Great sailing

We had a fabulous sail further down Dugi Otok, tacking along with all the other sailboats out for a great sail. (I am so impressed at the number of boats that not only had sail up, but were actively out enjoying the wind. Too often we watch boats motoring everywhere, making us wonder why they bother to own or charter a sailboat.)

The very narrow inlet……
…..which then opens into a huge bay with numerous places to anchor

Croatia is notorious for being an expensive place to visit, because you have to pay to anchor or take a mooring in so many places. The national parks are the most expensive, but we still wanted to visit. We had just a couple of days before high season started, so we could get a one night permit for 45 euro (days later it would be 60 euro for the night!). We booked a permit and hustled to the park, even managing to snag the very last mooring ball.

We didn’t go ashore right away, as there were storms in the area (we could hear the thunder on the other side of the ridge on the mainland and my lightning strike app was going crazy), but we only got a little bit of rain and wind.

The National Park cliffs facing the Adriatic

Once the rain ended and things calmed down, we went ashore, as I wanted to see the Adriatic-facing side of the island with afternoon/evening sun for the best effect. It was worth it. Everyone else was still on their boats, we had the entire place to ourselves for a while, and the views were amazing. The cliffs jut 161 meters out of the sea and the waves were crashing while we visited.

After walking along the cliffs, we headed down the trail to the Mir, the great salt lake.

Lake Mir

Daylight hours were starting to run out, so we opted not to walk around the entire lake, but enjoyed the ramble back to the dock to the boat.

Trail marker

And we were treated to a most fabulous evening sky after the storm ‘scrubbing’.

After the rain