Blowing in the Wind

Vis,Croatia

A marine weatherman once said, “If no one moves, no one will get hurt.” He was talking to a group of Caribbean cruisers over the radio as they asked, one by one, if the weather was good for their point of sail, but never seemed to hear him when he said, over and over again, that the weather was not good for any sailing that day. While sailing into every anchorage, bay, harbor or port is always the preferred method, we are never in such a hurry as to ignore the advice of the weather experts, so there are often times when we seek shelter to wait out rough weather. On the bright side, bad weather often provides opportunities to see places from a different perspective.

During one particularly nasty three-day blow in Croatia, we took Berkeley East into a marina and saw the island of Hvar via scooter. Hvar is Croatia’s most popular island, often listed among the world’s most beautiful islands. We wish we had a picture of the two of us on our 50cc scooter going 20 mph up a long winding hill on the one, very busy road across Hvar, with at least 10 cars, trucks and buses following behind. It must have been a funny sight. The little scooter got us the 15 miles to Hvar Town but there were times when we thought we should have taken the air-conditioned bus. Hvar Town is considered Croatia’s “Riviera” where people go to be seen. In summer, it is packed with yachts and sun worshippers, a crazy place, but there is no denying that the town has some of the most breathtaking views we have seen in this country, actually just about anywhere.

Our scooter tour of the island of Hvar also took us through dramatic green hills, vineyards and charming towns like Jelsa, Starigrad and Vrboska. In Jelsa, the harbor was a washing machine. The few boats there were bashing around, proving that our plan to tuck away from the wind was a good one. Most people in Jelsa that day were sitting around eating ice cream or visiting one of the little wine tasting rooms.

The island of Hvar is actually well known for its wine.

In Starigrad, the tour boats were all stuck on the dock, rafted to each other waiting out the weather with many very bored passengers sitting and hoping for a change.

In Vrboska (where we had BE), all was calm, quiet and serene.

Another weather disruption, a Bora, took us to the island of Vis for protection. The Bora is a weather pattern, unique to the Adriatic Sea, with dangerous gale force winds and sudden violent gusts that funnel out of the Northern mountains of Croatia. In contrast to Hvar, Vis is one of the least populated, and less visited islands in Croatia, thanks to the fact that is was a military base until 1989 and off-limits to the general public. The island is gorgeous with rugged mountains, lofty peaks and sheer rock walls.

There are really just two main towns on Vis, Vis Town and Komiza. Vis Town is not particularly an attractive town, but it has one of the longest waterfront docks we’ve seen, plus moorings and anchorage areas that, combined, can accommodate hundreds of boats, yet it wasn’t crowded.

We went to our “Fi and Eddie’s Guide to Croatia” restaurant recommendation and dined on the Amberjack. We’ve had Amberjack before with a less than impressive result, but we learned that small Amberjack are the best and the larger fish taste completely different. We went in search of some live music and found an unusual trio (keyboard, saxophone and trumpet) playing a variety of songs, including “House of the Rising Sun” and “That’s Amore.”

Moving around to Komiza to tuck in for the coming wind was a completely different experience. When we picked up our mooring, we were the only ones there and thought perhaps we had read the wrong weather forecast. But by afternoon, boats were coming in like a parade, racing each other in search of a dock or mooring. It went on for hours, and by nightfall we were surrounded by more than 60 charter boats and a dozen large fishing trawlers.

We felt good with our choice of harbors, as it is always good to be where the fishing boats go to hide. In addition to being a sheltered harbor, Komiza is also a Croatian vacation resort where locals spend their holidays. It is a small collection of shops, restaurants and beaches encased by holiday homes. We could not get into our targeted restaurant and chose one next to it instead.

While the atmosphere was nice, the food left a lot to be desired. We learned the hard way that Fi and Eddie did not just recommend the best restaurant, they recommended “the restaurant” so from then on, if we could not get into “the restaurant” we would just eat on the boat.