Duration: 7 days
Schedule: Zadar – Long Island – Iž Island – Long Island – Kornati – Žirje Island – Murter Island – Galešnjak Island – Island of Love – Zadar
Croatia is one of the best sailing destinations in the world for a number of reasons.
The ideally laid out islands, that are separated by no more than 10 nautical miles and about 1500 bays and ports, makes the Croatian Adriatic equally as ideal for sailing under full sail as it is for cruising on motor boats. 56 modern marinas with around 16,000 wet berths and 5,500 dry berths are available all year round. Sprinkled like pearl drops across the crystal clear blue of the sea, 66 islands, 652 islets, 389 rocks, and 78 reefs are more than a thousand reasons to fulfill anyone’s nautical dreams that comprise the Croatian Adriatic.
Almost ideally distributed, with distances between them not exceeding 10 nm, along with a coastline extending 5,835 km, from Istria to Dubrovnik, Croatia’s islands offer a real challenge to everyone.
With over 1500 coves, bays and ports on islands and the mainland where one can find a berth, drop anchor or stay overnight, the Croatian Adriatic is the very place for sailing under full sail, for a motorboat cruise, or for simply enjoying the sea by boat for recreational fishing.
Croatian marinas are situated in exceptionally well-protected locations, from larger towns to small coves on islands. In addition to service and regular maintenance, marinas offer other services, including restaurants and cellars where one can enjoy excellent drinks and local and international cuisine and where all other required services are provided. For those who prefer the charm of little ports in the very heart of the small coastal towns, they have at their disposal quaysides all along the Adriatic – from Cavtat, and Gruž in Dubrovnik, Vela Luka on Korčula, Hvar, and Vis, and all the way to Lošinj and Istria. Even in olden times, the Adriatic Sea was one of the most crucial sailing routes for ancient cultures.
With its attractive coastal area covering 138,595 km2, the extraordinary clarity of its waters with visibility to the fascinating depth of 50 meters, and an average water temperature of 16 to 21oC, the Croatian Adriatic is indeed an ideal place for your dream sailing adventure.
Explore Luxury Sailing tours and Croatian yachting vacation visiting places like Split, Zlatni Rat – Island of Brac, Hvar, Zadar, Šibenik, Brioni and Istria from seclusion and relaxation on the breathtaking Dalmatian Islands.
Croatia holds endless possibilities for your authentic experiences in Croatia from beautiful beaches, untouched anchorages, excellent marinas and restaurants, scuba diving to exploring the National Parks and culture rich lands of Korčula and Dubrovnik.
Zadar is a city in Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. It is the centre of Zadar County and the wider northern Dalmatian region. Zadar is a historical center of Dalmatia as well as the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Zadar.
Zadar faces the islands of Ugljan and Pašman, from which it is separated by the narrow Zadar Strait. The promontory on which the old city stands used to be separated from the mainland by a deep moat which has since become landfilled. The harbor, to the north-east of the town, is safe and spacious.
The chief interest of Zadar lies in its churches. St Donatus’ Church – a monumental round building from the 9th century in pre-Romanesque style, traditionally but erroneously said to have been erected on the site of a temple of Juno.
It is the most important preserved structure of its period in Dalmatia; the massive dome of the rotunda is surrounded by a vaulted gallery in two stories which also extends around the three apses to the east. The church treasury contains some of the finest Dalmatian metalwork; notably the pastoral staff of Bishop Valaresso (1460).
Dugi Otok is the seventh largest island in the Adriatic Sea, part of Croatia. It is located off the Dalmatian coast, west of Zadar. It is the largest and easternmost of the Zadarian Islands, and derives its name from its distinctive shape (it is 45 km (28 miles) long by 5 km (3 miles) wide with an area of 114 square kilometres (44 sq mi)). Its elevation reaches 300 m; and many of its higher portions contain stands of Maritime Pine.
The western coast is tall and rugged, and many of the towns are clustered on the eastern side, including Sali, the largest, Božava, Dragove, Soline, Brbinj, Luka, Polje, Verona, Savar, Veli Rat, Zaglav, and Žman. A nature park, Telašćica, covers the southern part of the island and is adjacent to Kornati Islands National Park.
Telašćica bay is situated in the central part of the eastern Adriatic coast, in the SE part of the island of Dugi otok. Thanks to its extreme beauty, richness and importance, this bay surrounded by 13 islands and islets, together with 6 islets inside the bay of Telašćica itself, was proclaimed a Nature Park in 1988. Thanks to its exceptionally valuable plant and animal life, geological and geomorphologic phenomena, valuable colonies of the sea bottom and interesting archaeological heritage this area became protected in 1980.
