Day 5: Šolta → Starigrad

The hardest day on the water yet and we didn’t get our sails up once. The night was fitful thanks to howling winds and they only got stronger.

The day started with a length of chain wrapped around our anchor preventing us from pulling it all the way up. It was quite tense for the first few minutes as our boat was blown toward the rocks while we leaned over the bow to secure it with a length of rope to take the tension off the knotted chain. I did my best to keep the boat steady in the harbour as Lucy put her knitting skills to good use with the boat hook untangling the chain.

With one hardship behind us another approached. We knew it was going to be a windy day but the intensity mid channel crossing was much stronger than we anticipated.

Fortunately we didn’t have our sails up when the near gale force winds hit. We decided to give our arms a break from the morning’s wrestling with the anchor chain and had the motor running as we set out from Šolta to Starigrad. Initially the autopilot was on and Lucy and I were able to huddle under the canopy. But about half way across the channel the winds picked up to 25kts with gusts up to 30+ and the waves became quite powerful and irregular to the point I had to take control of the wheel to steer the boat through the waves safely. This meant I had a nonstop face full of wind and spray for the better part of an hour and a half.

As we approached the entrance to Starigrad the harbour opened its welcoming arms and we thought the worst of the waves and wind would be behind us. Unfortunately we were deceived and we’d need to endure these elements for another 30 mins until we reached the utmost tip of the Starigrad harbour. Even in the most protected parts of the marina where we stopped the winds are howling.

We were lucky to get a spot on the dock because everyone else was also trying to shelter from the winds. When we called ahead to the marina they told us they were full up, but we persisted and found a spot at the dock. But even once we found a spot it was very challenging docking with the wind and my first time docking on a Med mooring (a very tight parking space you need to reverse into with the stern to the dock and expensive yachts on either side). Fortunately we had some welcoming neighbours that helped us into the spot.

Once in the town we had a lovely lunch and explored the pretty town of Starigrad. It’s really a remarkable town. Then an early pasta dinner on the boat and a plan to set off at dawn to avoid more heavy winds tomorrow as we start our journey back towards Split.