Crazy Korčula

After one night in Luke Polače, we left for the island and town of Korčula. Yet another first – we actually had enough wind to raise the sails! Conor had fun futzing with trimming the sails while I constantly read out our travel speed. I don’t think it made any difference, but Conor enjoyed the experimenting. 😉

Korčula has a beautiful walled-in Old Town, and is apparently called a mini Dubrovnik. We saw it upon arrival and pulled into our ACI marina which was a direct, short walk away. Location could not have been better. However, this was our first experience with a marina completely packing boats in like sardines. We liked the town so much we stayed for two nights, so we witnessed this phenomenon each day. Around 6:30pm was rush hour with boats just waiting to enter and the marina staff literally pushing boats together as closely as possible. I’d call it “defensive docking!” Conor wasn’t sure at all how we were going to get out either due to such tight quarters. We had to wait until enough boats left before we could take off after our second night.

In the meantime, we thoroughly enjoyed the town. Our first order of business was to actually find a means of doing laundry. There was a local service to take everything, do it for you, and we could get it back the next day. (We have yet to find a laundromat anywhere.) The owner, Nicola, was a friendly, kind English speaker, so Conor started asking him about stores where we could find various things we needed for the boat. Surprisingly, Nicola asked if we had time, which of course we did, so he said to come with him. We hopped in his car and he showed us his house (where more laundry takes place) on the way to various stores, playing translator, helping us find what we needed. Amazing! 

As every hot day ends, a jump in the sea was required. A nice little beach is just to the side of the marina, so again very handy. After some work, we finally headed into the Old Town to explore and have dinner. Again, I can’t compare it to Dubrovnik yet, but I can compare it to Kotor. Korčula is much nicer, I think, because even though crowded with tourists, it doesn’t feel as tacky (if that’s the right word) and they have done a beautiful job updating it. Restaurants line the thick city wall which overlooks the sea. Our first night, I convinced Conor to eat at a Japanese restaurant – yay! – and he even really liked it. (It was amazing that the small town even had one!)

Conor has been reading up on the history of Croatia and has been trying to explain it to me. It seems so complicated and varied with so many changes throughout the centuries. We’re still trying to figure it out. One of Korčula’s claims to fame, though – it is apparently the birthplace of the famous explorer Marco Polo. “But wasn’t he Italian?” you might ask. Yes. At the time he was born, Korčula was under Venetian rule!

Our second day, we didn’t do any work on the boat and just enjoyed the day letting ourselves be tourists. We took a great walk to the outskirts of the town, swam in a neighborhood beach, walked back, took in a coffee, walked through the permanent local market of crafts and such, had some lunch on the boat, did some quick work-work, rented a SUP to give it a try, then went to a really nice restaurant for dinner, followed by some gelato. (I’ll consider that my birthday day as it was so nice! (For those who read my birthday post.))

All in all, a really neat town we definitely recommend visiting. We’ll likely be back. Though, it would likely be best not during the high season! The number of small cruise ships and charter ships was unbelievable. It was constantly a very busy port. Made for an interesting experience!