Kuna, kuna, kuna

Dugi Otak, Croatia

When we decided to return to Croatia this year, we went online to see if anything had changed since we last cruised there four years ago. We found reports from cruisers that Croatia had become very expensive, that they were even being charged to anchor. In 2012, Croatia’s prices were already set to European standards and now they were part of the European Union, so we expected similar marina, fuel and food charges. But we are never charged to anchor in other parts of Europe. We had only experienced this one time before, and it was in Croatia in a national park where the payment was actually a per-person fee for visiting the park rather than an actual anchoring charge. We thought this was reasonable since anyone driving into a national park usually pays a fee as well, so we didn’t worry about the reports.

We had a week to kill waiting to pick up guests, so we selected a few anchorages where we could chill, fly and get Berkeley East ready for visitors. First stop was a small cove on Tijat, an uninhabited island but for the goats. Unfortunately, our cruising guide was published in 2012, so the information is a bit dated, and while we expected plenty of room to anchor, we found the cove full of mooring balls.

We assumed there would be a mooring charge but were surprised that it was 320 kuna; 20 kuna per meter length of the boat. We’re not sure why larger boats pay more to use the same moorings. It cannot be that we use more of the cove, as we saw ten times as many people on charter boats half our size. BE is 16 meters and the exchange rate is about seven Croatian kuna to one US dollar, so that’s about $45 US dollars. Not bad, we were paying $40 a night (per boat of any size) for moorings in the Caribbean 10 years ago. At least in Croatia they take your rubbish away with payment.

The next stop was Primosten, a beautiful island linked to the mainland by a causeway. Again, there were mooring balls but Berkeley East magically shrunk on the way to Primosten and she was now 15 meters, but it was a whopping 450 kuna, plus trash pickup. We were getting used to paying now. We just had to keep reminding ourselves of the seven kuna-to-one dollar ratio so we didn’t freak out when the numbers were high. The only issue was collecting enough kuna, as they didn’t accept American Express.

Primosten is a popular holiday resort and was packed in early August. But we enjoyed a nice walk, an excellent dinner and an early morning flight before heading north to Zut to see if the grilled calamari was as good as we remembered.

We anchored in Zut, no charge. So we were right, we thought, anchoring in Croatia is still free. We enjoyed calamari and fries for lunch (as good as the first time) and were off to Dugi Otak, the national park where we had paid 60 kuna per person four years ago. When the park ranger came by to collect, we were prepared and expecting a slight increase. “How big is the boat?” they asked. “14 meters” we said. “No, looks like 15 meters, that’s 350 kuna” he replied. Apparently, the park went to a per-boat fee since our last visit and it didn’t matter if the boat was on anchor or on a mooring ball. Disappointing, but BE was trash free! And this is one of our favorite anchorages in Croatia, as it was the place where we met Fi and Eddie, the Brits who took us under their wing and gave us a cruising and restaurant map to the best of Croatia. We would have stayed longer and paid gladly if we could.

Feeling a bit kuna depleted, we headed back south to hit an ATM and finalize the preparations for the arrival of our guests in Split. 5000 kuna for fuel, 1000 kuna per night for a berth, electricity, water, provisions; kuna, kuna, kuna. But at least in the city they did take American Express.

NOTE: Three weeks later, we have discovered that while many mooring balls have been added to anchorages, they are relatively inexpensive. And there are still many, many places to swing free on your own anchor, free of charge. With more than a thousand islands in Croatia, there are plenty of places to choose from.
PREVIOUS COMMENTS

29 Aug 2016

Dave Butlet

Safe travels. Hope to see you in October!