If you sail in the Zadar area I recommend stopping in Zapuntel. It lies between islands Ist and Molat.

On both sides you will find buoys to moor your boat but on Ists side there is nothing on shore. On Molats side there is a small village called Zapuntel.

There is a nice simple restaurant Škrila right on waterfront with nice pine trees for shade and a delicious cuisine.

Last year we had shrimp in buzara sauce, sea bass of about 1kg, cabbage salad and some potatoes with that. With 1l of white wine it cost 720 kuna (about 100€) for 4 people. Nice to pay little less than usually for a great dinner, for a change.

Oh, the buoys cost 15 kuna per meter but I think it was around 13 when we were there.

It was a late august afternoon when we sailed into Griparica Bay on Škarda Island. The island has no permanent residents but during season concessionaire lives in a small house on waterfront.

Compliments to the guy that takes care of the buys; it was the first time that he waited for us at the buoy and helped us with docking. Good thing too, because the buoy only marks the location of the mooring.

We didn’t even need our own ropes for he did all the work and tied us to shore with our stern and tied the mooring to our bow.

The price for a 41-footer (12 m boat) is 150 kn.
Griparica Bay is open towards south so I don’t recommend spending the night if the forcast is strong winds from the south.

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

Konoba Mul is one in my opinion the best restaurant on Silba Island. It is well known for its nice cuisine and fair prices.

We had some fish soup, black risotto and anchovies for starter and crawfish in buzara sauce with some pasta for main course. It was delicious! With cabbage salad, a couple of beers and 2 liters of wine it cost 1200 kunas, which is about 160 euros.

We didn’t sleep too well that night, because of the weather. There was pretty strong Bora wind that comes into the port on the east side of Silba, so I recommend either St. Nikola anchorage on Olib Island only 2 miles away or the other side of Silba, St. Ante bay.

Sailing from say Rab or Pag Islands towards south, Rakovica Bay on Maun Island is a nice place to spend the night especially because there are not many safe coves along Pags southern coast except ACI marina Šimuni.

You can spend the night in Rakovica as long as the forecast is not Bora (NE wind) towards which the Bay is open.

The bay itself is separated into two smaller bays with sharp rocks chiseled by sharp bora. The good thing about this bay is the depth and the seabed. In the middle of the southern part of the bay the depth is between 7 and 10 meters and the anchor held ok. We tied our stern to the rocky shore only about 5 meters off where more than enough depth was still under our rudder.

In the morning fishermen came and closed up the entire bay and put the nets all the way along the NE shore of Maun.

Again if the forecast is stable weather or winds from the south there is no problem anchoring there but if a front is coming in you better choose a safer spot to spend the night.

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.

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.

If you’re going to Zadar you can also dock in Preko. There is a really nice marina, where they take reservations (unlike Tankerkomerc for example).

You can cross the canal to Zadar with a ferryboat (www.ugljan.org) or with a shuttle boat organized by the marina.

You can swim in clear (considering that it is Zadar canal) water at the outer side of the peer. The toilets have air –conditioning and are well maintained. Another sign that they care, is that the marina keeps fresh flowers and spices in pots (which you can use to enrich your dinner).
The town is near; the store is even nearer and well stacked.

The bars along the shore are ok, they even include a lounge, where you can spend an evening drinking cocktails. The two night time photos show the view of Preko and across to Zadar.

The lines on the last one is the ferry Jadrolinija Jurij Dalmatinac, arriving in Preko. Somebody else will have to provide the daytime photos.

Krivica is an interesting and safe bay on SW side of island Mali Lošinj. It is known by boaters because of its curved shape, which makes it a good shelter in bad weather.

This is how it looks like in April – very peaceful and quiet, but during summer time it is full of sailing boats and motor yachts. In 2011 there were buoys placed there and it costs 16 hrk per meter of boat length to stay the night.

If you stop there it’s worth climbing up the hill to St. Ivan chapel. It’s about 25 minute walk and the path is quite nice though it doesn’t hurt having good shoes or at least don’t go wearing your flip-flops.

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