Croatia | Sea | Kayaking | Tours | Lifejacket Adventures - Adriatic Expeditions

Since 1998 over the last weekend in September, off the town of Murter on Murter Island, a regatta has been held each year for boats with traditional lanteen rigs (such as those in the pictures). The regatta is the Latinsko Idro (the Latin Sail) and is organized by Zeljko Jerat. Its website can be found here (though it needs to be updated for this year). Zeljko also can teach those interested how to use one of these old fishing boats - he has a house on the Kornati Islands which is used as a base for 5 days of sail training. (Contact us for further details.)

There is a renaissance currently in the building and sailing of Dalmatian wooden fishing boats.

Our plan is to take 2 boats - the gajeta and the leut - to this years regatta.

Split is expecting an increase in cruise-ship arrivals this year. For these guests and others who wish to explore the coast, rivers, hills and islands around Split we have teamed-up with our Danish friends at Solitum to provide interesting half-day and full-day tours.

Evening Walking Tour of Diocletian’s Palace

Salona and Klis Fortress Walking Tour

Afternoon Sail on Historical Wooden Boats (available after the end of July)

Aurora & Hacienda Nightclubs Transfer Bus

Cetina River and Omiš Hiking Tour

Hvar Island Wine Tour

Brač Island Tour

Krka Waterfalls Tour

Plitvice Lakes and North Velebit Hiking Tour

Over the weekend of 10-12 May we were able to enjoy the hospitality of Giorgio and Maritzia who organized the first seakayaking symposium - Bibione Kayak - of which we know on the Adriatic Sea. The base for the event was Capalonga Camping, about 1 hour from Venice, in northern Italy. The camp is also only 1 hour from Motovun, in Croatia - which was handy for us.

At the event we met many interesting paddlers, including Nigel Foster (seakayak designer and adventurer) and Kristin (potter to the stars), Jen Kleck (a friend of Ray Fusco’s from the US) and Kay (importer for Klepper Folding Kayaks), and others from Serbia, Slovenia, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.

On the Monday night Lifejacket Adventures gave a short, mosquito-plagued talk on kayaking in Croatia, our attempt to cross the Adriatic Sea by kayak unsupported and the old wooden boats of Croatia. The above video was included and shows how to paddle (or row) ‘old-school’.

We made the most of the excellent facilities at the campground - swimming, bbqing and bike riding. We couldn’t get the kids out of the pool as the weather was perfect. Next year we plan to attend for the whole week. Seakayakers in Europe should definitely make the effort to attend, as the festival also ties into the Vogalonga event in Venice. Congratulations to Bibione Kayak!

Today’s picture comes from the set of Bella Biondina. The movie, based a true story of a young Split girl who falls in love with an Italian Fascist soldier at the end of the Second World War, is being shot on the streets of Split at the moment. It is being directed Danijela Marušić, who also made the locally famous mini-series Malo Misto. It was interesting to see the reactions of the locals to actors in Partisan uniforms. Many were indifferent, but some reacted with strong negative feelings.

Whilst I was in Trogir the other day I saw the replica of the 16th Century galleon Tirena, a typical trading vessel of the period from Ragusa (i.e. the Dubrovnik Republic), which is used for excursions outside the walls of Dubrovnik in the summer. Its 30m long and 7.7m wide. The drawings for the replica, completed according to old plans from the Dubrovnik Maritime museum, were done by Velimir Salamon, the man responsible for the falkuša.

The ship was constructed in Omiš, at a cost of about 1 000 000€.

Speaking of old boats, work continues on the leut. Mate, the Dalmatian carpenter, is replacing a certain number of planks. Roger, the English mechanic, will start work soon on renovating the motor. The crew will be an Aussie and a Frenchman - its becoming a true UN project.

Looking across the leut’s shed, for the last week the USS Mount Whitney has been tied up. The Whitney is the flagship of the United States Navy’s 6th Fleet (the Mediterranean Fleet) - it flies the pennant of Vice Admiral James A. Winnefeld.

It is considered to be the most sophisticated Command, Control, Communications, Computer, and Intelligence ship ever commissioned. It can receive and transmit large amounts of secure data from any point on earth through the multitude of HF, UHF, VHF, SHF and EHF antennae on its decks.

The Sixth Fleet has both US and NATO responsibilities, and is based in Naples.

So why is it in Split?

