24 Aug - 27 Aug 2003 Hvar

Adriatic Sea

Republic of Croatia

Hvar Island

Hvar

Town Harbour

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, inside the harbour.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 43° 10.23' E 016° 26.38'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2003 Map

Exploring Hvar town, the site of the oldest municipal theatre in Europe, opened in 1612 CE, with her 13th-century CE city walls and her massive hill-top fortress and watching helplessly from “aloft” how an incompetent Polish charter crew accidentally pulled out our anchor and bumped with their Beneteau First 40 fibreglass sailing yacht into our steel ketch, luckily without doing much damage.

Meeting cruising yotties Chantal and Marc (SY "Le Fabuleux") from South Africa and Mauritius respectively.

23 Aug - 24 Aug 2003 Palmizana

Adriatic Sea

Republic of Croatia

Pakleni Otoci

ACI Marina Palmizana +38521744995

SY "Kamu II" with her stern to the pontoon and with a permanent bow mooring.

KN 293.- (€ 39.-) per night.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our marina berth:

N 43° 09.74' E 016° 23.63'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2003 Map

20 Aug - 23 Aug 2003 Luka Soline

Adriatic Sea

Republic of Croatia

Pakleni Otoci

Luka Soline

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, with a long land line.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 43° 09.38' E 016° 22.13'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2003 Map

18 Aug - 20 Aug 2003 Vis

Adriatic Sea

Republic of Croatia

Vis Island

Komiza Harbour

SY "Kamu II" at anchor.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 43° 02.76' E 016° 04.84'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2003 Map

DM Konni: Scubadiving into Bisevo's Modra Spilja aka Blue Grotto where the sunlight, which passes through an underwater cavity and shines through the seawater, is creating an ethereal blue reflection that illuminates the cavern.

17 Aug - 18 Aug 2003 Scedro

Adriatic Sea

Republic of Croatia

Scedro Island

Uvala Manastir

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, with a long land line.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 43° 05.65' E 016° 42.49'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2003 Map

Towing a young Croatian couple’s kaput Makarska-based Stingray 240 cabin cruiser to the safety of Uvala Manastir on Scedro island where the skipper could safely anchor his boat and from where he called a diesel mechanic for professional help.

14 Aug - 17 Aug 2003 Korcula

Adriatic Sea

Republic of Croatia

Korcula Island

Uvala Luka

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, 0.5 nm from Korcula town.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 42° 57.07' E 017° 08.45'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2003 Map

Anchoring below the St. Elias mountain, the highest point of the Pelješac peninsula, directly across the town of Korčula, making landfall with our dinghy, visiting the Franciscan monastery and the 19th-century CE houses of the Austro-Hungarian sea captains and later basking on the pristine pebble beaches of the village of Orebic.

Exploring the medieval walled town of Korcula, the birthplace of Marco Polo, the famous Venetian 13th-century CE world-traveller, writer and noodle importer, and watching a performance of moreska (the traditional Croatian sword dance which follows the story of the ancient conflict between the Red King versus the Black King about Bula, the Red King's fiancée, with a romantic and ritualized sword battle in seven circles representing seven different dances with swords).

Matt: Climbing the 961-m high St. Elias mountain near Orebic and enjoying breathtaking views over the island of Korcula and it's archipelago along the Pelješac Channel.

12 Aug - 14 Aug 2003 Luka Polace

Adriatic Sea

Republic of Croatia

Mljet Island

Luka Polace

SY "Kamu II" at anchor, inside the Mljet National Park.

KN 80.- (€ 11.-) per night.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 42° 47.45' E 017° 22.43'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2003 Map

Mountainbiking through the remains of ancient Illyric fortifications and extensive Aleppo pine forests in the Mljet National Park on the sparsely inhabited island of Mljet and visiting the islet of St. Mary in Veliko Lake with its 12th-century CE Benedictine monastery.

DM Konni: Scubadiving with the Odyssey Diving Centre between many broken amphorae at a Roman wreck off Pomena.

11 Aug - 12 Aug 2003 Okuklje

Adriatic Sea

Republic of Croatia

Mljet Island

Okuklje

SY "Kamu II" at anchor.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 42° 43.58' E 017° 40.26'.

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2003 Map

Anchoring inside the hamlet Okuklje on Mljet island, S of the Pelješac peninsula, from which it is divided by the Mljet Channel, and enjoying the on-board delivery of fresh and still oven-warm rolls and muffins for breakfast from the baker’s wife who came with a small rowing boat out to our ship at anchor.

10 Aug - 11 Aug 2003 Ston

Adriatic Sea

Republic of Croatia

Ston

Town Jetty

SY "Kamu II" alongside.
KN 80.- (€ 11.-) per night.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our harbour berth:

N 42° 50.06' E 017° 41.83'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2003 Map

Ploughing the muddy sea bottom in 1.8-m depth of water with our 1.9-m steel keel in the Stonski Canal, without being stoned or driving under the influence.

Exploring the longest fortifications in Europe (the second largest in the world, after the Chinese Wall), the 14th-century CE defensive walls of Ston, a notable feat of medieval architecture, which stretch over 5 km from the town and extend to Little Ston aka Mali Ston, a smaller town on the N side of the Pelješac isthmus.

Feasting on delicious local (!) seafood in the Taverna Bota +38520754482, a haven for foodies at Mali Ston and afterwards looking up heavy-metal poisoning symptoms in the Ship’s Doctor Book for good measure.

