BLOG 2

CROATIA, SPRING 2025

LEFKAS (GREECE) TO DUBROVNIK (CROATIA)

From 4 May to 23 May 2025

As covered in Blog 1 we flew back to Aktio airport in Greece (some 2 miles from ‘our’ boatyard) at the end of March 2025. During April we serviced and repaired Island Drifter [ID] before preparing her for sea and launching on 24 April. Thereafter, we completed a relatively successful sea trial on ID, before mooring on the public quay in the small harbour of Santa Maura at the north end of the Lefkas Canal. This is a favourite spot of ours because it has easy access to Lefkhada town, a good beach and is secluded enough for us to get on with final preparations for a cruise.

We are now in Dubrovnik, Croatia, some 250 miles north of where we left Levkas on 4 May 2025.

Chart: Lefkas (Greece) to Dubrovnik (Croatia)

We had mixed feelings about sailing in Croatia, never having done so before. We’d heard many reports of high costs since Croatia joined the EU and adopted the Euro, over-zealous officials handing out large fines for transgressions of myriad regulations, and the generally held impression that those in office were being motivated to do so by bureaucratic incentive schemes. Conversely, we knew that Croatia is renowned for its wonderful bays and anchorages – not to mention beautiful scenery. Eventually we decided to simply “go for it” on the basis of our experience to date that things often turn out to be not what the grapevine reported – and in any case things change!

GREECE

On our route out of Greece, we pulled into Garitsas Bay on the east coast of Corfu island to sign out of Greek Waters with the Hellenic Coast Guard. There we anchored off the town of Corfu itself.

Corfu town viewed from our anchorage

Corfu’s famous, albeit incongruous, nearby cricket ground

After ensuring that the anchor was well dug in, we launched our dinghy and outboard and motored ashore in a hairy swell! At one point when the outboard conked out, we thought we might end up swimming ashore!

The entrance to NOAK, the local sailing club’s harbour is behind the white super-motor yacht to the left of the Old City’s defences

We eventually left the dinghy in the club’s dinghy dock and walked a couple of miles on the coastal road, past the city’s new ferry and cruise-ship port, to the Hellenic Coast Guard’s offices in order to sign out of Greece. This we did without too much difficulty but only after presenting the officer dealing with us with a copy of the Greek Ministry of Law’s Changes and Clarification of Law. This document, which neither the officer nor her superior claimed to have seen, supported our insistence that, unlike with a Limited Transit Log [LTL], they were not permitted to retain our Greek Unlimited Transit Log [UTL], although they could stamp it if requested.

On the way back to ID, we took a shorter route through Corfu’s interesting old quarter (with the aid of Google Maps Walking). Our return by dinghy to ID was as equally dodgy as our route ashore had been, in terms of the swell running – but nevertheless we made it!

Garitsas Bay, in which ID was anchored, viewed from the balcony of NOAK sailing club

Since one is permitted only 24 hours in which to vacate Greek Waters after being ‘stamped out’ by the Hellenic Coast Guard, we got up early next day to resolve a number of relatively urgent domestic, financial and administrative issues while we still had a working internet connection from our Greek data SIM. We finally left Greece at midday.

Helen in the cockpit locker managing a fuel transfer to the day tank from the main tank on ID’s port side, as part of the preparations for our forthcoming passage to Croatia

PASSAGE TO CROATIA

Our departure from Greece coincided, by design, with an atypical 48-hour moderate to strong southerly wind, which had long been forecast.

Sun setting that evening as we headed northwest from Corfu towards the Strait of Otranto between the Ionian and the Adriatic Seas

During our first night’s sailing, the wind picked up as forecast and we sailed ‘poled out’ in a Force 6, until the wind dropped again at noon the next day, before building up to a Force 4–6 during the afternoon and night of the second day.

Sailing well on a broad reach with all three sails fully set

CROATIA

Our new Croatian courtesy flag which we were about to hoist before entering Croatian Waters  

Since we had made significantly better progress than we’d anticipated, we arrived six hours ahead of schedule. As it was now after midnight and conditions were particularly rough, we had no wish to enter a new port (surrounded by rocks and islets) in the dark. We therefore hove to offshore, before closing with the coast at dawn.

