Dubrovnik to Split, 7 Nights

Passage

Dubrovnik→Šipanska Luka

Distance

12 nm

Under sail

1h 30m

Boarding is in Gruž, and the week opens with an hour and a half out through the Elaphiti to Šipan, the largest of them and the quietest thing this close to a city. The night is spent at anchor off Šipanska Luka, with the summer villas Dubrovnik's nobility built here standing above the water, and dinner is aboard.

• Boarding in Dubrovnik, provisioned to your list
• Night at anchor off Šipanska Luka
• Ragusan summer villas above the harbour, and dinner aboard

Passage

Šipanska Luka→Pomena, Mljet

Distance

26 nm

Under sail

3h 10m

West to Mljet, whose western third has been a national park since 1960. Two saltwater lakes sit behind a narrow channel, warm enough to swim in and flat enough to cycle around, and on an islet in the larger one stands a Benedictine monastery founded in the 12th century, reached by the park's own boat. Bicycles are the easy way to see it. The yacht lies at Pomena, at the park's western gate.

• Mljet National Park, protected since 1960
• Two saltwater lakes, swimmable and ringed by a cycle path
• The 12th-century monastery on the islet of St Mary

Passage

Pomena, Mljet→Korčula Town

Distance

15 nm

Under sail

1h 55m

A short hop north with a swim stop on the way, and the afternoon in Korčula, whose old town is built on a small peninsula with its streets laid out in a herringbone so the summer wind runs through them and the winter one does not. Ashore, Massimo pours cocktails at the top of a town tower and hauls them up on a rope, and the konobas inland around Žrnovo do the island's own pasta.

• Swim stop between Mljet and Korčula
• Korčula's old town, laid out herringbone against the wind
• Cocktails hauled up a rope to the top of a town tower

Passage

Korčula Town→Vis Town

Distance

44 nm

Under sail

5h 25m

The week's real passage, five and a half hours of open water to Vis, which was closed to foreign visitors until 1989 and is the least developed of Croatia's larger islands as a result. The fortifications are still there: tunnels driven through the hillsides and the submarine pen at Parja, cut into the rock at sea level. A guided military tour runs three to four hours, by jeep or quad. In the evening the crew can book a table ashore, or drinks at Fort George, the British fort of 1813 above the harbour.

• Five and a half hours of open water, the week's long leg
• Vis: closed to foreign visitors until 1989, and quieter for it
• Optional military tour of the tunnels and the Parja submarine pen

Passage

Vis Town→Hvar Town

Distance

14 nm

Under sail

1h 45m

An easy two hours across to Hvar, which leaves the day to the island. Up to the Fortica, the fortress of 1551 where the town sheltered while an Ottoman fleet burned the houses below, then St Stephen's Square, largest in Dalmatia, and the theatre of 1612 above the Arsenal, the first public theatre in Europe. The evening runs as late as you want it to: Hula Hula for the sunset, Carpe Diem long after dinner, or a table the crew books wherever suits.

• A short crossing, and the rest of the day ashore
• The Fortica, the square, and the 1612 theatre
• 3 Pršuta, the wine bar in a lane behind the square

Passage

Hvar Town→Makarska

Distance

34 nm

Under sail

4h 15m

North-east along Hvar and across to Brač for a swim off Zlatni rat, the beach at Bol that runs out into the strait and shifts its point with the current. From there it is an hour across to Makarska, which sits under Biokovo: the mountain stands 1,762 metres straight above the town, and the skywalk on its ridge hangs a glass floor out over the drop. Dinner ashore can be Jeny, up at Gornji Tučepi at 300 metres, the first restaurant on this coast the Michelin guide took notice of.

• Swim off Zlatni rat, the beach that moves with the current
• Makarska under Biokovo, and the skywalk on the ridge above it
• Jeny at Gornji Tučepi, in the Michelin guide since 2018

Passage

Makarska→Split

Distance

29 nm

Under sail

3h 35m

The last sailing day runs up the Brač channel to Split, with a final swim in a bay along the way. The yacht lies alongside for the last night, with Diocletian's Palace a few minutes from the quay: the retirement palace of a Roman emperor that the city never stopped living in, and still the centre of it seventeen centuries later. Konoba Matejuška by the fishermen's port and Zoi on the waterfront are the tables to ask for.

• Final swim stop on the way up the channel
• Last night alongside in Split
• Diocletian's Palace, lived in for seventeen centuries

At anchor

Split

Breakfast aboard before disembarkation at 9:00, with the crew arranging transfers to the airport or into town. The last morning is an unhurried one: coffee on deck in the harbour, and Diocletian's Palace a few minutes' walk from the quay once you step ashore.

• Breakfast aboard before 9:00 disembarkation
• Transfers arranged to Split airport or the old town
• A last morning in the harbour, Diocletian's Palace minutes away