Blue Moon over Kornati

Oh look, it's a fire plane

Kornati – Islands for Protected Species.  The Kornati Island archipelago comprises of one hundred or so desolate islands; all grouped in an extensive National Park to maintain its precarious environmental fragility.  Although the islands are barren, the protected waters are said to teem with life.  This was another of our drive-by decisions though, as we weren’t quite convinced by diving promotional material.  So, our tour was a motor up the Zutski Kanal with an anchorage off Dugi Otok in mind, until we discovered there was a price* on this location as well. 

Well, that upset a few boaties....hee hee hee!

Zut appears to be the island used by practicing fire plane pilots and we watched very closely as one flew over us several times – and often way too close – to collect sea water to drench island fires.  Speedy hot water boaties were brought to an abrupt halt as a big yellow bird hurtled at near water level across their chosen path and ferry passengers, also in the melee, did not know whether to scream or take selfies.  We tried to envision this happening on Sydney Harbour (without public comment & all the ensuing brouhaha) and wondered if there was some truth to the old story about a diver (well, what was left of him) being found after forest fires were extinguished in this same way.

Oh oh!  Drive faster, faster...

 

*Croatia charges significant fees for National Park entry per person per day.  In other places, fees are charged to anchor and there is a list of “pay-for-use” mooring fields (85 of them to date).  All well and good if you are chartering for a week or two but we found few long term cruisers.  Croatia offers 300nm of pleasant, if not expensive, cruising coast dotted with so many islands that it is quite possible to pass only a few other boaties during a day’s passage.  Although to be fair, we did our best to avoid popular destinations and scoured the charts for “no-pay” anchorages.  GS has a cruising budget to maintain!