43 10.07 N 16 41.6 E

Vrboska  (Hvar Island) Friday 21^st – Sunday 23^rd June

We left Stari Grad after a final shop and photo shoot at 1000 and motored around the western end of Hvar staying close to the coast so we could see all the various anchorages and mooring possibilities. There was very little wind u8ntil we had almost arrived at our next destination Vrboska a deep inlet on the N of Hvar.  We took a close look at the small island off the entrance but decided 3 yachts and it would be crowded so kept going a further mile to the larger anchorage just north of the main town. This was lovely with plenty of space, shallow water and well protected from the prevailing winds. We duly anchored in around 6 metres and there we stayed for two nights. The water was lovely and clean and during the day Jacky had several swims. On Saturday we took the dinghy into the town and stopped at the ACI Marina fuel station to check prices and depths for future reference. The little town is remarkable because of its fortified church which from a distance looks like a castle! The harbour runs in to a long channel and the buildings line either side; at the head of the inlet there was a small bridge over the river that feeds into the harbour. It was a quiet place with a few shops and certainly not many tourists so very pleasant. We enjoyed our two nights here although on Saturday afternoon the wind got up from the west and we ‘danced’ round the anchor a fair bit as it was gusting up to 20 knots. However all was calm again over night. There were two swimming areas buoyed off -one at the head of the bay and the other running east west for about 300 metres from the northern end. This did mean that one could not anchor as close to the top corner as the pilot book shows. We were in company of some 10 other yachts and during the day several small hire boats arrived and moored close to the beaches. The peninsula is pine covered and has flat rocks in waves interspersed with some small shingle beaches so it was very popular during the day with people arriving on foot or bicycle. By dusk all was quiet and we had the place to our elves.

On Sunday we left at 1000 to head for Brac.