We left Iz on Tuesday 25th September in brilliant sunshine with little wind and motored south towards the island of Zut, calling in on the port of Sali on Dugi Otok, just to take a look. Strong South Easterlies were forecast and Sali, open to the south, would not have been an ideal choice to seek shelter on this occasion. But it looked like a pleasant enough town and we will certainly stop there to explore another time.
The island of Zut has an isolated marina, no village but a couple of restaurants with visitor pontoons to tie up to. Not much to do here other than swim and walk, which we did as weather permitted.
We spent 2 days here whilst the strong winds blew through, but as we had Nigel’s birthday to celebrate, we made the best of our time! One day on a marina buoy and one day on a restaurant pontoon in the most sheltered part of the bay. We climbed to the highest point around, risking getting blown away, but were rewarded with great views of the Kornati islands to the west.
As the winds were forecast to moderate on Friday 28th we sailed 12 miles to Biograd. We still had nearly 30 knots of wind and were well reefed for the beat south alongside the island of Pasman.
There seems to be a pattern here of a few windy days followed by one of calm and the next day was no exception. We had to motor north towards Sukosan and we decided to spend our last night ‘at sea’ at anchor off a tiny island off the town of Prekko on Uglan. We went ashore and walked around the island which was home to the monastery of St Paul. It had beautifully tended gardens which looked like Eden, with fig trees, vines, pomegranates, lemons and lots of vegetables growing profusely.
Now we are back in our Marina at Sukosan. 3 days to clean up, take the sails off and do all the usual chores and maintenance.
This September we have been as far north as Slovenia. In 4 weeks we have travelled 373 sea miles, and we have experienced more unsettled weather and strong wind conditions than is normal for this time of the year! No real complaints though. Deja Vu II has looked after us well and we have been extraordinarily lucky to have had a great time with good company and trips to some really lovely and interesting places.
With Deja Vu II put to bed for the winter, we look forward now to going home. We fly back on October 3rd.
See you soon, we hope!
Deja Vu 