Skradin sits at the mouth of the Krka river, and the water here is fresh meeting salt — a strange, beautiful mix. Your captain can nose the yacht up the river gorge where the cliffs close in and the only sound is birdsong. That is your first afternoon, before you even reach the islands.

Kornati National Park is a maze of 89 islands, islets and reefs — and not one of them has a road. You do not visit Kornati, you anchor in it, swim off the transom and watch the sun drop behind bare limestone. That is the whole itinerary.

The word “marina” comes from the Latin for mooring, but Croatian sailors will tell you the real secret is the wind: the maestral arrives almost like clockwork after lunch, gives you four hours of perfect sailing, then dies at sunset. Plan your hops around it and you look like a genius.

Šibenik, a short hop from Skradin, is home to St. James Cathedral — a UNESCO site built entirely of stone, no brick, no wood. Sail past it at golden hour and you will understand why this stretch of coast has been fought over for a thousand years. Your week starts where empires did.

Solar panels on a catamaran are not just green — they are freedom. No generator means no hum at 2 a.m., no diesel smell drifting into your sundowner, and no rush back to a marina to top up. You stay in the bay that made you stop, for as long as you like.