TE Croatia North, Slovenia and Italy 2024
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We finished up in Zagreb and were able to meet Robert and Jason there and we all drove back to the boat outside the industrial cit of Rijeka. Along the route we stopped at the Griffin winery, had lunch and stocked up. After a night on the boat, we headed off to Krk island, we are still trying to pronoun that.
Dan grilled chicken wings on the boat and after getting smoked out put on a snorkel, soon followed by a swim. On to the cute little down of Osor with it’s draw bridge that opens twice a day. Another 50 miles or so takes us to Pula, Croatia back on the mainland. Pula has one of the largest Roman amphitheaters, now used as a performance center. Robert and Jason left us here in Pulja after a great visit.
North Croatia is really out of the typical charter boat cruising grounds so once we passed Pula we saw very few boats other than locals. The marina operators up here were surprised to see a visiting boat, forget an American motorboat. A short hop away we stayed at the Brijuni National Park, Tito’s former summer residence. We rented a golf cart and toured the island with its hotel and huge guest houses, golf course and zoo. The following day we circumnavigated the island and continued on to Rovinj with its monumental clock tower. The old city sits on a promontory with limestone rocks carved with steps and paths for bathers. After spending well over an hour trying to locate the harbormasters office we gave up and ended up staying for free….gotta love that price!
Our last stop in Croatia was Porec, a popular resort city with the adjacent small island of Svelte Nikola its with many upscale resorts. Here we checked out of Croatia as our next stop would be in Slovenia.
On the way to Piran, we tucked into the fortress city of Novigrad and fueled up. Piran, Slovenia is beautiful with its fortress high on hilltop, quite a hike. We liked everything about the city and were sorry we only stayed a day and planned another visit on the way back south. We were now getting close to the end of the first half of the boating summer as we would arrive at Marina Lepanto in Monfalcone, about half way between Trieste and Venice.
Our plan was to leave the boat boat here from 15 July to 24 August during the height of the European vacation season and the hottest weather. While the boat was there we arranged to have the bottom sanded smooth and painted and to have the props removed and sent out to be tuned. True East had gotten a little sluggish.
It was now off to a road trip through Slovenia and northern Italy before we head off to Zanzibar and Tanzania.
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