President Bush is on his way to Eastern Europe. He will stop in Ukraine before going to Bucharest, Romania, for the opening of NATO’s largest summit ever on Wednesday.

NATO leaders will meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon as well as officials from the European Union and World Bank. They will also vote on expanding the alliance to include Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia, as well as vote on accepting applications from Georgia and Ukraine to join the alliance, a move that is opposed by Russia. On Friday Bush will then come to visit us in Croatia.

President Bush will wrap up his trip in the Black Sea resort of Sochi for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, discussing the U.S. missile defense system.

Joining the EU (hopefully by 2011) and NATO are the biggest issues in Croatia at the moment. Some people are against the moves - a new organisation has been formed in Croatia called the Anti-Imperialist Coalition, which has announced protests against President Bush at Franjo Tudjman Square in Zagreb on Friday at 5pm.

Though we are not happy with Americans at the moment - one competitor, American-owned Adriatic Kayak Tours, has been stealing our photographs to use on their website (we are fighting to have them taken down) as well as copying our Vis Tour- we see definite benefits in Croatia being an EU and NATO member. For instance we could take AKT to the European Court and not have to wait for the slow Croatian courts to deal with their infringement of our copyright.

So, things are heating up here and in the rest of Eastern Europe, with the West moving East. On top of all these meetings there have been the problems in Kosovo for the last month. That’s why the most important American ship in the Mediterranean is docked in Split.

Today was an example of that though Dubrovnik is definitely a beautiful town, it is quite superficial - Split has a tougher, yet richer, life.

These last weeks we have been learning about wood in relation to traditional boats. For the leut, oak (hrast in Croatian) will be used below the water-line. But not just any oak - it must be either from Slavonia (the north-east rump of Croatia) or Lika (the area around Plitvice Lakes) - i.e. hrast lužnjak (in Latin - Quercus robur or in English - common oak). Bosnian oak (hrast kitnjak - Quercus petraea - sessile oak) just won’t do - its not as strong.

Its best to let the oak dry for a year; we were lucky to find first-class oak which had been stored for 3 years. The boards are currently about 5m long, 30cm wide and 3cm thick. They will be cut to replace those on the boat which may have rotted, etc. and will end up being 2.5cm thick.

Above the water-line, local pine is used. It only has to be kiln-dried for 72 days.

The above drawing was done by naval architect Velimir Salamon when he and Joško Božanić were preparing to rebuild the gajeta falkuša - the indigenous boat of Komiža, on Vis Island. The terms are the parts of the boat in Komižan dialect.

Instead of being built the traditional way, as a carvel planked boat, such as our old leut, the falkuša used 3 layers of thinner pine with West epoxy between. This means that the falkuša doesn’t have to be concerned about drying out and the planks shrinking. Kayaking around Dalmatia sunken wooden boats are often seen. This is done if the boat has been stored out of the water and the planks have opened up. After a couple of days under water the boat is retrieved and in the sun it all shrinks back together.

The last picture of me rolling over a boat was taken by Peter McBride when he came to Croatia with adventure journalist Jon Bowermaster on an Oceans 8 kayak expedition.

The dreaded ‘flu has meant we haven’t had many adventures recently.

For all our German friends (Hi An!), you can read about a day spent with the Smalbys on the Gajeta Falkuša last summer on the Alles Kroatien website. The Falkuša is one of the boats we use on our Kayak Tours.

We had a beautiful, sunny day today in Split. So we went for a walk around Diocletian’s Palace. Aklie rode his bike for the first time without training-wheels! In the video he is going great - a second after recording stopped he ran straight into the back of an unsuspecting lady! Photographs are posted here.

Its been a long wait but finally our leut is in the shed. Our previous attempts failed - but finally brute force prevailed. Only six guys, two fork lifts, twenty steel pipes and eight hours of continuous hard work were required to complete the task.

The knowledge of those involved made the whole task a lot easier - there must have been nearly 100 years of maritime industry experience working together.

The previous trailer was re-used sans the wheels. The fore and aft of the boat were raised and a section of the trailer were slid under each on top of pipes. Then, using a forklift at each end, the 5000kg boat was pushed, prodded, turned and dragged into the shed.

Many thanks to John, Nigel, Marcel, Tim, Morton, Jan, Lene and Jules.

