The week did not go quite as planned.
From Makarska I first head south, close along the coast. Towards evening I reach the small town of Igrane and am greeted by a Facebook follower Emil, who invites me to his restaurant and offers me his vacant apartment for the night.
A few kilometers further south I cross over to the tip of the island Hvar. The crossing is 5 kilometers wide and with a light tail wind no problem. My plan is to swim along the southern side of the island of Hvar until I reach the height of the northern tip of the Pelješac peninsula, and then make the 8 kilometer wide crossing.
In the evening I reach the lighthouse on the eastern tip of Hvar and swim to the village Sućuraj. I can spend the night in the port and the next day I set off towards my starting point for the planned crossing to the Pelješac peninsula.
Since it is still 15 kilometers to the starting point, I would like to cover the distance in 2 days to be rested for the difficult crossing.
After another 12 kilometers in the water I reach the bay Smokvina, my starting point for the crossing.
The morning starts windy for the first time and my window of time until it gets darker in the evening gets narrower. When I can finally swim away, I come into a strong east-west current near the shore, which pulls me towards the open sea. I break off and swim back to shore. Since I have no more food, I have to go back to Sućuraj.
In Sućuraj meanwhile the whole village knows what I am doing. I am invited for dinner and a fisherman lets me stay overnight on his excursion boat in the harbour. In the course of the evening some fishermen come by and show me where the currents are and warn me of suddenly appearing winds.
I realize that I cannot risk the crossing and decide to swim back to the mainland instead.
In the morning some villagers come to the lighthouse to say goodbye to me. I set course for the village of Drvenik, 5 kilometers away.
I will now continue along the coast and then cruise over to the Pelješac peninsula.
Still 2 weeks to Dubrovnic!