Route · 14 days · round-tripYacht charter route · Istria

Pomer round-trip.

Two weeks from Pomer, Istria: Susak sands, the Lošinj channels, NP Kornati, the Krka falls, Zadar's Sea Organ and car-free Silba. Mooring tips inside.

The route

Day-by-day route

Click any pin on the map or any day in the route summary below to see that day's stop, story and photos.

Day 1

Marina Pomer → Medulin

Check in at ACI Marina Pomer, run the boat over with the base, load the lockers, then slip just three miles out to anchor in Medulin bay. A deliberately soft start, with time to shake down the systems and get the crew talking before the long hop to Susak tomorrow.

Distance

1 NM

Sailing

~0.2h at 5 kn

At a glance

Route at a glance

Best season

June – mid-September (peak Jul – Aug)

Duration

14 days

Departure

Pomer

Sailing area

Istria

Route summary

Click any day to jump back to the map and see its photos, narrative and mooring tip.

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The full story

Day-by-day journey

Named anchorages, mooring notes and things to do for every leg of the week — the map follows along as you scroll.

Day 1 / 14

Day 1

Marina Pomer → Medulin

Nobody remembers day one for the sailing, and that is fine. The morning goes on forms, a walk round the catamaran with the base crew, and a serious shop in Medulin or Pula, because you will not see a supermarket this size again for two weeks; load for seven days and refill as chances come. Once the briefing wraps, it is a three-mile motor over Medulin bay, shallow and screened by a scatter of islets, about as gentle a place as exists to test the windlass and take the first swim. Off to the south the pines of Cape Kamenjak run out to the end of Istria. You meet that headland twice more, outbound in the morning and again on the way home, so take a good look now. Spend the evening on the dull essentials: engine hours, fuel logged, a watch and galley rota agreed, and a hard read of the Kvarner forecast, because tomorrow starts early.

Things to do

Do the big provisioning run in Medulin or Pula

Run the crew through an anchoring and windlass drill

Swim off the transom while dinner cooks

Walk the coast trails of Lower Kamenjak

Mooring tip

Drop the hook in 3 to 5 m over sand in Medulin bay, using the islets as a windbreak on whichever side is blowing. If you would rather not move, keep the ACI Pomer berth for the night and cast off at first light.

Day 2

Medulin → Susak

Get the anchor up while the Kvarner is still asleep. The channel behaves in the early hours; leave it till afternoon and the wind puts a nasty little sea between Istria and the islands. Give Cape Kamenjak plenty of offing on the way out, since the shoals off the point trip up even in light air. From there you are committed to open water for the best part of four hours, the Lošinj hills lifting a fraction higher off the bow each time you look up. Then Susak, which fits nowhere in the usual picture of this coast: a heap of sand and windblown loess almost a hundred metres tall, laced together by reeds and stepped vineyards, with none of the grey rock that armours every other island. Feel your way in from the north where the ground rises kindly, keeping the leadline honest, because the shallows run a long way out. Ashore, the walk up to Gornje Selo pays back every step with the whole terraced bowl laid out below.

Things to do

Hike up to Gornje Selo for the terrace view

Feel real sand underfoot at Spiaza beach

Try Trojišćina, the wine off Susak's sand terraces

Swim off the shallow shelf on the north shore

Mooring tip

That little mole shoals quickly and there is rarely room, so crews mostly lie at anchor in Bok bay or along the north shore in 3 to 6 m of sand. It bites well, but there is nothing between you and a northerly, so clear out if bura is in the forecast.

Day 3

Susak → Ilovik

Call today a reward for yesterday: seven miles, a bit over an hour, and no reason on earth to rush any of it. Have your morning swim off Susak, then potter south along the low islets strung off the bottom of Lošinj. Ilovik and the islet of Sveti Petar sit either side of a slim channel, and that channel is basically the town, doubling as harbour, anchorage and evening promenade all at once. Grab one of the numbered buoys in the middle and run the tender in. They call the place the island of flowers and mean it, with oleander, palms and gnarled eucalyptus crowding the front of nearly every house. On foot, the low saddle takes you over to Paržine, a proper sandy beach on the southeast shore; by dinghy, Sveti Petar offers an old Benedictine site and a cemetery tucked in the pines. Dinner is whatever the boats brought in, grilled at a konoba on the waterfront.