The area of “Telašćica” Nature Park is distinctly contrasted area with quiet and peaceful beaches and laid down coastline on one side and wild and rough cliffs on the other. It is the area of the Aleppo pine-trees and holly oak woods on one side and bare rocky grounds on the other. It is the area of cultivated fields of vineyards and olive-trees, as well as the area of degraded forms of the flora covering dry habitats.
Three basic phenomena are certainly the main characteristics of the Nature Park: the unique bay of Telašćica as one of the safest, the most beautiful and the largest havens on the Adriatic that includes 25 small bays and 69 km of the well-indented coastline, the cliffs of the island of Dugi otok or so-called «Stene», rising up to 161 m above the sea level and falling down vertically up to 90 m below the sea level, and finally the salt lake called «Mir» with its curative characteristics. The island of Katina must be mentioned as one of the most picturesque islands in the Adriatic, but the most unusual is certainly the island of Taljurić. The total surface of the Nature Park is 70, 50 km2 of which 25, 95 km2 on Dugi otok and the neighbouring islands and 44, 55 km2 on sea. Beautifully cultivated meadows and hillsides are rich with Mediterranean vegetation with more than 300 species of flora and equally rich fauna. The undersea world has more than 300 plant and 300 animal species.
The characteristics of the climate of this region are more than 2500 hours of sunshine a year; the average temperature in January is higher than 7 ° C and annual average higher than 16 °C. In winter, the sea has a temperature around 13 ° C and in summer about 23 °C. Telašćica has been inhabited since ancient times, as can be seen from Roman remains in Mala Proversa and numerous pre-Romanesque churches. The oldest document about fishing trade dates from the end of the 10th century and it shows that the fishing trade in Croatia began on these coasts. In the Nature Park it is possible to dive on a few attractive locations next to the cliffs, walk along the paths and visit interesting places and the panoramic view from the belvedere Grpašćak is something that must not be missed. This and so much more is what has attracted and still attracts visitors to the Telašćica bay, which as a Nature Park of the Republic of Croatia belongs to a high category of protected parts of nature. Near the Nature Park Telašćica, there are other three Croatian national parks: the National Park Kornati, the National Park Paklenica and the National Park Krka, as well as two nature parks, the Nature Park Vransko jezero and the Nature Park Velebit.
The Telašćica bay, after which the whole Nature Park got the name, is situated on the south-eastern part of the island Dugi otok. It is retracted into the land about 8 km and on its south side is the widest part of about 1.6 km. That part of the bay which is turned towards the south-east, is open towards the neighbouring Kornati islands. The bay itself is very indented with 25 bays, capes and 5 islands. Thanks to its position it is protected from the blows of the north-eastern wind from the mainland and the south wind from the open sea. Because of these features, Telašćica is one of the largest and best protected natural harbours on the eastern coast of the Adriatic. The name „Telaščica“ probably derives from the Latin name of “tre lagus” which means “three lakes”. It consists of three parts which are separated by constriction. These three parts are Tripuljak, Farfarikulac and Telašćica. These three bays are actually morphogenetic Karst sinkholes, which ended up under the sea some 10 000 years ago after the last de-icing period called glacial Würm.
The bottom of the bay is mostly covered with communities of sea-flowering plants and habitats extremely rich on animal life and very important for the reproduction of many fish species.
Lake “Mir” is located in the south-western part of the Nature Park Telašćica. The lake is situated in a narrow area of land between the bay Telašćica and the open sea. After the last Ice Age the sea level rose to approximately 120 meters when the karsts depression met the sea, which it penetrates through numerous underground cracks, particularly numerous on the north side. The sources of the sea are easy to recognize during the tide. The length of the lake is approximately 900 m and it is of 300 m. The maximum depth is 6 m. The lake is salty because its underground channels are connected with the sea. Salinity of the lake is generally higher than the surrounding sea due to evaporation and restrictedness of the lake. In the lake Mir very small changes in water levels have been found since the cracks which connect the lake with the sea area are of low porosity. On the south-eastern part of the lake, the sea tends to spill over into the lake during storms. The shores of the lake are mostly low and rocky, with numerous depressions, while only in the extreme north-western part less accumulation of sand may be perceived.The lake bottom in shallow areas is rocky and in deeper it is covered with clay and on a part of south-east it is covered with fine grey silt (curative mud).
