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Like Charms on a Bracelet
By Judy Post

Any time a camera is ready, he grabs the closest female, puts his arm around her and flashes his big smile. Captain Anton, nearly 7 feet tall with large shoulders, has slightly buck but perfectly white teeth and a mop of curly black hair. He is the owner of Kapetan Jure, a wooden motorized yacht that was built in 2000 in Croatia. One of the many private yacht owners who charter their ships to tour companies, Captain Anton knows his business well. With his crew of 2 sailors, a cook and an all around girl, Ivana, who acts as a waitress, barmaid and chambermaid, they make up a team that can pamper people on board through the Adriatic Sea. Kapetan Jure can thread through 1240 miles of Croatia’s jagged coastline filled with rocky coves and islands galore.

My friend, Phil and I find Insel/hupen, a German company that specializes in biking/sailing tours on the Adriatic Sea and book our reservations. Along with 22 German speaking passengers, we set sail for a week’s journey of biking through the Dalmatian islands. Ivan and Stefan, bike and tour guides never seem to mind the daily hoisting of bikes up and down the decks. Each morning, Captain Anton strolls into the dining room and in a voice louder than a ship’s horn, says “Guten Morgen.” To us, he smiles and nods. Ivana runs back and forth bringing hard-boiled eggs, fresh bread, cold meats and cheese for breakfast before we start the day’s biking.

Like charms on a bracelet, Croatia has islands. Over a thousand of them and it’s impossible to see them all. It’s also tough to decide where to go. But taking a week’s trip on a motorized sailboat through middle Dalmatia, a region of Croatia, gives you a good look at some of nature’s jewels sprinkled across Croatian waters.

A lot of yachting trips for swimming and sailing and also for biking begin and end in Trogir, a walled city with a maze of medieval streets. During the season, Trogir is the place to be on Friday nights when the sun begins to set. Locals and tourists alike parade up and down the wide waterfront sidewalk. There are open-air cafes where you can sit and sip a Karlovasco, a classic Croatian beer. Or you can get an ice cream from one of the nearby vendors and sit on a metal bench that faces the water. Both the cafes and benches are good places for people watching and for looking at the boats sliding slowly into the harbor and parking side by side. The yachts are returning from journeys through the islands. Laundry is strung around the middle decks. Sun burned and tanned passengers disembark.

Croatian island trips usually begin on Saturdays around noon. Again, the promenade is busy. Workers load food onto the boats and new guests arrive with their gear. We meet Ivan and Stefan who fit us with bikes. We’re off, 24 bikers in single file riding through the town of Trogir and maneuvering through city traffic. Then it’s up hill all the way to the countryside. The sun is blazing and the glare from the paved road is strong. We pedal to Rogoznica, a seaside village where we spend the night.

The following days are idyllic. We bike in and around the Sibenik region, allowing stretches for admiring and reflecting upon the beautiful bays and beaches. Each day we are in different places but we are always surrounded by panoramic views. We visit KRKA National Park, leave our bikes and walk around waterfalls spilling into more waterfalls. At Zadar, the main city of northern Dalmatia, we take time to stroll on marble, traffic-free streets to look at Roman ruins and medieval churches.

Weary from difficult biking in 90-degree temperatures, Phil and I decide to rest. The top deck of Kapetan Jure is a good spot for 360-degree views. Slicing through crystal clear waters, a lone sailboat trails behind us. The Croatian flag of red, white and blue horizontal bands, with a red and white checkered Croatian coat of arms in the center, flutters atop a wooden pole. We are sailing through, the national park of Kornati. About 150 islands form this archipelago and each island has a name. There are no sources of fresh water here so vegetation is sparse. Etched in a starkness that provides a dramatic picture, it’s easy to understand why George Bernard Shaw fell in love with these islands. As he wrote, “On the last day of the Creation, God desired to crown His work and thus created the Kornati Islands out of tears, stars and breath.” From a distance, you see an almost lunar landscape. Up close, however, perception changes. Rose colored wild geraniums, purple irises and orange lichens stand out. With the whiteness of stone, the plants create land art as well as land cover.

While there are no permanent residents on the islands, most of the area, that covers 114 square miles, belongs to the people of Murter Island. Long stone walls that make up patchwork patterns on the earth divide their pastures. A few cottages are scattered about for those who come to tend the land. It’s also possible for tourists to spend a week in one of the cottages for a Robinson Crusoe like adventure. There’s no running water or electricity. But a boat from Murter can deliver you and pick you up one week later.

As the Kapetan Jure glides through calm waters with splashes of a late afternoon sun and approaches Trogir, silhouettes of the Luoc Palace and the Komerlengo Fortress appear against the sky. Competing island images flash through my mind. It’s Friday night once again. People are beginning to gather on the waterfront. Once parked, Captain Anton jumps off the yacht. A cell phone in one hand and his other arm gesturing, his eyes are on the look out for someone who is ready to snap his picture.

This is freelance travel writer Judy Post's first contribution to The Traveler.

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