the beast.
As the water here is a little cooler than we often swim on SwimVacation, we all brought various super and styles of wetsuits. Our evening swim began with a little neoprene fashion show. Runway of teak.
We swam to another little island just to say we did it, then back to the yacht for yummy fishy appetizers and Kornati Sunset cocktails, of my own design (1 oz chilled Orancello liqueur topped with sparkling wine and garnished with an orange twist. I substituted Marischino liqueur for half of them just for kicks). Matea plated some excellent pan-seared sea bass with chard and potatoes, a very traditional Šibenik dish. She served it with locally produced olive oil that we brushed on the fish with rosemary sprigs from her Grandma’s garden. I poured a local white wine called Pošip. Dessert was a chocolate mousse. Suffering nowhere in sight.
Current air temp at 10:30pm is 75 degrees with a light southerly breeze. Perfect sleeping weather.
Hopper