Temperature amplitudes of the lake are very prominent (in summer to 33 º C and winter to 5 º C). Because of that, the lake is warmer than the coastal sea in the summer and colder in winter due to the shallowness of the lake. The salinity of the lake is over average due to evaporation. These extreme conditions are the cause of biological poverty of the lake. Apart from the plankton, there are only a few species of marine organisms. These include: algae, goby, mullets, sea-bass, several species of shellfish, snails, crabs and a special type of eel (called “kajman” or “bižat” by the locals) which can grow up to 3 kg.
The Kornati archipelago of Croatia, also known as the Stomorski islands, is located in the northern part of Dalmatia, south from Zadar and west from Šibenik, in the Šibenik-Knin county. With 35 kilometres (22 miles) length and 140 islands, some large, some small, in a sea area of about 320 square kilometres (124 sq mi), the Kornati are the densest archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. From northwest to southeast (from the island of Balabra to Samograd), and from northeast to southwest (from Gangarol to Mana) they stretch for 13 km (8 miles). The name of the archipelago is the plural form of the name of the largest island, called Kornat.
Settlement
There are no permanent settlements in Kornati. Simple houses in well-protected coves such as Vrulje, Kravjačica, Lavsa and others are used by mainland landowners as temporary shelters. Most of the land owners are from the island of Murter and Dugi Otok.
Climate
The average monthly temperature for January is 7.3 °C (45.1 °F), in July it is 23.9 °C (75.0 °F); the average sea temperature in winter is 14 to 15 °C (57 to 59 °F) and in summer 22.8 °C (73.0 °F).
Geography
Geographically the Kornati islands can be divided into two main groups – the Gornji Kornati or Upper Kornati, closer to the mainland, and the Donji Kornati or Lower Kornati, which are mostly facing the open sea in the southwest.
The islands known as Gornji Kornati include the northernmost island of Sit and the surrounding islets, divided by a channel from Žut and its surrounding islets to the south. Žut is the largest and most indented of these islands.
National Park
None of these islands are covered by the National Park? In 1980, the eighty-nine southernmost of the 140-odd islands, islets and reefs of the Kornati archipelago were declared a national park, Nacionalni Park Kornati, protecting the islands and their marine surroundings.The area covered by the National Park mostly coincides with the Donji Kornati, which includes the island of Kornat and the surrounding islets, separated with a channel from the island of Piškera and the surrounding islets.
The national park includes 109 islands, of which 76 are less than 1 hectare in size. Of the total land surface area of Kornati (62 km2), 85% is stony, and only 5% has been cultivated.
The most important places on the Kornati islands are: the shallow channel Mala Proversa, the oval-shaped Taljurič island, Špinuta Bay, Stivina Bay, the fourth largest island Levrnaka, the second largest karst rock-area Tarac, Svršata Vela island, Mana island, Piškera island, Panitula Vela island, the picturesque Lavsa Bay, the resort island Ravni Žakan, Smokvica Vela island, the Opat peninsula, Samograd island, the Purara reserve for marine life, Vrgada and Gangarol islands.
The names of the islands Babina Guzica and Kurba Vela, which in Croatian refer to buttocks and prostitution, offer an opportunity to explain the many vulgar names officially given to many places in the Kornati archipelago. When Austrian surveyors came to record the archipelago at the end of the 19th century, their local guides mocked them by making up vulgar names for the various locations.
Kornat, the biggest of the islands with a total area of 32,525,315 square kilometres (12,558,094 sq mi), comprises two-thirds of the park’s land area. Although the island is 25.2 kilometres (15.7 mi) long, it is no wider than 2.5 km (2 mi). The park is managed from the town of Murter, on the island of Murter, and is connected to the mainland by a drawbridge.
Geology
Most of the terrain in the Kornati islands is karst-limestone which, in the distant geological past, arose from sediment from the sea. In the stone on the islands there are numerous fossils of crustaceans and fish. In the area there examples of all the typical forms of karst: bizarre shapes formed by the atmosphere, unexplored caves, areas of flat rock and, above all, cliffs. Karst rock is porous, rapidly draining and dry, and so therefore are the Kornati islands. Numerous cisterns supply water for people and animals.
Human presence on the Kornati islands appear to extend back to the Neolithic Age, and the remains of Illyrian settlements were found on the island of Kornat. The presence of wealthy Romans is attested by the mosaic floors of Roman villas, and Kornat island has a small tower, Toreta, that was probably built in the 6th century AD. The island of Piškera was also inhabited during the Middle Ages and served as a storage point for fish. Archeological sites in Stražišče and Tarac, and on Levrnaka and Lavsa provide evidence that during the Roman era life on Kornati was very active. There are many buildings and it is known that there were also stone quarries.
