Cruising Laguna di Marano

After Jonas and his parents had left my wife Ilse and I left Marina Stella on Monday, July 16th three hours before high tide, motored downstream Fiume Stella, pumped up our lifting keel and rudder to a draft of 0.9m, and continued with no wind through the piles of Canale Cialisia. We decided to continue inside Laguna di Marano on the famous Litoranea Veneta, so we motored north in the direction to Marano and then turned east into Alacciante di San Andrea, turned south to shallow Canale Zelina with only 1.2m depth, where we again turned east through Canale Muro with minimum depths of 1.5m to Porto Buso. Continuing Canale Anfora Vecchia e passed north of Isola Anfora. In Canale Secco minimum depth was 1.8m and further east in Canale di San Pietro depths were never below 2m. We moored in the town harbor of Grado, strolled around the old city and enjoyed dinner in Osteria in Contrada, while heavy thunderstorms hit the city.

We bought some bread, prosciutto and ravioli at the local market in the morning and then left the Laguna. For a good swim we anchored south of Villaggio Primero. With black clouds we continued east and after turning north for Monfalcone we were hit by forceful squalls and a heavy hailstorm. We entered the harbor and anchored in Bacino di Panzano east of Fincantieri shipyard. Soon the weather cleared up and we could see assiduous works going on on the new M/S Costa Venezia  with a lenght of 323m for up to 5260 Chinese guests. We had the ravioli from Grado  for dinner.


Next morning we explored the Timavo canals northeast of Monfalcone, visited Duino and Sistiana and anchored for a swim south of Aurisina. At Castello di Miramare we turned south for Marina San Rocco, where we moored and walked to Muggia, where we had a delicious fish-dinner on the terrace of Ittiturismo La Terrazza.

With nice weather we continued south into Slovenia next day and anchored in Strunjansky Zaliv for some good swimming, salads and wine on board. A nice southerly wind pushed us next morning on our last leg back to Lignano and upstream to Marina Stella.


We sailed 26h and logged 104sm in 5 days. You may download our track in gpx-format or view it directly on GoogleMaps.