Three Weeks In Paradise. 4. Maslinica (Otok Šolta)

After breakfast and the final preparations we are finally off. Cast off, motor a bit out of the channel separating Trogir from Čiovo and sails up. We can hardly believe it. This is the moment we have been dreaming of for yers: Mekicevica is sailing in the Adriatic.

Leaving Trogir in light airs.

The beauty of the coast always beckoning. 

Our plan for the first Adriatic passage is very modest: we are aiming for the small town of Maslinica, on the W tip of the island Šolta, just 6 nm S of Trogir.
In retrospect, the day was a representative sample of sailing on these waters: start with a gentle NE land wind that dies to nothing around noon. Struggle with calm and the wakes of motor boats, until around 1400 a W or NW picks up rapidly. Very rapidly. Typically less than one hour after being becalmed we are reefing the sails. All of this while avoiding thousands of small islands and chartered boats skippered by clueless lubbers.
But the beauty of this place makes it all worthwhile. The sky and the sea compete to show you the most beautiful tones of blue. The many islands tempt you to stop for a swim. Here and there beautiful small villages offer the opportunity to stop for delicious food and wine in the company of very friendly people.
Paradise cannot possibly be any better than this!
Maslinica (which means little olive) was once a holiday place for the wealthy gentry of Split and Trogir. Close to the quay there were small shops and cafes; with traditional villas of withe stone and with spacious terraces, taking the upper levels.

The beautiful village of Maslinica...

Unfortunately, the greed to make a quick buck out of tourism has destroyed one half of the bay with a ostentatious, expensive, and poorly designed marina, popular with gin palaces.The price of the mooring was made a little more tolerable by the apologetic attitude of the old man who runs the place. He obviously finds it appalling that his boss charges such prices to small boats, and offered to let us have water (that we don't use) and electricity (of which we use very little) for free.

...and the horror the yachting tourism has made of the other half of the bay

For an evening drink and morning coffee, we ignored the expensive bars and mingled with the locals at the bar of the local nautical and fishing club.