Time for another Dalmatian dish and appropriate wine. This month’s serving comes from Vis Island - another stop on one of our kayaking tours.
One of the remotest Dalmatian islands, Vis is proud of its fishing heritage. Komiža Pie was a staple of the men sailing their falkuše to the rich fishing grounds surrounding the islet of Palagruža.

Komiža Pie – “Komiska Pogaca”
Dough
1 ¼ cups of warm water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 ¼ tablespoons sugar
3 ¼ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoons olive oil
(roll dough out to be 1.5cm thick)

Filling
2 medium onions – cut in thin rings
4 garlic cloves – finely chopped
pinch salt, pepper and crushed chili to taste
fresh basil roughly chopped
3 tablespoons tomato paste
400g chopped tomatoes - 1 tin
1 cup tomato puree
2 tablespoons capers
4 tins sardines in olive oil and lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
Serves 6 people

In a glass bowl dissolve sugar and yeast in the water – set aside for 15 minutes.
Add flour, salt and olive oil to the mixture above – knead for 10 minutes (adding flour if necessary) – use a rolling pin, roll out on flat floured surface.
Roll dough mixture into a ball and place in glass bowl – coat dough surface lightly with olive oil and cover with a damp cloth, set aside for 1 hour.
Mix together in a small bowl, garlic, salt, pepper, chili, tomato paste, tomato puree, chopped tomato’s, olive oil and capers.
Split dough mixture into 2 portions (one portion slightly larger – for top piece of pie).
Roll dough mixture out on flat floured surface.
Coat bottom of tray with thin layer of oil - place rolled dough on flat tray.
Spread tomato mixture onto dough.
Add sardines – breaking into pieces.
Add onions.
Add extra tomato puree if necessary.
Cover with remaining portion of rolled out dough mixture.
Pierce with fork and seal edges.
Baste top of dough with a little oil.
Bake for 30 minutes @ 180 degrees Celsius or until golden.

Vugava (also Bugava)
A long, fertile valley runs down the centre of Vis Island. Winemakers produce the ubiquitous Dalmatian red, plavac, as well as the indigenous white, vugava. The numerous micro-climates of the valley mean good quantities of similar high quality grapes can be hard to grow. Vugava was discovered on the island by the Romans when they arrived. They enjoyed it so much they took vines to France with them - where it became known as viognier.

Wine Maker – Antonio Lipanović
Colour – Honey, lemon, apple juice yellow
Bouquet – Light apricot
Palate – At 14% alcohol, this is a solid yet dry wine with just the right amount of acid to add an edge to the long, clean finish.

We encountered a small problem, yesterday, as we tried to shift the boat into the shed at the boatyard. Welded to the bottom of the trailer we built are 10 trolley wheels. They are rated to 300kgs each. The boat we judged to be 5 tons. But of course 10 x 300 doesn’t equal 5000. We assumed that the wheels’ manufacturer had allowed a large safety margin with the rating. Well, we were wrong - and the wheels buckled as the forklift tried to pull the boat in. We will now have to lift the boat off and drag her in the old way - Egyptian style - on about 20 sections of pipe.

I guess there is a moral to this story…

Some of our pictures.

As part of the renovation of the leut, we have to learn new words specific to the boat:

brod - boat

trup - hull

gaz - draught

skladište - hold

grotlo - hatch

kaljuža - bilge

kobilica - keel

platica - plank

šuperenje - caulking

paklina - pitch

čavli - nail

vijci - screw

svornjak - bolt

pramac - bow

krma - stern

rebra - rib

jarbol - mast

paluba - deck

stupiči - stays

veslo - oar

kormilo - rudder

kosnik - bowsprit

lantina - lateen

sošnjak - gaff

deblenjak - boom

jedro - sail

sidro - anchor

brodski vijak - propeller

svjetlo - light

špirun - bow platform

konop - rope

Leuts are one of several boat designs coastal Croatians developed. Others types include small dingies such as batanas, pasaras and gucs; gajetas, which are sister ships of leuts; and larger merchant mariners such as braceras, trabakuls, and peligs. The boats were used for fishing, trading and tranportation.

Currently we are renovating the Conte (see below), a 11.5m long leut with a 130hp diesel motor, built in the 1940’s. The idea is to return her to a sailing vessel to act in support of our kayaking expeditions along the Dalmatian coast.

Initially, down at the Arista Nautica boat-yard, the fiberglass cabin has been removed and then we will move her inside the warehouse to begin the renovation.