I visited a nautical fair - saliboat exhebition in Muggia near Trieste. there were quite alot of sailboats on display and the town is very cute.

Lon anchorage near ACI marina Rovinj is a nice spot to drop anchor if you have no desire to pay for a berth and still wish to enjoy the beauties of one of the nicest Istrian towns Rovinj.

It has a huge impact from Venetians and some parts of the town even look like Venice to a degree.

The seabed in Lon is sand with some sea grass so most anchors will hold pretty well there. The depth varies from 8-15 meters. The bay is open towards NW wind called Maestral, which can be pretty strong during stable summer weather conditions but only during the day so you’re safe at night.

If you tie your dinghy at the breakwater of the marina you will probably see happy stray kittens by the dumpsters. They are very well cared for –they even have a carpet and regular meals.

Island Unije in Kvarner has three nice bays to stay the night with a boat. Maračol used to belong to the Yugoslav army and was closed to general public for a long time.

Now there is an anchorage there with 50 buoys to tie your boat to. Off course they are full during summer and you have to be very early if you want one. The price is 13 hrk/m.

If you’re too late, there are still Podkujni and Vognišca but no buoys. Island Unije is the last island before crossing the Kvarner which can be pretty rough in bad weather. It’s very open and the winds are strong, especially NE wind Bora.

East of the Port of Susak, there are now buoys and official anchorage, which are very close to one another so you have to tie your boat into quarter mooring tying one line to stern and one to the bow of your boat.

The bay is open towards NE so you better do this right!

Privlaka Bridge is connecting the Lošinj channel with Port Mali Lošinj. It’s approximately 8 meters wide and around 80 meters long.

At the shallowest point there is about 2,5 m depth and there is strong current of 5 knots in under the bridge, so sailing boats must sail through with almost full power or almost none at all.
You’ll definitely feel which way you’re going.

Bridge clearance is also important information. It’s 2 meters at mid tide. Any higher and you get a convertible.

Opening hours are at 9 AM and at 18 PM. The bridge stays open for 30 minutes.

This season we can expect normal conditions in Losinj harbor, as moorings will be managed by the Port Authority. The reconstruction of the waterfront is the responsibility of the municipality and should be finished by Jun 15, 2012, even though they apparently began rebuilding in December (almost three months later, as they should begin in early October). Bar and restaurant owners are afraid they will not be able to put the tables on the waterfront in pre-season.

We expect equal position of the piers, as for the toilets, the authorities must agree with the previous holder of the concession, which can be complicated. New addition to the waterfront will be additional 65 feet to the first pier - breakwater with lighthouse.

On the video you can see the drilling for pier foundation. Piers will the same as on the other side of the port, where there are holes in the waterfront, so that waves break below and do not bounce off back into the harbor.

Check out these colours yesterday afternoon when it stopped raining. Pictures are taken from our sail boat, mored in Losinj harbour.
skipper tim

The last bay on SW side of island Mali Lošinj is called Plijeski. It’s relatively open so I don’t recommend staying the night but it’s very nice to take a swim because of its turquoise water and sandy beach.

If you want to drop anchor and stay the night I recommend coves Krivica, Balvanida or island Ilovik a little further to the south.

You may also get lucky and get a bite to eat from the tourist boats which come there every day and prepare barbecue – usually fresh fish and squid.
The most Famous of these boats is a small ship called Mate or Mateo.

Lošinj Port Authority is investing in a new pier on Island Ilovik. The existing pier will be widened from 2.6 to 6 meters and a new concrete pier is added to form an L shaped port.

The main reason of the enlargement of the pier is so the ship that comes there regularly will be more accessible by the local people (about 70 of them live on the Island all the time and there are even six children that go to school there), with their tractors and wheelbarrows, but there is also some benefits for nautical tourists as well.

The moorings will be placed on the inner side of the pier as before and there will be room enough to dock two or three boats on the inner side of the new pier. The outer side is reserved for the regular line.

They even built a small dock for a ferry, though if they don’t deepen the waters there it won’t be much of use.

If you visit Olib Island by a boat, you can either moor at the pier where you can get electricity and water, but you must choose the North side, because regular line docks on the other side of the main pier, or you can tie your boat to a buoy.

There are about 20 of them and the price is around 13 Croatian Kuna per meter.

There are some fun facts about the buoy and it concrete block on the seabed: the block weighs 800 kg, and its dimensions are 1.2 x 1.2 x 0.5 m. the rope is polyamide 20 mm thick, and the buoy itself is plastic (PVC) with 60 cm radius. It all says on the back side of the receipt along with the "How to Tie Your Boat to the Buoy" manual. If you didn’t know, you must tie one rope to the lower ring and one to the top ring on the buoy.

Though it should be protected from NE winds, we had a pretty rough night because Olib is very low and bora wind gets over it easily.

Oh, check out the last photo – quad with balls