Spring sailing in North Dalmatia – Day 4. Skradin
Plan for today that we sail north up to the mouth of Krka river then we motor up to the beautiful Skradin. Skardin is one of our favorite place in Croatia (and also favorite of Bill Gates) The weather forecasts predicted similar weather to yesterday – 10-15kn S-SE wind with sunshine and passing clouds with possible rain (now I know this means they have no idea how the weather will be). We were expecting some pleasant downwind sailing but it turned out we could not be more wrong… The wind was howling even in the protected harbor, but we thought it is just amplified by the nearby hills.
Leaving Marina Kremik 
Boats & vineyards
After we left the peninsula to the open water we were facing 25-30kn wind around 2m waves. The waves coming from the side became quickly very uncomfortable, so we rather turned dead downwind to get the waves astern.
One and half hour later we reached the lighthouse at the Krka river entrance to continue our voyage on more protected waters upstream the river.
As it took considerable time to reach Skradin and there are no alternative marinas nearby I thought it is a good opportunity to try the ACI Android app to reserve our berth in advance. After entering some personal and boat details I had to enter my credit card details to confirm the booking. The full amount is reserved on the card and deducted in case of no show. Few minutes later I received the confirmation and we were all set. Two hours later we successfully moored in ACI Marina Skradin
Before we could enjoy fully the improving weather in this beautiful small little town we faced some technical difficulties. When we attached the shore power cord it was not working. Yesterday it had some issues already but it worked in a certain position so obviously it broke. After I found the toolbox we disassembled the cord and found this:
The cord was totally burnt so we were quite lucky that it was not working and did not catch fire. The marina staff already took the folder with the ship papers and the technical help phone number was also in the folder…. The number was not on the website, so I asked a marina guy, and he sent a technician to replace the plug. He fixed the plug in 20 minutes and asked 200 HRK no invoice… It sounded a bit steep, but OK we did not want to ruin the day by searching tools and plugs in the town as we had to catch the boat still what is going up to the Krka national park waterfalls.
By this time we were very hungry, today’s diner was Hungarian specialty made partly from local ingredients. It is very simple yet very delicious (as usual with simple foods) – I was always wondering how the Italians have no any similar food. It is cottage cheese pasta with diced bacon and sour cream. The required pasta is quite special, I think you can not really find out of Hungary so we brought a few packs. It is rectangle shaped pasta broke to smaller pieces. In Biograd we bought some proper local cottage cheese and sour cream and Eszter brought some home home smoked ham so everything was available and it was really delicious thanks to our chef ladies.
Luckily we caught the last boat what took us up to the waterfalls. Just as we arrived the sun started shining first time this day so we could fully enjoy our small hiking in the park.
We arrived back to our boat around sunset, and after this long day we fell asleep quickly in our cabins.
The mornings are somehow magical in Skradin, due to the lights and tranquility it is always a pleasure to wake up there. We went for a stroll in the old town to buy some souvenirs, look around a bit, we found some beautiful old stone houses only the walls were standing and nothing inside.
It was time to say goodby to Skradin, I can easily spend several days here but limited to a charter week you do not have the luxury of boat owners to explore destinations fully as you wish, and go with the wind. But no complaints of course 🙂
