Split to Lastovo and Back, 7 Nights

Passage

Split→Bobovišća, Brač

Distance

10 nm

Under sail

1h 20m

Boarding is in Split, and the opening sail is deliberately short: a little over an hour across to Bobovišća on the west coast of Brač, two small bays with a hamlet at the head of each and room to swing at anchor. First swim off the stern platform, first evening on deck, and the long legs wait until the yacht has the week ahead of her.

• Boarding in Split, provisioned to your list
• First swim of the charter off the stern platform
• A quiet anchorage on the west coast of Brač

Passage

Bobovišća, Brač→Vis Town

Distance

22 nm

Under sail

2h 45m

South-west to Vis, closed to foreign visitors until 1989 and the least developed of Croatia's larger islands as a result. The crossing takes the morning, which leaves the afternoon for the island: gun positions and tunnels driven through the hillsides, and the submarine pen at Parja, a 127-metre gallery 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 the night stays aboard in the harbour.

• Vis: closed to foreign visitors until 1989, and quieter for it
• Military tour of the tunnels and the Parja submarine pen
• A table ashore in Vis Town if you want one, or the night aboard

Passage

Vis Town→Jurjeva Luka, Lastovo

Distance

36 nm

Under sail

4h 30m

The long one, and the reason for the week: four and a half hours of open water south-east to Lastovo, the far edge of the Adriatic. Forty-four islands, islets and reefs make up the nature park it has been since 2006, and the village above the harbour keeps the ornate fumari, the 17th and 18th-century chimneys no other island builds. The night is at anchor in Jurjeva luka on the north-west shore, with the tunnel the Yugoslav navy cut at Kremena a short walk around the headland, abandoned since they left. There is almost no light out here: Lastovo holds some of the darkest skies in the Mediterranean, which is worth staying on deck for. If the wind sits wrong for the anchorage, the yacht ties up instead at Zaklopatica on the north coast.

• Open water to the far edge of the Adriatic
• Lastovo archipelago: 44 islands, a nature park since 2006
• At anchor in Jurjeva luka, the navy's Kremena tunnel around the headland
• Some of the darkest skies in the Mediterranean, from the deck

Passage

Jurjeva Luka, Lastovo→Korčula Town

Distance

29 nm

Under sail

3h 40m

An easy morning back north to 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. Local tradition makes it Marco Polo's birthplace, on evidence historians still argue about. One of the town towers keeps a bar at the top of it and hauls the drinks up on a rope, and the villages inland make the island's own pasta, which is worth the short drive out.

• Korčula's old town, laid out herringbone against the wind
• Drinks hauled up a rope to the top of a town tower
• The island's own pasta, made in the villages inland

Passage

Korčula Town→Hvar Town

Distance

34 nm

Under sail

4h 15m

Four hours north-west with a swim stop on the way, and the rest of the day in Hvar Town. 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 the tender across to Palmižana, where Laganini sits on the water in the Paklinski islands.

• Swim stop on the crossing from Korčula
• The Fortica, the square, and the 1612 theatre
• Wine bars in the lanes behind the square

Passage

Hvar Town→Bol, Brač

Distance

18 nm

Under sail

2h 10m

Back across the channel to Brač, on a mooring or at anchor off Bol, where Zlatni rat runs out into the strait and shifts its point with the current. The island repays a few hours ashore: Vidova Gora stands 780 metres above the beach and is the highest ground on any Adriatic island, and the island's wines are poured on the Bol waterfront, in the cooperative building of 1903.

• Moored off Zlatni rat, the beach that moves with the current
• Vidova Gora, 780 m, the highest point on any Adriatic island
• Brač wine on the waterfront, in the 1903 cooperative building

Passage

Bol, Brač→Split

Distance

26 nm

Under sail

3h 10m

The last sailing day rounds the west end of Brač, with the final swim of the charter off Milna before the run up to Split. 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.

• Last swim of the charter off Milna
• Alongside in Split for the last night
• Diocletian's Palace, lived in for seventeen centuries

At anchor

Split

Breakfast aboard, and disembarkation once it is done, 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, then ashore when you are ready
• Transfers arranged to Split airport or the old town
• A last morning in the harbour, Diocletian's Palace minutes away