Approaching Gruž, Dubrovnik’s port of entry, soon after dawn, behind a large cruise ship

Once in the well-protected ferry, commercial and cruise-ship harbour of Gruž, we berthed, as instructed by VHF, on the Customs Quay, from where we were escorted by a Port Authority official to the Harbour Master’s office. After checking that our documents were in order, including in particular our pre-payment of Croatia’s Tourist Tax levy (£118 for our 11.4m boat for 30 days was payable only online and in advance), he issued the Navigation Permit (£44 annually for the year to December). Subsequently, the Port Police checked our passports, boat registration and crew list (which had already been stamped by the Harbour Master). Having heard a range of apocryphal ‘horror’ stories, we were struck by the speed, efficiency, politeness (and friendliness!) of everyone we met.

Customs House seen from ID while berthed on the Customs Quay awaiting clearance

To our surprise, the Port Authority agreed to Helen’s tentative request to be allowed to berth that night somewhere on the port’s enormous new extended quay that runs the length of the inlet and was almost empty. To our further surprise, our stay was free of charge.

While there, having previously watched in Greece (out of historical interest) the funeral of Pope Francis, we were able to follow the BBC coverage of the election process and subsequent Proclamation of the new Pontiff, Pope Leo XIV. Since we understand that 79% of the population of Croatian are Catholic, it was not surprising that church bells rang out loud and long after the proclamation.

Pope Leo XIV on the Papal Balcony of St Peter’s, making his first announcement

Dubrovnik is Croatia’s most popular tourist destination. It has one of the most perfectly preserved walled towns in Europe. Churches and public buildings blend seamlessly with green-shuttered private stone houses. Its suburbs exude Mediterranean elegance. For the Croatians themselves, Dubrovnik has always served as a powerful metaphor for freedom, having spent much of its history as a self-governing City state, independent of foreign powers. In the war of 1991–1995, it successfully resisted a 9-month Serbian-Montenegran siege and reconstructed the resulting damage at an astonishing speed.

Dubrovnik harbour and city today, with the vivid orange hues of brand-new roof tiles

When we eventually prepared to leave the Customs Quay, we were, with our of necessity long shore and spring lines, being blown off the quay by some distance in the strong wind. Helen therefore called the Port Authority on the VHF and asked if they could possibly help. Within three minutes two cheerful men appeared in a ‘golf buggy’ type of vehicle and let go our lines.

ID tucked away on the Customs Quay

Thereafter we located the port’s minuscule fuel dock and topped up with both diesel for the main engine and petrol for the outboard. Diesel cost £1.09 per litre!! Pity we’d filled up both our tanks and cans in Greece at £1.45 per litre!

We then set out on our planned recce to gain an overview of the local Elaphite Islands’ and adjacent mainland anchorages and their few small ports and harbours, to start getting a feel for Croatian cruising.

It soon became apparent that cruising in Croatia is very different from that in Greece. In brief, Croatian marinas, ports, buoys and even some anchorages are now ultra-expensive. (For example: marinas are generally upwards of £100 per night, town quays often charge £70, buoy owners £60 and one can even be charged £60 for anchoring.) Fortunately, there are also many free anchorages to choose from, and anchoring is therefore the standard practice for cruisers in Croatia, whereas stern- or bows-to mooring on a municipal town quay (at reasonable nationally set rates) or free anchoring is the norm in Greece.

During our initial recce we visited each island and most anchorages and ports in the Elaphite Islands and on the adjacent mainland coast. We stayed in four different locations: Zaton inlet, on the mainland; Šipanska on Šipan island; Slano inlet on the mainland and Lopud on the island of Lopud. 

Elaphite Islands: a chart of our recce’s route

Zaton inlet is only a couple of kilometres from Gruž. We made it our first and last stop since it has good protection, holding and provisioning facilities. It was, however, affected each night by strong katabatic winds off the surrounding mountains, the force of which we’ve not experienced before. A salutary introduction to Croatian weather and anchoring! It did, however, give us considerable confidence in our Rocna anchor, new 100 metres of chain, ‘a heavy lead angel’, and our anchor alarm on the GPS.

