Veli Rat to Zadar to collect Phil and onward to Pag

We nursed the hangovers, dingy’ed into a shop for supplies, had a quiet night and planned a short run to Molat the following day en-route to Zadar.

Molat sits a short way north of Veli Rat, sports a long protected bay with a small island forming a cool anchorage between the island and the holiday village on Molat itself. We wanted wifi so we parked as close to shore and a restaurant as possible but no dice.

This was the ideal spot to watch the sunset at the same time as the full moon rise. Many, it seemed had the same idea but it did add to the casual atmosphere in the bay.

This is the moonrise but all those fairy lights are mooring lights on the top of all the masts in the harbour. Sublime.

At 9.25 on Monday the 10^th July, we unhooked from our buoy mooring and set sail for Zadar. There was a fair bit to do when we got there. Laundry, provisioning, repairs, wifi SIMS and the boat needed a good scrubbing…. again!

We were assisted by some guys and slime lined in. It was hot, we were in a big harbour and so a swim was out of the question, but between Al, Erwin and I we got most of it done day one. We had another day before Phil arrived late evening so we took to the city of Zadar and got messy.

Two things of interest were the sea organ. A place where there are specially laid slabs along the promenade with holes and gaps so as the sea laps into the steps it becomes music. Very cool. We went there for the sunset…. And so did everybody else!

This was one way to get a good perspective although not very elegant.

The other was the museum of illusions. Ironically we never did find it.

Phil showed at 11:00pm Tuesday the 11^th after the usual lengthy trip from Sydney to London, change airports, wait a long time, Zadar. We had planned a longish trip to Casca on Pag so for many reasons we took it easy on Phil and crashed by 1:00am.

After a couple of last minute chores like retrieving my boat papers and paying the equivalent of $250 per night, we managed to leave by 9:15. Man they see you coming here, specially if you’re a catamaran.

In nil wind we motored through some pretty spectacular countryside. Everything completely denuded by the Bora. (That dreaded Adriatic wind). There were two bridges en-route, the heights of which we could not ascertain for some reason. 

Stymied by the lack of height of the first bridge meant a long two hour detour by which time Google Meister Al had managed to find the height of the second and decided to film our passage from the top of the mast.

And if you click on this link you will see that very video... Paski Most Bridge

You will notice the wind blown topograpghy I keep going on about too.

Casca is the Ibiza of Croatia but we thought it would be interesting to anchor off a big three day festival and take in the atmosphere. We anchored at 4:00pm and under the cover of darkness, dingy’ed in to get close to the action. What an incredible infrastructure for hedonism. Bungie crane, jet skis, five big music venues, bars, restaurants and lots of kids doing what kids do at these things… (he said enviously) Youth! So wasted on the young….

Did we really want to stay here two days?  The water wasn’t nice and clear, the bay was big and the festival wasn’t really for us. So that’s a no. But….. My Wind App told us there was a Bora coming by mid-morning the following day and as the saying goes, I’d rather be in here wishing I was out there than out there wishing I was in here. We readied the boat to leave and the go/no go decision would be made in the morning.

Morning dawned and it was calm. I woke the team and we were gone by 7:05. The Bora hit at 8:00 and even though we were still in a long, narrow protected bay we could see that this was not going to go well. We motored to the mouth of the bay and it was howling, waves were rising and white caps were spuming.

We went for it. Fortunately the wind was on our starboard beam and a little behind and in no time we were enjoying the ride. 

It lasted three hours until we tucked into a slot which leads up to the most delightful hamlet of Rab on Rab. Trees and vines and green stuff! We’d become so used to nothing but bare rock.

We anchored in a beautiful bay a short dingy ride from town and spent the day surrounded by beautiful people in pleasure craft.