Tri Luke (Korčula) – Luka Tiha (Hvar) via Vela Luka and Hvar town

Early that morning (06:30) I am in the cockpit to experience the beautiful sunrise. There is no sign of life on the other yachts, nor at the various houses around the bay. I always find this one of the most beautiful moments of the day. An hour later, the nautical weather report tells us that an area of high pressure will stay firmly above the Adriatic Sea for the next few days. In short: it’s great summer weather, and also in terms of the wind we expect no change.

Around 08:00 we leave the bay and motor around the peninsula and the cape Rat Velo Dance to Vela Luka. We want to refuel to ensure that we need no harbour during the coming days. A small tanker ship is just bringing in new supplies, so we have to wait for half an hour.

Vela Luka looks beautiful from a distance, but up close it seems messy and not very authentic. We feel no urge to stay around longer. By 10:30 hours we anchor in the lagoon behind the island Gubeša. That bay can be found some 3 miles west of Vela Luka on the north side of Zaljev Vela Luka. It looks like a very promising bay on paper. It is shallow with an open connection to the sea. But even here there is a lot of human activity around the bay, and there is not much life in the bay. It is, however, an excellent place for anchoring, with a depth of 6 meters and a sandy bottom.

Around noon the wind starts to blow, 15-18 knots from NW direction. We hoist the anchor and leave the bay. Once we round Cape Rat Proizd we sail a course 320 – 330 degrees toward the island of Hvar. Purely out of curiosity we sail a round in the harbour of Hvar town around 16:30. It is extremely busy, the port is literally brimming with yachts of all shapes and sizes. The port authorities have put mooring buoys at all possible places in the harbour, and they are all taken. Even outside the port you see sailing yachts and motor yachts everywhere. Five years ago, this was a nice place drop by occasionally, but for now they will not see me here.

We continue in a westerly direction through Pakleni Kanal. By now we are using the engine, because the wind has decreased and changed direction, straight on our bow. After rounding Rat Pelegrin we continue ENE towards Rat Kabal. By 19:00 hours we anchor in Luka Tiha. We still have time for a pasta and a glass of wine before it gets dark.