Sibenik, Croatia

It’s easy to understand why this part of Croatia between Dubrovnik and Sibenik is so packed with charter boats. Every place you go has something unique to offer – if you don’t like the fortresses and castles, you have the beaches, or the quaint harbor boardwalks, or the stunning views, or the incredible nightlife that never stops – it’s the whole package.

Yesterday it was about the waterfalls for us as we headed south from Vodice towards the 8 mile narrow inlet that begins near the town of Sibenik. Like something out of a mid-evil novel we entered the narrow canal by navigating our way around the old fortress that guards the entrance. If we were Turkish, and this was 500 years ago, there would have been a serious confrontation at this point, but because that wasn’t the case we passed without incident. We spent the next two hours winding our way up the spectacular narrows towards the Krka waterfalls, which is a Croatian National Park and a major tourist attraction. We get easily frustrated by tourist traps, mainly because Photoshop doesn’t yet have a “remove tourist” function. But keen photographers have ways of getting around these things (which normally involves jumping over a fence when nobody’s looking), so we left the falls with the pics we wanted despite the collective efforts of the tourists to prevent that.

We’re now back in Sibenik on our way out of the canal and have awoken to another gorgeous windless day. As much as we love Croatia, we do miss the winds we had in Greece, and if we could change one thing about Criatia it would be that. The low wind levels make planning and anchoring simple, and there are countless other benefits (no ripped sails, swimming is fantastic, no need to stay on the leeward sides of the islands, no bouncing around at night, etc). But we are true yachties now and our lives depend on the wind for everything we care about – we miss our old friend.