After a 3 year pause due to the Corona pandemic, I joined the Lageschieber people for a sailboat trip again. The last ones I participated in all took place in the Aegean sea but this time we sailed the coast of Dalmatia (en/de).
Day 1: Home to Dalmatia
… was filled with a 12 hour trip to Biograd na Moru. We started early and arrived around 4:30 p.m. in the marina. Nowadays, the whole trip was on freeways except the last few miles. We had a few short stops to get gas and only a short delay while entering Croatia, which does not yet belong to the Schengen Area and thus passports were checked more thoroughly.
Retrospect: this can’t be compared to my previous trip to Croatia in 1984. Freeways ended in Austria and we needed to cross the Karawanks mountains by the Wurzen Pass to reach the Yugoslavien border. From there we had to use the (in some parts even two-lane) highway to Rijeka and the windy highway along the Croatian coast line all the way to our destination Split . It took us three days back then from home, but as students we had the time. Since the late ’80s tunnels have been build which allow much faster traveling in the area.
Since it was early in the afternoon when we arrived in Biograd na Moru, we had enough time left to do some serious grocery shopping and the check-in with the charter company. This year we had two yachts named Pegasus and Poseidon equipped with 8 and 9 sailors. We had dinner in the restaurant of the marina and crafted some plans for the first day on sea and eagerly followed the semi final soccer game of Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Westham United.
Day 2: Biograd na Moru to Murter
We took it easy, had a nice breakfast and prepared the boats. Part of that prep work was to attach the banner of Eintracht Frankfurt next to the sails. Now It’s clear to everybody that our skipper is a huge fan of that team.
We left Biograd na Moru around 1 p.m. for the first leg. It was easy sailing and calm winds brought us to Murter where we arrived around 3:30. By that time, we noticed that all of the fresh water was gone out of the tank and we tried to figure out what has happened. It turned out, that the water flooded the bow cabin. This apparently happened when we dumped the fenders into it from deck in the morning. One of them must have hit the faucet of the sink which thus opened and constantly drew water. The water from the faucet filled the sink where it could not flow off because our co-skipper closed the drain valve before on purpose to protect the boat from water entering from the sea side while sailing with a large heeling. Unfortunately, this also prevented the water to get out. So we had to bail out a few hundred liters manually before we had dinner in a local tavern.
Day 3: Murter to Bay of Levrnaka on Lavsa
The next day, we had nice winds and decided to sail around the southern edge of the island Kornat to reach the bay of Levrnaka in the northern part of the island Lavsa. There we found some boys and did not need to use the anchor.
The village of Lavsa 
One of our yachts in the bay of Levrnaka
Day 4: Bay of Levrnaka to Žut (ACI marina)
Leaving the bay, we went further north-west following the islands coast lines to pass the narrow passage at the northern tip of the island Kornat and soon after witnessed a sun halo effect.
The narrow passage of North Kornat 
The halo
Before though, we tried to figure out what happens if we reduce the amount of water between our keel and the seabed to less than a hand-width. Eventually, we solved to get out of this scenario without external help. We reached the ACI marina in Žut in the early afternoon and had a nice dinner on board.
Day 5: Žut to Veli Iž
We left the marina and sailed further north-west. After a few tacks we reached the port of Veli Iž. Even though the port was pretty packed with sail-boats, it was always easy to spot our yacht for the humongous Eintracht flag. We went grocery shopping in two small supermarkets and made a reservation for dinner for both crews.
Day 6: Veli Iž to Veli Rat
The next morning we prepared for another round of tacks to our most northern spot of the trip: Veli Rat. Since the moorings left some dirt on the boat, we wanted to clean that off. We had to find out, that the scrub was broken (plastic apparently is not so durable as anticipated). Since we had the powers of our local repair café Steinbach repariert on board, we fixed that with a blow torch and a cable tie. A bit later, we found ourselves haunted by an ongoing regatta.
“Steinbach repariert” en route 
We arrived in the afternoon in Veli Rat. That night, we had dinner on board. The skippers were playing a little concert on their guitars and some of us sung along.
Day 7: Veli Rat to Zadar
I woke up early while all others were still sleeping. I took a stroll along the marina and took some pictures in the warm morning sun.
Impressions in the morning sun 
Our two yachts side by side
Since we needed some water, we had to move the yacht because the water hose was a little too short to reach the faucet on the pier. While moving, we managed to loose a fender which provided the chance to practice the man-over-board maneuver.
After filling up the water supplies we continued to our next destination Zadar. We arrived early and got two adjacent spots in the somewhat crowded harbor for our two yachts.
Then we walked around the old city of Zadar, visited the Sea Organ and listened to it for awhile, had a very nice ice-cream and later dinner in a small local tavern.
Day 8: Zadar
Winds were very calm and we decided to stay that day in Zadar. Some of us toured the city, some others stayed on board to read a book or simply chill-out. In the late afternoon we gathered on a bridge in the harbor area to shoot the mandatory group picture. At night, we had dinner in a small restaurant. When we talked about soccer and the European Leage semi finals game which took place that night, the waiter of the restaurant noted, that Luca Modrić apparently lived in the vicinity of the restaurant.
Day 9: Zadar to Biograd na Moru
We woke up, had breakfast and left Zadar for the last leg of the trip. It was a rainy day and in contrast to the rest of the week, we had no blue skies but overcast. We arrived in Biograd na Moru, filled the diesel tank at the local gas station, prepared for departure and went for dinner in a local tavern. The evening ended early because we wanted to leave early in the moring: wake-up time was scheduled for 5 a.m.
Day 10: Biograd na Moru to home
Another twelve hour ride which ended safely at 6 p.m. back home.