To Sibenik and the Krka River September 1 - 3, 2001 We were now into September, and we had had more rain in the past couple of days than in the previous six months. It was also cooler in the evenings. Fall had come with a "thunk". We left at 0830, quietly motoring down the barren Kornati islands under a cloudy sky. After a couple of hours we heard and felt a clunk, and our prop started to cavitate. We had hit some underwater obstruction. I just hoped we hadn't knocked off one of the blades of our propeller. We altered course and in a few minutes limped in to Uvala Lopatica, a small bay with a couple of mooring buoys and a house and restaurant at the end.  After anchoring, Judy went in to inspect the problem, and unwrapped a large clump of shaggy brilliant red and blue nylon rope that was tangled in our propeller. It looked like a clown's wig. No damage done. We weighed anchor and continued motoring under threatening cloudy skies. The dark grey and black clouds looked angry, and seemed to contain a considerable amount of turbulence.  Then we saw it! A waterspout!  A thread of black cloud had spiraled down to the water in the bay behind us. It was a sinuous thin line that silently drifted off parallel to the overhanging clouds and finally separated like a fragile spun thread pulled apart. We were relieved, as we had feared it might wander towards us. Then we saw another dark spiral from the clouds off to our port quarter. I increased revs on the engine hoping to keep such formations behind us. We watched this one link up with the water and develop into a full waterspout, fortunately dissipating after a short time.  The turbulence creating this phenomenon was at the cloud level, as the winds on the water never went above a force 3. The danger happens when a waterspout goes right across the vessel, and then some damage might be sustained by the intense but narrow band of cyclonic wind scooping water skywards. They collapse immediately upon crossing land. It was interesting seeing these formations, but we were relieved when no more slender tendrils of black gossamer were snaking out of the clouds.  Uvala Opat (43 44.3N, 015 28.1E) is another small bay where we picked up a mooring buoy off a local restaurant at noon and had a leisurely lunch on board. It looked as if it would have been a nice protected overnight anchorage, and I assume the buoy would have been a free service if eating at the restaurant. However, we continued down to an anchorage in Uvala Potkucina, to find out it was covered with mooring buoys for which there was a nominal charge of 40 kuna (about $5.00 Canadian). Our pilot did not indicate this as an organized location for which there were charges for mooring buoys or anchoring. Another thunderstorm came through in the evening, but was not as bad as the previous night's. We enjoyed watching the clouds advance towards us, wind directions and intensity change, then the deluge, wind whipped; as the wind subsided, heavy rain sprinkling diamond sparkles across the water, until it too exhausted itself, leaving a glassy, oily, undulating surface of the water in the eerie damp stillness following the storm. We didn't bother going ashore, but noticed again the tiers of rambling stone walls ascending some of the hillsides, row on row, testimony to a bygone era of man's intense labours. The morning sun highlighted these cascading stone ramparts with a golden glow radiating a Mediterranean warmth fringed by the scrub pine and juniper in the craggy landscape. After slipping our mooring and motoring north around Otok Burnjak Veli, we actually had a gentle force 3 or 4 wind with which we could sail. It is wonderful when the engine can be turned off and we can sail silently, with just the gentle splash of the waves against Veleda's hull as she solidly cuts, gently heeled, through the water propelled by her towering main and genoa. We had now completed a full circle as we passed Zlarin, a pleasant island we visited on our way north a few weeks ago. On over to the fortified entrance to Sibenik, we wended our way through Kanal Sv. Ante to the fuel dock, and then the town dock to resupply. Alongside this dock we were in the centre of the old town, with the entrance through the town wall just 100 metres away. Sibenik is another ancient walled town with narrow stone streets, stone stairs, a cathedral dating back to 1433, and several other churches and Venetian fortresses dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries. However, we wanted to get up the Krka River to Skradin before dark, and so left after getting some groceries. Sibenik is located on a long wide stretch of the Krka River which runs parallel to the coast, then turns inland between high, tree-clad hills. The river then expands into a small lake called Prukljansko Jezero before continuing inland up to Skradin, a village just outside the boundary of Krka National Park, a few miles from the Krka Waterfalls. We went over to the ACI Marina docks to take on water, then go out to anchor. However as we were coming alongside a vacant stretch of dock, a marina worker ran over waving us off. As I was committed to my approach, I continued to come alongside, and put a couple of lines ashore. The dockhand was telling us we couldn't stay there and we indicated we just wanted to take on some water and would be off in ten minutes. How much for water? Fifty percent of a night's mooring! NO WAY! I indicated my irritation at the price and his lack of hospitality and courtesy and we left.  We had heard that we were not supposed to anchor across from Skradin and the marina, but saw another boat there. It was Felix Two, an Australian boat that we had met a couple of weeks earlier in Pula on our way up to Venice. They had been anchored there for a night with no problems, so we dropped the hook a couple of hundred metres upstream of them, across from Skradin, with a beautiful view of the town and its clock tower on one side, the river stretching up and down on either side and the green clad marsh and gentle hills behind us. We were also now in fresh water for the first time since being in the French canals the previous December. More about this pleasant town of Skradin and the fantastically beautiful Krka National Park and its waterfalls in my next log.
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