During the long period of Venetian occupation, the islands were used for resupplying the Venetian fleet. Deforestation and subsequent erosion, and overgrazing by sheep and goats, for whose benefit the scrub was periodically burnt over, impoverished the fauna and depopulated the islands, which were purchased by citizens of Murter during the late 19th century.
Fauna
Apart from sea-gulls, which are the most numerous animals, there are some lizards and ring-snakes, and 69 varieties of butterfly, some amphibians and rodents. The local ichthyological fauna is also sparse. As regards marine life, the Kornati islands are typical of the Adriatic and the Mediterranean, but, due to the underwater relief, streams and special characteristics of the sea in this labyrinth, there are also some peculiarities: algae, coral and sponges. At one time the sea was the richest in the Adriatic for sponge hunters. The rare mollusc Pinna nobilis lives in the Kornati and is protected by law.
Not only the land but also the sea is within the protection of the National Park. Fishing is extremely limited in order to allow the regeneration of fish shoals that had been severely over-fished. According to tradition, the Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus albiventur) once lived among these islands. The name of the southernmost point on Vela Kurka (Mendo) is connected with this almost extinct species.
Flora
Vegetation on the islands is very sparse maquis. There have been 200 known varieties of Mediterranean plants, but they have degenerated. The most common plant is a tough variety of grass, but there are many scented and medicinal herbs: sage, feather grass and Xeranthemum, giving a fragrant spring, and during the year providing the best forage for bees. Olive trees account for about 80% of the land under cultivation, followed by vineyards, figs, orchards and vegetable gardens. It is thought that the Kornati islands were once covered with forests of Mediterranean holm oaks, Quercus ilex, but as open fires demanded a great deal of wood, the forests were slowly destroyed; the sole remnant is round the bay of Telašćica.
Galešnjak (also called Island of Love, Lover’s Island, Otok za zaljubljene) is located in the Pašman channel of the Adriatic, between the islands of Pašman and the town of Turanj on mainland Croatia. It is one of the world’s few naturally occurring heart-shaped objects such as the Heart Reef in the Whitsundays.
The island has a surface area of 0.132 km2, with its beach measuring 1.55 km in length. The island features two peaks, the highest of which is 36 m high above sea level.
Galešnjak is privately owned and contains only wild plants and trees. Human activity recorded on this island are three known Illyrian burial mounds and remains of an ancient building’s foundations.
The island’s unusual shape was first recorded in the early 19th century by Napoleon’s cartographer Charles-François Beautemps-Beaupré, who included it in his 1806 atlas of the Dalmatian coast (kept today at the National and University Library in Zagreb).
The island was highlighted on Google Earth in February 2009, which brought the island to worldwide attention and it instantly became a global hit after being promoted by CNN and BBC.
Everyone learned then about Galešnjak – the most perfectly heart-shaped island in the world – which greatly contributed to the promotion of the Adriatic as a top destination for a unique and unforgettable vacation and wedding.
Recent activity on the island has created two large scars across the heart, one spanning the island from a pier on the north to the south, and the other to the west of it.
Throughout the world there are only three islands in the shape of heart, but only Galešnjak, never changes its shape.
Sometimes it’s hard to choose the perfect wedding venue for the person you love but a romantic wedding on the island of Galešnjak is a gift that will certainly be remembered forever.
Zadar
Long Island
Iž Island
Long Island
Kornati
Žirje Island
Murter Island
Galešnjak Island; Island of Love
Zadar
We guarantee you will have a week of your life you’ll never forget!
All-inclusive Nautical services:
Yacht rental
Professional skipper
Domestic/International flights
Insurance: All types
Entry visa
Items of a personal nature such as alcoholic drinks, cold drinks, laundry
All entrance fees mentioned in the itinerary
Food expenses for skipper
Deposit Insurance
Final cleaning
Sojourn tax
Moorings
Fuel
Lunch and dinner expenses
Transport before check-in and after check-out
Arrival airport transfer from/to airport
Accommodation
Private guided city tour / Professional English – speaking tour guides
Private guided Yacht Cruise
Any others expenses which are not mentioned at the included section
Price: at the request
NOTE: Book minimum one month earlier before visiting. The program can be organized in other terms as well if your group is larger than 4 persons.
Additional info
Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Restrictions – This activity can be canceled in the unlikely event of bad weather and rough seas.
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