C + 16 : Sailing Over the Flooded Po Valley

Another a beautiful and quiet morning today. The sea could not have been calmer - ideal for long kaiaking rides and morning swims. We would not be able to set our sails today but would have to motor all the way.

Bay of Otok Zverinac at 6.30 am today

Whilst everything looks calm this morning, we are carefully studying the weather and wind charts for the two days to come. Could a Bora, the strong gale like wind from the north, hit us? The wind charts predicted from Tuesday lunch time to Wednesday noon windspeed of up to 30 knots. We therefore decided to go as far north as possible today, anchor overnight in Otok Unije and then push early on Tuesday towards Pula before the Bora could strike. We want to reach the well protected Marina of Pula tomorrow morning at around 9 am.

Wind speed prediction on Windy (our favourite wind app)

The coast along our route was spectacular. Long ridges of flat mountain tops peaking from the water for miles. After the last ice age, raising sea levels flooded a relief of parallel anti-clines and synclines resulting from the folding of the Tethys seafloor. It is here in Dalmatia where the limestone sediments of the old Tethys sea floor collide with the continental European plate.

The now inundated valleys between the ridges all had their own river systems and occasionally broke through the ridges to empty into the mighty river Po who reached the Mediterranean at the latitude of Zadar. The sea between the Dalmatian and Italian coast is shallow and only 50 - 100 meter deep. It is the part of the old Po valley that was flooded after the end of the ice age. A good ten thousand years ago, we could have walked on these ridges to Venice! Cruising to Venice is definitely more comfortable (am writing this whilst sipping a glass of Pošip).

Two hills peak from an inundated ridge in front with the mainland mountain range

After a good three hours of sailing, we stoped for a short visit of Losinj (Lussino in Italian). The town had a long history of training sailors and building ships for Venice and was highly regarded in the Serene Republic. In 1918, when Dalmatia was carved up, it was given to Italy given its mainly Venetian population. Italian architecture and style are everywhere. But when sovereignty was transferred to Yugoslavia in 1947, Tito forced the Italians to pack and leave. It was the same ethnic cleansing as in the Czech Republic and Poland. Today, the town is entirely Croatian - the boats in the harbour though mainly Italian - during the summer holidays. I ordered ice cream (strawberry and lemon) in rusty Italian and the sales person replied in the best Italian possible - funny little world.