Vrsar Island (“Nudie beach”)
This was a very interesting place that challenged any preconceived ideas we might have had about the human body in its au naturale state.
The approach to a long, narrow estuary that we had identified as a suitable anchorage for the night, took us past a small island. From the distance, we could just make out a few naked bodies and we assumed it must be one of those designated nude bathing beaches we had heard about. We continued motoring further up the channel and selected a bay with a dozen or so other boats on anchor.
Only after choosing our spot, setting the anchor and flaking the mainsail on the boom did we notice the very large, very “indecent” derrière of the woman on the boat anchored nearby.
We were anchored about 150m off the beach, just outside a row of small white buoys used to cordon off a swimming zone. In Australia, this would be the “shark net”, but here there was a large opening for boats to pass through. Kayaks, dinghies and windsurfers went by with totally naked riders, all quite “in your face”, as it were. Initially this was rather confronting!
But the bay was otherwise peaceful and protected and made a good spot to catch up on some boat jobs, such as installing the holding tank. It didn’t seem right to be discharging effluent into their pristine swimming pool.
The next morning Maria went ashore to check out the place up close and personal. I rowed her in to the small jetty, where stood a young man who would have made a good model for Michelangelo’s David. A couple of largish German women were floating in the water nearby, their breasts bobbing like over-inflated buoyancy vests. We didn’t know which way to look and I was glad to drop Maria off and quickly row back to the boat.
A few hours later Maria was to be seen standing on the end of the same pier, leaping up and down to attract our attention. She was obviously fully naked and appeared to be flayling about in all directions - a rather disconcerting sight.
“You go and fetch her,” Das said.
Later Maria reported having been accosted by the “blue police” who told her she had to be naked if she wanted to be there. Fair enough, to keep the perverts out I guess. Apparently it was OK to wear clothes if walking (or perhaps it was ‘working’); but if lying on the beach or swimming, it was not permitted. We decided to keep on working on the boat.
The Valalta Naturalist Resort was a very extensive, private camping ground frequented by hundreds of European holiday-makers, mainly older German couples but also families with young children. It made us think about the effects of this on youngsters. Having grown up seeing so much adult nudity, it must seem completely natural to them, no doubt quite devoid of sensuality or eroticism. For Maria, she saw more male genitalia than in her entire life before and even though trying not to look, couldn’t help but making comparisons between them. “Some like prunes,” she reported, “some the size of our winch handles!”
Each night a live band played loud Western music from the 60’s which was very good to dance round in the cockpit to (clothed), followed by a huge fireworks display at midnight.
We enjoyed it so much we considered staying longer to finish off more boat jobs, in particular checking all the wiring. At some stage, the cables to the engine-room blower had suffered a melt-down so these, plus other unknown burnt wires had to be pulled out, traced back to the source and replaced. However, the perfect amount of wind was blowing in the right direction, tempting us to move on. Maria was keen to head further south to the better-known islands and every boat that passed us by, she called out loudly, “Take me with you!”
By now, the nudity was much less confronting. We had seen all shapes and sizes – flabby bellies, dimpled cellulite and the rare few fine figures. These latter were the naked form we were more conditioned to expect and when they appeared, they produced the usual reactions. Just as we were motoring out of the bay on our departure, a small motor boat past by and as we were right alongside, a Grecian goddess suddenly stood up, displaying her perfect physique in a grand gesture designed to impress. Sorry, we missed getting a photo…
Zadar
After leaving the island of Vrsar we hoisted the kite and had a glorious sail south with about 8 knots apparent wind and boat speed of around 9 knots all day. Again, we felt so smug to be passing all the slow-poke charter boats with their totally inefficient sails that furl up on rollers in the mast, and hang like shapeless shopping bags when set. Their day of having the last laugh on us would come later ….
We anchored overnight in a few bays on various islands on the way south, and on Thursday 12th August, we made our first stopover in a marina in the centre of the very interesting port of Zadar. This was our first experience of an ancient walled city. Once a Dalmatian capital, it is still a beautiful town, despite the destruction caused by WWII bombings.
A good friend from Melbourne, Dan, had told us about the “water music” feature in Zadar so we were keen to visit this tourist attraction. After wandering aimlessly through the old town, admiring the well-worn marble cobblestones, dry-stone walls and arches, we found our way to the opposite bank of the harbour, where the tour-operators for various cruise boats drum up business. We asked one which way to the …. “water music” – she finished the sentence for us – obviously everyone asks the same question.
Not knowing quite what to expect, we almost walked right past it, apart from the intermittent soft drone of the strangest sounds, a little like some kind of distant church organ. A large paved area of the foreshore has several rows of about ten holes, each row slightly offset from the next. These bore holes are about 3 inch diameter and several feet deep. The water below, as it surges with waves or the wake of passing boats, creates air movement thereby sound. The “organ” pipes must be of different lengths, producing different tones, otherwise it is an un-tuned instrument. If you lie with your ear to one of the holes, a much stronger sound can be heard with the subtle nuances of volume and pitch as the air pressure modulates. The sound is quite ethereal, other-worldly and haunting; completely unlike anything else – except maybe for whales. It is a brilliant idea, and hence the designer won a prestigious European award for architecture in outdoor public spaces.
A little further along the promenade, another unique creation is a large round “sun-dial” set into the ground. A shiny glass circle, about 20 metre diameter wide appears to be made of transparent photovoltaic plates. At night, myriads of tiny lights shine through from underneath; these are constantly changing colour, as well as direction, spreading in lines, circles, stellar explosions. People walk, sit, hop on these to see if it is they who are causing the lights to change colour and direction. Children love it!
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