Safety and limits
OlaSail helps you plan. It is not for navigation, so at sea use the official charts, the official forecast and the harbourmaster.
Everything on this site is for planning a week and choosing where to stay. The skipper in charge of the boat makes the decisions at sea. What to do in an emergency, in a storm or near a fast ferry is in our guide Safety at sea in Croatia.
Emergency at sea
At sea, 112 puts your call through to MRCC Rijeka, the sea rescue centre. Free from a landline or a mobile, day and night.
On this pageOn this page
What "not for navigation" means
We are not a chart, a forecast or a harbour office, and nothing here replaces them. In practice:
- Maps
- They show where places are. They are not charts, and they leave out rocks, shallows, marks and lights.
- Routes and distances
- Rounded, along a planning line. The line is not a safe track to steer.
- Positions
- Approximate, the middle of a bay. Never a waypoint.
- Shelter
- What we or our sources saw on given days. Not a forecast for tonight.
- Prices and seasons
- For planning. Each shows its year and check date, and each can change.
- Berths and buoys
- We don't know whether one is free tonight.
The official sources to use at sea
These are the sources that count once you are on the water. We link to them and never copy their charts or forecasts.
- Weather
DHMZ marine forecast, from DHMZ marine forecast for the Adriatic (English). (Official source, )
Read it every morning, and the evening before each crossing. The marine forecast for small craft, by area of the Adriatic, for the next 12 and the following 12 hours
Which wind does what, and how to pick tonight's harbour: Bura, jugo and maestral
- Charts
The Hydrographic Institute of the Republic of Croatia (HHI) makes and publishes Croatia's nautical charts, on paper and as electronic charts (ENC). (Official source, )
- Notices to mariners
HHI publishes Notices to Mariners every month. Its website version is not the official one: the official paper edition comes by subscription. (Official source, )
- Harbourmasters
If you are unsure of the rules at an anchorage, call the local harbourmaster's office. The offices' numbers are on the Ministry of the Sea's website. (Official source, )
Our limits
Every figure on this site is for planning only. Prices, rules and seasons change, and even a fact we checked last week can be wrong by the time you arrive.
The skipper in charge of the boat decides where to go and where to stay, from the official forecast, the chart and what they can see. If our page and what you see disagree, trust what you see, and tell us.
Every page about weather, anchoring, safety or a route is read by our skipper reviewer, and the page names who. A sailor's report never settles a safety question on its own.
Sources
7 facts from 6 sources, last checked .