ID at anchor in Zaton inlet

The village of Zaton is primarily made up of new holiday homes and hotels. The Adriatic Highway hugs the shore throughout the length of Croatia and runs along the bay. We drove this road in 1970 when it was still Yugoslavia and we were on our way to and from Greece. 

The Adriatic Highway runs the length of the Croatian coast

The Adriatic Highway runs close behind Zaton

Subsequently, we stayed on a surprisingly “free” (!) buoy off the hamlet of Šipanska on the island of Šipan – expecting at any moment to be hailed by its owner (who in fact never turned up). The island is heavily wooded, and the inlet itself offers excellent shelter from all wind directions except from north-west and has a reputation for good holding. The hamlet has a small quay for visitors (£50 per day) and daily ferries from Dubrovnik.

Well-protected, free overnight buoyed location on Šapin

On our return south to Dubrovnik’s port of Gruž, we anchored at the head of the inlet of Slano, off the town of the same name. Another well-protected anchorage with good holding that had been recommended by Phil and Norma Heaton, fellow OCC members.

The town was virtually obliterated by a Serbian bombardment during the 1991–95 Bosnian War. It, like many others that suffered serious damage during the War, appears to have been almost completely rebuilt, although we did see several derelict buildings pockmarked by shrapnel. A war memorial on the quay commemorates the local fallen during that war.

War Memorial with the dedication:  To the Croatian Defenders who died in the Serbia-Montenorga Aggressions 1991–1995

While we were in the bay, a particularly strong gale, which later evolved into named Storm Ines, was forecast. Expediently, but reluctantly, in view of its cost (£105 per night!), we therefore went into the nearby ACI Slano marina for three nights. The marina is very well protected from both wind and swell and, indeed, was in all respects an unplanned taste of luxury!

Slano bay and marina  

It so happened that Helen had just received the OCC June Newsletter to proofread and was able to do so in relative comfort using the marina’s excellent WiFi and ‘free’ 240-volt electricity.

Helen proofreading the final draft of the OCC’s quarterly newsletter 

In the marina we also serviced the pump to our the Seagull water filter, which we had not used it for 3 years, and our 12-v, 25-year-old water maker (although it has been ‘pickled’ properly each season).

Helen recommissioning our watermaker which has since worked well in the clear Croatian waters

The fourth location we stopped in overnight on our recce was the bay of Lopud at the north end of the island of Lopud, where we anchored in anticipation of another forecast gale, this time from the SE.

Fortified 15^th-Century Monastery overlooking Lopud bay

Dubrovnik island ferry on Lopud quay

We anchored there with 90m of chain, which held well in the gale.

From Lopud we made our way early to Marina Frapa in Gruž harbour to await the arrival of Will, Lesley and our granddaughter Emmy who were due to join us on a ten-day cruise north to Split, from where they will fly back to the UK.

Marina Frapa in Gruz, Dubrovnik’s commercial harbour where we planned to meet up with Will, Lesley and our granddaugther Emmy, who were joining us to cruise from Dubrovnik to Split 

[photo courtesy of Marina management]

INITIAL OVERALL IMPRESSIONS OF CROATIA

In many Mediterranean countries, including Greece, one often sees rubbish strewn around, security bars on windows and ugly poured concrete buildings with reinforced bars sticking out of the top floor in case they might want to extend. Not so in what we’ve seen so far in Croatia, where the buildings look new and immaculate, although many are clearly holiday homes.

We’ve also been surprised to date that we have not come across more sailing cruisers compared with Greece at this time of the year. Perhaps this is because of the supposed enormous size of Croatian charter fleets, the reported aggressive reputation of some of the authorities, relatively high cruising tax, higher costs in general, and the fact that it is noticeably cooler than Greece.

To our relief we were encouraged by our initial recce by the scenery, which proved dramatic, the availability and quality of anchorages (and, to a lesser extent, smaller harbours), the general ambience of the area and the friendliness of the people and officials we’ve met.