Sunday, June 10, 2018

Culture Cruise in Northern Adriatic Seas

When my friend Wilhelm came on board in Marina Stella on Monday 4th of June 2018 we had to wait for high tide and then motored south through Laguna di Marano and anchored near Porto Buso. Wilhelm prepared a wonderful Risotto di Radicchio. During the night the wind changed and at 5:00 our boat lay only 20cm above a bank of sand. So we started the motor and pulled the boat to deeper grounds before low tide would run us aground.



After a healthy breakfast we set sail to Novigrad, where we declared entry into Croatia and continued south with stormy weather. We moored in Marina Porec and explored the nice medieval city of Porec. We visited the impressive Euphrasian Basilica  and had a nice turbot at Sv. Nicola Restaurant.
We refueled next morning, declared exit and motored north with nearly no wind, passed the famous lighthouse Savudrija and sailed slowly near Piran in Slovenia. Finally we moored in Porto San Rocco Marina, where we took a walk to Muggia and explored the nice city and had a wonderful dinner at the terrace above the fishermans cooperative society at Ittiturismo La Terrazza.

Next morning we went by bus No. 27 to Parco di Muggia Vecchia, where we visited the little basilica of Santa Maria Assunta (10th-13th century), housing frescoes from the 14th-15th centuries. At noon we motored to Trieste and moored in Marina San Giusto. We took bus No 6 to Miramare and visited the nice castle and park with thunder and rain. Back in Trieste we had a very sweet cafe at Peratoners Caffe degli Specchi, visited the new branch of Eataly and had a nice dinner at Al Bagatto.

After a heavy thunderstorm we sailed west to Grado, visited the small city harbor and then motored north through Canale della Taida and further on fiume Natissa to Marina di Aquileia. During high tide the minimum water level was 1.4m. We visited the famous Basilica di Aquileia with her famous mosaics and frescoes.
With the help of a friendly Italian couple who took us back to the marina in heavy rain in their small car we had a hefty pizza at Da Nettuno

Early on Saturday, 9th with sunny weather we went back south and motored west through Litoranea Veneta and Taglio Nuovo. We anchored north of Canale Anfora Vecchia. At noon we took the dinghy to Ai Ciodi , where we enjoyed a selection of tasty Antipasti Mare in a wonderful location. Late afternoon we sailed from Porto Buso to Lignano and continued with high tide up Canale Cialisia with minimum waterlevel of 1.5m to Fiume Stella and ended our cruise moored again in Marina Stella, where we savoured local cheese and Refosco wine.

We sailed 36h and logged 137sm in 6 days. You may download our track in gpx-format or view it directly on GoogleMaps.