44 21.3 N 14 46.3 E

Olib Island Nikola Bay

WE left Pag on a blisteringly hot morning with the sea like glass and a mist lying over the off lying islands to the west. Our passage was uneventful – few yachts about but numerous small motor boats and expensive ribs all off for day trips to the various islets and beaches that seem to abound around here. We past the main town of the island called ‘Olib’ just when the large car ferry went in en route from Rijeka to Zadar. We were surprised it stopped at such a small place!

We were soon at our chosen bay SV Nikola so named because of a small chapel at the head of the north- west arm. The bay had one boat at anchor and the rest of the shallow areas were dotted with buoys. We took one at the top end of the NW arm. The buoy was well maintained and was attached to a hefty looking concrete slab – in this instance there were no mooring lines to the shore so once attached we were free to swing with the wind which we prefer. We did see some very substantial concrete bollards on specially built blocks dotted around the shore and these are there for tying back to in case of a Bora, (the gale force wind that blows suddenly in this area from the NE).

By the late afternoon most of the buoys were occupied. We had a lovely day swimming and relaxing – the only down side being the wasps again ‘tho not as bad at Krivica, we decided to deploy the cockpit net which kept them at bay! It was hot but there always seemed to be a slight breeze which was an improvement from the last couple of places. Rob even went in the water to have a swim and today he has broken out his snorkel and fins and is threatening to use them!! (a first for 3 years!!) The water is incredibly clear here we can see the bottom which is mixed sand and sea grass which harbours numerous fish; the bottom is dotted with very large sea cucumbers too.

There was no visit from the harbour officer yesterday but he was ‘on duty’ at 0530 this morning to make sure he collected fees before any early risers departed! We paid 11K per metre so for us 130K which is the cheapest we have seen since arriving in Croatia except for Cavtat where it was 120K per boat for as many nights as you wanted! We decided to stay another night before moving on south. We had a chat with our friends Tony and Margaret on China Blue and discovered they are only a few miles south of here so we hope to meet up with them during this week. The morning we were due to leave the harbour chap told us there was a strong wind warning with a Bora expected at the weekend so we decided to head for a safe port – Bozava on the top end of Dugi Otak where we had planned to visit later. We also called Tony on China Blue to say that was where we would be.