Things to do

Pick up a numbered buoy in the channel

Hike over the saddle to Paržine beach

Dinghy across to the Benedictine ruins on Sveti Petar

Eat grilled fish at Konoba Oliva

Mooring tip

Take one of the eighty-odd numbered buoys strung down the channel; you settle up ashore when you eat. A cable runs along the bottom and the swinging room is next to nothing, so in July and August turn up early rather than hoping to drop the hook.

Day 4

Ilovik → Brbinj (Dugi Otok)

Here the water changes owners. Twenty miles carry you out of the Kvarner and into the Zadar archipelago. Point southeast out of Ilovik for the Maknare channel, the slot between Molat and the top corner of Dugi Otok. Coming up on it, look to starboard among the pines for the Veli Rat lighthouse, over forty metres of it and the tallest on this coast, throwing its light since 1849. Once you are through, Dugi Otok's long backbone keeps you company for the next two days. Brbinj hides in a twin bay, its pair of coves parted by a wooded spur and hemmed with olive trees old enough to have seen empires come and go. Next to nothing happens here, and that is the reason to come: swim off the stern, follow the path through the groves, and watch the Zadar ferry work its timetable. Buy only what you must ashore, as the shop runs to the modest side.

Things to do

Frame the Veli Rat lighthouse from the channel

Swim between Brbinj's two sheltered coves

Follow the shore path through the old olives

Watch the Zadar ferry from the cockpit at dusk

Mooring tip

Grab a buoy in Lučina, the southern of the two coves, or lay the hook in 4 to 8 m of sand and mud, which holds well. Give the ferry pier a wide margin so you are never in the way when it swings.

Day 5

Brbinj → Zaglav

You spend the whole day in Dugi Otok's shadow, hugging the northeast coast for a dozen easy miles. The sheltered flank is a row of small places, Savar and Luka and Žman, each just a few houses gathered round a church at the water, and the navigation asks nothing more than a sensible distance off. Zaglav earns its keep and still has charm. The concrete quay here feeds the only fuel pump on the island, so brim the tanks; the next simple fill-up is several days down the line. Behind the harbour, a fifteenth-century Franciscan house keeps watch from the slope. If the evening wants more life, Sali, the island's biggest village and a fishing port with a thousand years on it, is a half-hour stroll or a short dinghy ride to the south. Tomorrow's Kornati crossing is brief, so no early alarm is needed, but water and fuel taken on tonight buy you a slow morning.

Things to do

Fill the tanks at Zaglav's lone pump

Walk up to the St Michael Franciscan house

Stroll south to Sali's old fishing port

Buy island olive oil straight from a grower

Mooring tip

Room on the village quay is tight, so come in bow or stern-to by mid-afternoon, or else lie at anchor off it in 4 to 6 m. The fuel berth is strictly for fuelling; move away the moment the tanks are full.

Day 6

Zaglav → Žut (Kornati)

Clear the bottom end of Dugi Otok and the whole scene swaps out. The olive greens fall away behind, and in front the Kornati stand up out of the water, stone ridges the colour of dust and old gold. The fourteen-mile run cuts across the throat of Telašćica, that enormous natural harbour at the island's foot, a nature park in its own right with laid buoys and well worth stopping in for lunch if the clock is kind. After that it is a straight hop over to Žut. Second-biggest of the whole chain, Žut lies just outside the park line, so tonight costs you no ticket. There is no village here and not a drop of fresh water, only rock, scrub, olive terraces still worked by Murter families, and a handful of konobas that open for the season. ACI Marina Žut runs the season from the back of a broad bay, lazy lines laid on, a restaurant terrace over the pontoons. Stay up for it: the ridges burn copper as the sun drops, and nowhere are the Kornati emptier.

Things to do

Swing into Telašćica for a swim under the cliffs

Hike the ridge above the marina

Eat lamb or fresh-caught fish at a Žut konoba

Book NP Kornati tickets online before bed

Mooring tip

Being seasonal and much in demand, ACI Marina Žut wants a booking well ahead in July and August. With no fresh water on the island, both water and power come rationed; the lines are already laid for you.

Day 7

Žut → Kaprije

Below Žut the real park begins, and the rules bite: some ninety islands, islets and reefs with hardly a tree standing, and a ticket required by law for every boat afloat. Sort yours online before you leave, well under what the ranger launch will charge. This is a day to dawdle. The Kornatski kanal threads down the flank of Kornat, the island that lends the group its name, past dry-stone walls stitched across the hillsides and the lone huts Murter farmers still keep out here. High over Tarac cove, the Byzantine fort of Tureta has held its watch since the sixth century, fourteen hundred years of it. Anchor where the wind lets you for a swim and a bite; the water over those pale seabeds hardly looks real. Come mid-afternoon, slip past the southern rim of the park and cross into Šibenik's islands. Kaprije rounds off the day: one village, a real fishing fleet, no cars worth mentioning, and a bay that goes still not long after dark.