09 Aug - 10 Aug 2003 Slano

Adriatic Sea

Republic of Croatia

Slano

SY "Kamu II" at anchor.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 42° 47.16' E 017° 53.16'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2003 Map

Rendezvousing with our Maltese friends Anthony (“The Flying Maltese”) and Sandro who were sailing with Sandro’s brand-new Bavaria 42 from Koper/Slovenia to Valletta/Malta and having a nice dinner party in our cockpit with their yacht rafted up alongside with our anchored SY “Kamu II”.

07 Aug - 09 Aug 2003 Sipan

Adriatic Sea

Republic of Croatia

Elaphiti Islands

Sipan Island

Sipanska Luka

SY "Kamu II" at anchor.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 42° 43.69' E 017° 51.60'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2003 Map

Scaling the 243-m high Mt. Velji Vrh on Sipan Island, the largest of the Elaphiti Islands, separated from the mainland coast by the Kolocepski Channel, and visiting the village of Sipanska Luka aka Porto Gippana where olives, figs, vine, carob-trees, almond-trees, oranges and citrus fruit are cultivated and which used to be favoured by the Dubrovnik aristocracy for their summer houses in the 15th century CE.

06 Aug - 07 Aug 2003 Sipan

Adriatic Sea

Republic of Croatia

Elaphiti Islands

Sipan Island

Sudurad

SY "Kamu II" at anchor.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 42° 42.63' E 017° 54.78'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2003 Map

Matt: Visiting the old Renaissance castle at Sudurad aka San Georgio, built in 1529 CE and owned by the Stjepovic-Skocibuha family for centuries, and listening to the present nouveau-riche owner’s stories about the daily life under Marshall Tito’s socialist regime in the former Yugoslavia.

05 Aug - 06 Aug 2003 Lopud

Adriatic Sea

Republic of Croatia

Elaphiti Islands

Lopud Island

Uvala Sunj

SY "Kamu II" at anchor.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 42° 40.74' E 017° 57.27'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2003 Map

Anchoring in the epicentre of a Sunsail +18883503568 charter flotilla of about 30 Jeanneau sailing yachts, all with their red-forestay trademark, and still enjoying this large and scenic anchorage on the SE side of Lopud Island, though quite crowded but still pleasant, social and very interesting.

Wandering through the woods on car-free Lopud Island, one of the Elaphiti Islands, visiting its old Franciscan monastery and conquering Mt. Polacica, at 216 m the highest elevation of the only 5-sqkm big island.

02 Aug - 04 Aug 2003 Luka Zaton

Adriatic Sea

Republic of Croatia

Luka Zaton

SY "Kamu II" at anchor.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our anchorage:

N 42° 42.01' E 018° 02.60'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2003 Map

Hiking in the hilly countryside NE of Luka Zaton and thereafter enjoying genuine Croatian beer-garden atmosphere with frothy beer steins of Karlovačko pivo (Karlovacko beer) at Mali Zaton.

Enduring our first gusts of bora, the infamous catabatic wind from the NE, at night, keeping an anchor watch and testing successfully both our secure 45-pound CQR anchor and the new half-inch anchor chain under heavy bora conditions.

29 Jul - 02 Aug 2003 Dubrovnik

Adriatic Sea

Republic of

Croatia

Dubrovnik

Gruz Harbour

SY "Kamu II" with her stern to the jetty and with one bow anchor.
KN 90.- (€ 12.-) per night.

Click below for a bird's-eye view of our harbour berth:

N 42° 39.45' E 018° 05.20'

Click here for a summary of this year's travels:
2003 Map

Logging the uneventfully sailed distance of 180 nm in 60 hours (an average daily run of about 72 nm) between the heel of the Italian boot and Dubrovnik/Croatia.

Clearing the rude post-Socialist Croatian immigration and customs and paying KN 1250.- (€ 165.-) for a Croatian cruising permit - thus getting once again rammed into us how government soaks the people: the permit was valid for one full calendar year from the 1st of January untill the 31st of December, smaller (and cheaper) units (e.g. for one single month or only for the crusing summer from May to October) were simply not available.

Exploring Dubrovnik, aka "the Pearl of the Adriatic" (which is what Lord Byron called it), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with her massive city walls rising from a sparkling sea and her fairytale-like old port, thus visiting (i) the Onofrio Fountain, built in 1438 CE, (ii) the Franciscan Monastery, with one of the oldest functioning pharmacies in Europe, in operation since 1316 CE, (iii) the locals' favourite meeting place, the Orlando Column, with the nearby Sponza Place, (iv) the baroque church of St. Blaise (featuring a silver statue of the Dubrovnik patron saint on the altar, holding a model of the city) and (v) the Rector's Palace, built in 1441 CE, which is now a city museum packed with valuable and historic exhibits.

Watching the street action on the Placa aka Stradun, a wide marble street which runs from Pile Gate to Ploce Gate and is lined with shops, cafes, churches and palaces and realising the strong Venetian influence on the history and culture of Dubrovnik.

DM Konni: Scubadiving and exploring the 52 m deep, challenging wreck of MV “Taranto” which sank in 1943 CE after she had struck a mine and broke into two halves, the stern sank into the sand, while the bow is raised at an angle of 45 degrees and leans against the underwater cliff.