Wordless Wednesday: View of Hvar seafront

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Sailing to Jabuka island

One of the goals of our last sailing trip was to sail around Jabuka island. Actually it is not so very special. This rock in the middle of the Adriatic sea can hardly be called an island. It really is small.


Jabuka in Croatian language means Apple. So if Apple corporation will ever be thinking of changing that bitten apple logo of theirs - a silhouette of this Apple island might be a good idea. I should probably put copyright on that one...

We tried to sail there a couple of times before but never made it all the way around.
Well this time I am proud to say we did it.

When we were closing in on the island we noticed an interesting thing... Some of the navigation devices on our boat started to act weird. For instance autopilot kept loosing direction. At first we thought it was some random electronic fault but after a while we realized only compass-based devices were having problems.
It was not a coincidence. Jabuka island was to blame.
As we learned later on, it is a volcanic island and one of its main building materials is magnetite - the most magnetic of all naturally occurring minerals on Earth.
When they hold a sailing regatta in those waters competitors even have to switch between radio channels because some of them simply stop working around the island. I guess this is a bit like what the Bermuda triangle must feel.


As I said all of this didn't stop us and we made it around there and back without much trouble. We had perfect winds and nice sunny weather. Nevertheless this trip took most of the day. When we were looking for a place to spend the night it was dark already.

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The best fish is a fresh fish

Adriatic sea is a perfect place for tasting some good quality, fresh fish. While on a boat, there is a good chance you even catch your own meal. When doing this, you should always keep in mind local rules and regulations (e.g. in Croatia you need to purchase a fishing permit).
I have posted a thing or two about fishing before. Since I am no expert in the field of fishing, don't expect too much.


If catching your own food is not your thing, you can always buy fresh fish from local fishermen, but you can trust me that the one you catch yourself always tastes better then any other.
If you do not come across any fishing boats at sea, you can visit fish markets in early mornings. Almost every coast town in Croatia has one. Prices may vary between seasons (demand is rather high in summer months).


During our last sailing trip we also tried catching our own fish and almost got lucky. We sailed right next to a large school of tuna fish. They were jumping out of the water in feeding frenzy. They were obviously engaged in a group fishing activity, probably chasing sardines or some other kind of tuna food. One of them was obviously fascinated by our bait. It swallowed the bait and went on its way. The line twitched hard and then unfortunately - snapped. It was all over in a couple of seconds and our dinner swam off.
As unfortunate as this might seem, I can't imagine what would we have done if we (by some strange miracle) lifted a 10 kilo tuna onto our boat. I am pretty sure at least the whole deck would be bathing in blood if nothing else.

Since that fish took our only hook with it, that was the end of our fishing.


Luckily after a while we saw some fishermen returning from the sea and bought our lunch from them. We opted for two large tuna-like fish. We got them for a really nice price and they turned out to be extra delicious when taken out of the oven a couple of hours later.

We did not complicate with preparation. We simply cut them opened, cleaned them, chopped them in nice thick pieces, seasoned them with some freshly picked local rosemary and put them on a bed of already half baked potatoes. It was delicious!

All there was left were a pair of heads and a pair of tails.


On the photos above you can see phases those two fish went through. Unfortunately the most important phase - dinner served on a plate accompanied with a glass of excellent white wine is not there.
With food like that around, people tend to forget all about photography...

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