Things to do

Run the Kornatski kanal under Tureta fort

Drop anchor for a swim over pale seabed

Pick out the Murter farmers' dry-stone walls

Amble Kaprije's car-free waterfront

Mooring tip

There are buoys off Kaprije and space to anchor in 5 to 8 m of sand that holds dependably; if the bay is full or the wind swings, drop back into deep Medoš bay. Buy your park ticket online first, since the on-the-water price stings.

Day 8

Kaprije → Skradin

This is the arrival everyone remembers. A short reach off Kaprije brings the mainland close, and the way into Šibenik's inner water is marked by St Nicholas Fortress, a low Venetian sea-fort of the sixteenth century, now on the UNESCO roll. Past it the St Anthony channel pinches in between pine banks, and since ships use it too, keep to the right and keep your eyes up. Then the town spreads out, the cathedral dome and the piled old quarter off to starboard. Hold on north beneath the road bridge, over the wide brackish sheet of Prokljan lake, into the last forested kinks of the Krka. Skradin waits at the top: a small old town under the falls with ACI Marina Skradin along the bank. The water has gone nearly sweet by now, an odd treat after seven days of brine. Before you eat, book the first park boat for the morning.

Things to do

Slip past St Nicholas Fortress into the channel

Spot Šibenik's UNESCO cathedral from the deck

Pre-order Skradin's slow-cooked risotto

Book NP Krka tickets and the morning boat

Mooring tip

Sitting up the river, ACI Marina Skradin is sheltered from every quarter but heavily booked in summer, so reserve early. Failing that, anchor a little downstream of town in 5 to 10 m of mud, with an eye on the current and the tripper-boat lane.

Day 9

Skradin → NP Krka

Zero on the log today, and the skipper draws a day off as well. Park boats leave Skradin's front and run up the last stretch of river, closed to private boats, to Skradinski Buk, the Krka's grand closing cascade: seventeen travertine steps spilling some forty-five metres down a wooded gorge. The ride comes with the park ticket. In high summer, take the earliest boat and the boardwalks are all but yours. Give it two or three hours; the walkways lace over the rapids and pools, viewpoints line the gorge, and old restored mills show how the water once ran the local economy. Swimming under the Buk has been off the table since 2021, so pack walking shoes rather than towels. You are back in Skradin by afternoon with time on your hands, enough for the fortress viewpoint, an ice cream by the river, and a proper sit-down dinner.

Things to do

Catch the first boat up to Skradinski Buk

Loop the boardwalks past the old watermills

Climb to Turina fortress over Skradin

Add the Visovac island monastery excursion

Mooring tip

Keep the ACI Skradin berth for a second night; it beats casting off and hunting a new one. Get the Krka tickets online the evening before, and note the Skradin park boat is already covered by them.

Day 10

Skradin → Tribunj

Taking the Krka canyon the other way is no chore. Light drops into the gorge from a fresh angle in the morning, and Šibenik's waterfront gives you a slow, easy pass on the way through. Once St Nicholas Fortress is behind you, swing northwest for the short leg to Tribunj, ten miles or so out of Skradin. The old part of town is jammed onto a scrap of islet linked by a stone bridge, fishing boats rafted three-deep along both quays, and this is still one of the harder-working small fleets around Šibenik. Tribunj has never lost its soft spot for donkeys, once the muscle of these parched hills, and races them every summer. Berth in the marina by the village, then climb the little St Nicholas rise behind it for a sunset thrown across the outer islands. Fresh fish for dinner is not a choice here so much as a duty.

Things to do

Walk the stone bridge onto Tribunj's islet

Climb St Nicholas hill for the sunset

Watch the fleet unload its catch on the quay

Order the day's fish, priced by the kilo

Mooring tip

Marina Tribunj is right on the village doorstep, lazy lines and every service laid on. The old quay is the fishermen's, so the marina is really your only berth; ring ahead when the season peaks.

