Princess Nayeli: From Pula to Zadar (Croatia)

Hi All,

First, we have a Croatian phone number at last: +385-997-235-411.

On Sunday, July 6th we sailed from Pula to Cres. What was supposed to be a 35 mile trip became 44 miles of true sailing.
The first 10 miles were with 10-12 knots of head wind so we decided to tack to Rt Kamenjak (the south east tip of the peninsula). The boat sailed beautifully at around 30 degrees to the wind. At maybe 5 miles out, we suddenly saw a small fender floating on the waves, with nothing attached to it. We decided to practice a little and pick it up. It took us 4 times, where on one we went too fast, on another the hook was too thick for the fender’s hole, on another Naama almost fetched it with the small net we have. The main problem is that the fender was moving so fast with the wind and waves that we didn’t have much chance. Eventually Yael decided to jump to the water and pick it up. This time it worked!!
We ended up in Cres, the main city on the island of Cres.
That evening the weather started to change. A trough over the north Adriatic brought in strong south winds (25kts at the marina), with thunderstorms. This means waiting a couple of days in Cres. The old city here is very nice, built around a small fishing port, with narrow alleys and many small shops.
We could spend time sitting at the finishing port, in one of the coffee shops while Noga and Yasmin were practicing crossing a street full of bike rides. It was amusing seeing the 7 year old village girls, trying to find their way through some bike traffic.

From Cres we motored east to the Island of Krk where we met Gal and Michal. We sailed together with them through the islands of Rab and Pag to Zadar. We had everything on the way, from storms that we had to stay in port, to dolphins that we saw a couple of times. We sailed from close hauled to butterfly on 6-20 knots of wind.
We spent one of the nights in a lovely bay on the island of Rab. This bay is unique for its sandy beach. Real sand for a change. So we were anchored in the middle of the bay, could swim in crystal clear water, and spend some time on the beach.
When we were about to leave, we saw a family, with a beautiful 12 year old girl that just set-up a windsurf with a child sail. The whole family was trying to teach the girl to surf, but obviously they knew nothing about windsurfing. Yael decided to help. She jumped on the board, demonstrated, and taught the girl how to surf. In 5 minutes, the girl was on the board, windsurfing…

The sail from Pag to Zadar was fantastic. It all started a couple of days earlier where we had a gale warning and winds of 35-40 knots. We decided to find a marina where we could hide from the storm. We found it in a little ACI marina on the island of Pag in a place called Simuni. Since we were waiting for the storm, we rented a car and drove to Plitvica nature reserve. Plitvica is really beautiful. BTW, we met an Israeli lady there that lost her group, had no money, no cell phone, she knew no number she could call. All she knew is that she was with a group from “Ofakim”…
Anyway, after hiking around the lakes, we sat for a few hours, relaxing, and having lunch/dinner in a lovely hotel at the resort, where we could relax, chat, some of us could even play the piano that they had in the dining room, Jasmine was dancing to the music. It was really a lovely afternoon.
So back to our sail from Pag. The next morning, we decided that a forecast of 12-24 knots of back wind, with a low possibility of gusts, is good for us, and we sailed out to Zadar, which is only 20 miles away.
Princess Nayeli sailed nicely on the deep blue water, mixed with white caps. At some point we decided to put up the Spinnaker. Unfortunately, for a reason I don’t yet know, it tore while taking the snuffer off!
3 miles before Zadar, a heavy rain started. We’re not used to having rain in warm weather in the middle of the summer. It was nice scenery.

Gal and Michal left us today so we’re 6 again, planning to sail to the national reserve of Kornati.

Links to new picture albums: (the pictures are still uploading so I hope I got the right links to all the albums)