43:20.35N 16:47.79E

Off in the morning from the mooring.  As expected no wind so motoring again.  Along the southern coast in the Hvarski Kanal beteen Brac and Hvar islands.  Not much on the trip till the town of Bol.  Here is one of the rare sandy beaches (actually tiny pebbles) that reaches out on a spit into the Kanal.  It is just jammed with people.  This little piece of sand created enough of an attraction that the town of Bol is the largest on the south coast.  Day boats, charter boats and local come here for a swim and a chance to sit on a beach.  It is also the windsurfing capital of Croatia.  Hotels and associated businesses have sprung up in town along with a small marina.  Not well protected from waves though.

We did not stop but enjoyed the sights in an otherwise non eventful trip.

Around the eastern end and into U. Luka.  This is a very well protected anchorage on the north coast of Brac.  As we entered we saw that there were several mooring bouys available and a dingy operator game out to assist.  There is the option to anchor for free in the cove in about 10 – 15 meters water with a sandy bottom.  We normally chose a mooring if they are available.  Two reasons, one if they are good then no issues worrying about an anchor dragging in high winds.  Second in these areas the anchor chain drags along the bottom causing turbidity in the water and wiping out any sea grass or other organisms on the bottom.  Since we like snorkeling best to help the local fauna and flora even if it costs a few Kuna.

Two restaurant have set up really nice facilities for visiting boats.  The one we were at had a large well maintained swimming beach, showers, toilet, large concrete quay for power boats and of course about 15 moorings.  The other restaurant had a floating dock that took about 8 boats.  In fact some boats are in the 23 meter range (75 foot) at the quay.  The restaurants also maintain a aquaculture farm for mussels.

We enjoyed this place more than we thought we would.  In fact we extended our stay to three nights since it was quite and had a great restaurant with wood fired grill for steaks.  Also there were no mosquitoes, few bees and a nice place for kayaking, swimming and snorkeling.

On the second day we took our dingy over to the other far end of the harbor to a small town for provisions.  Small grocery store was all we needed and they had one right along the water.

As for snorkeling there are small fish, a few sea pens, starfish, soft corals, anemone and very few black sea urchins.

View from our boat toward the restaurant whose mooring we used.  A concrete quay is apparent on the far right.  There are no real roads to this place except a fire road that a truck comes to deliver firewood.  All the other supplies come via the water.

View the other way looking toward the moth of the cove.  That is the mainland in the background.

Typical bareboat charter dingy overloaded, wet butts on the way to dinner at the restaurant.  This is only half the people on the boat.  They went back and repeated it to get the rest!  I guess 10 – 12 people on a 45 foot boat gets to the point that a wet butt is worth it to get off sooner than later.