Day 11

Tribunj → Zadar

Today links up some of the calmest water on the whole coast. Out of Tribunj the course runs northwest over the Murter Sea. Leave Murter and bridge-linked Tisno to landward and feel your way into the Pašman channel, a long green trough between the mainland and the twin islands of Pašman and Ugljan. Watch the marked fairway: the channel shoals in places and the tide sets through it harder than it does anywhere close by. Biograd's front and a constant dribble of local traffic carry you through the middle of the day. Zadar shows first as a knot of bell-towers on a walled spit of land. Berth over the water from the old town and hand the evening to the city: the Roman forum, the round ninth-century church of St Donatus, and the Riva at dusk, where the Sea Organ works the swell into slow chords and the Greeting to the Sun glows underfoot. See how the sunset stacks up for yourself.

Things to do

Hear the Sea Organ play the evening swell

Stand over the lit Greeting to the Sun

Round the Roman forum and St Donatus

Load up at Zadar's markets

Mooring tip

Marina Zadar faces the old-town peninsula head-on and puts catamarans on lazy lines, so reserve in summer; ferries and trip boats own the city quay. If it is full, D-Marin Borik lies two miles to the northwest.

Day 12

Zadar → Silba

Once you shake off Zadar's channel, the run bends northwest past Ugljan and Rivanj, the sea thinning of islands as you go, until Sestrunj, Molat and finally Silba pull themselves into focus. Silba is the sort of island they simply do not build now: not a single car, no hotel worth the name, and through July and August even a bicycle is unwelcome in the village lanes. The one village straddles a thin waist of land with a landing to either hand, Mul on the east, Žalić on the west, so a lee is always going somewhere. Over the roofs rises the Toreta, a nineteenth-century six-sided tower with its stair spiralling up the outside, put there by a sea captain and bound up in an old tale of love and waiting. Climb it and the northern archipelago fans out beneath you. After that, do as the island does: sandy coves, pine shade, and a village dinner eaten at a walk, because Silba has no faster gear.

Things to do

Climb the Toreta's outer spiral stair

Swim off the sand at Šotorišće

Wander the car-free village lanes

Dinghy to an empty cove on the west shore

Mooring tip

Pick up a buoy at either Mul or Žalić, whichever the wind favours, since swell reaches both; or drop the hook in Sveti Ante bay just south of the village, sand in 4 to 8 m. There is no marina on Silba.

Day 13

Silba → Veli Lošinj

The hop from Silba over to Lošinj runs through some of the finest dolphin water anywhere in the Adriatic. A resident pod of bottlenose lives out here, followed for better than thirty-five years by the Blue World Institute up in Veli Lošinj, so put someone on watch the moment you are in open sea. Lošinj's southeast face comes up steep and green. Sail made this island rich, and by the eighteen-hundreds the captains of Veli Lošinj were raising the tall pastel houses that still elbow for room around its ridiculously small harbour. The entrance is about one boat wide, the pink church of St Anthony standing guard over the quay. Inside is cramped, so most crews prefer neighbouring Rovenska, sheltered behind its old breakwater and a ten-minute walk off. Ashore, climb the lanes to the Venetian tower of 1455, a small museum these days.

Things to do

Keep watch for the resident bottlenose pod

Tour the 1455 Venetian tower museum

Walk the coast path in from Rovenska

Take a coffee below St Anthony's church

Mooring tip

Most catamarans will not fit the inner harbour at Veli Lošinj, so take Rovenska instead, either the quay or the buoys tucked behind the breakwater. Everything but a southeasterly leaves it calm, and the coast path walks you round to the village.

Day 14

Veli Lošinj → Marina Pomer

Keep something in reserve for the last day, because it is the longest single passage of the lot and almost all of it is open water. Slip out of Veli Lošinj early, round the island's southern tip and run up the outer coast past Unije, then lay off across the Kvarner for the point of Istria, the same water you crossed going south on day two, only now with thirteen days of boat under your belt. Cape Kamenjak still asks to be treated seriously: stand well off the outlying shoals, expect the sea to jump where wind meets current, and only then bear away into the calm of Medulin bay. A quiet last mile follows, up to ACI Marina Pomer. Fuel where the base tells you, run the checkout inventory, and then get to the part that matters, a final swim, a final dinner with the crew, and the yearly row over which of the fourteen anchorages was the best of them.

Things to do

Round Cape Kamenjak giving the shoals room

Take a last swim in Medulin bay

Refuel and square the boat for handover

Toast the fortnight over dinner in Pomer

Mooring tip

Aim to be on the ACI Pomer berth by late afternoon, as the check-out inspection comes early next day. Work the fuel stop into your timing; the base will point you to the pump they want used before handover.