Cruising the Kornatis

For the last several days we have been cruising the Kornati Islands, one of the most remote spots in Europe. Fifty something islands, no ferries and no resident populations, just visiting yachts and occasional tripper boats. The islands themselves are Karst limestone, often frost-shattered and barren. A few wild sheep are all that remain of the agriculture that successfully destroyed the environment through over grazing. 

Luckily there are several good restaurants to serve the yacht market and we have been working our way through some of them and enjoying some good seafood. Even though it’s September, there are lots of charter boats here and some of the anchorages are quite crowded. 90% of the charterers are German, with the occasional Scandinavian and the very occasional British charter. We’ve witnessed quite a few Bavarian singing nights, mostly after the two Brits have retired to their boat! There are a few privately owned boats (mostly Austrian and German) and a fair number of super-yachts cruising through here too although nowhere for them to stop even if they wanted to. 

The sailing has been exceptional and we have been working the boat hard to successfully prove she is the fastest cruising boat in the Kornatis (despite the huge amount of extra baggage we are carrying around with us). The weather is now changing however and sunshine has given way to rain and electrical storms all around us. 

Approaching Luka Telescicia National Park to moor for the night we were caught in the most violent rain storm we have ever seen. Despite full waterproofs we were soaked through by the time we moored up and escaped below and the rain was so intense that from the steering position at the stern of the boat I couldn’t identify Jan at the bow, all I could see was a vague shape in a red waterproof through a driving fog of rain. Needless to say two hours later the rain had stopped and we spent the next day exploring the salt lake and the cliffs of the park whilst our gear dried out in the sun. Settled weather has now returned.

After ten days of isolated cruising we have been driven into a marina on the island of Murter as we have run out of water (and the food situation is looking a bit scary too). So we now know we can go ten days without civilisation (or more if we cut down on the number of showers). Photos to follow when we get decent wifi connection.