Murter

 From Split we went on up the coast to Skradin to visit Krka National Park.  Stunningly beautiful!  I posted about that earlier and out of sequence as I was having issues getting to my other photos.  Which is a whole different story.

On the way up the coast to Murter

It is amazing to me how different the landscape is the further north you go up the coast.  Suddenly, the "mountains" are just hills and further out they just look like desolate rocks. Barren rocks that don't look as though they would support much life.  But people are sailing out to them so there must be something there.  We are making our way to a town called Murter.  Back in 2019, after crossing the Atlantic we joined a club called the Ocean Cruising Club (all members have crossed oceans and are very seasoned sailors).  

Rogonoznica

As with all clubs there are leaders and one day I received an email from a fellow who is the "roving ambassador" for the Eastern Med.  All members can track us by our AIS (automated information system), the OCC actually posts a map on their website showing where in the world its members are.  Gareth and his wife Clare wanted to meet up if possible as he saw that we were near them in Croatia.  We had decided to meet in Murter.

Small Croatian islands - on the way to Murter

Gareth is no ordinary sailor we were to find out.  He has raced in the Fastnet multiple times and was preparing to do a delivery to Iceland.  Quite an accomplished sailor.  As it turned out Clare by way of some Facebook group found out that Marina Betina in Murter was offering a special if you chose to put your boat on the hard during the hottest months.  We all decided to go to the Marina and discuss possiblities with the folks there the day after first meeting up.  That diversion kept us in Murter longer than we had planned.

Croatian Coastline

Once again there was some weather coming - high winds from the North, but not the Bura.  Or so we thought.  Michael and I decided to go to Marina Betina for a day or two to ride it out but Gareth and Clare chose to anchor out as they had to continue North.

Well two days turned into five and every day the marina got a little more expensive.  Most people were staying put, waiting for the wind to ease.  Even the folks that had paid to charter boats were just sitting in the marina.  We were not clocking the wind speed but the North winds had turned into the full bura (NE winds).  The wind can get significantly stronger the higher up the coast you go so many folks stay at the lower end of the coast.  During this bura the winds outside of the bay were blowing at 50 knots.  

Another beautiful sunset - Rogonoznica

But we made new friends so it was all good - Gareth and Clare from the UK and Phillipe and Beatrice from France.  Phillipe and Beatrice on the French boat in the video were also waiting for a break in the winds.  We meet a lot of interesting people from all over the world which helps to expand our world view and also makes our world much smaller.  As soon as there was a slight break in the weather we high tailed it out of there and headed south.  We were thinking about the offer at the Marina, trying to decide which direction to go.  But for now we were planning to go to Lostovsko for a bit.  The entire Lostovsko island chain is a national park so you pay for a permit to visit.  Its also the furthest island out in the Adriatic so not many charter boats go out that far.  We were looking forward to a little remoteness.