Northern Dalmatia is the part of Croatia that experienced crews come back for. Zadar and Šibenik give access to the Kornati archipelago — a hundred and forty mostly uninhabited islands — and to the Krka falls up the river behind Šibenik, and the cruising is emptier and more interesting than the well-trodden route further south.

The berths are serious. D-Marin Mandalina at Šibenik is one of the few marinas in the country built for genuinely large yachts, D-Marin Dalmacija at Sukošan is among the biggest in the Adriatic, and Marina Zadar sits beside a city with an international airport. Together they are the natural base for anyone working the Kornati properly.

That emptiness is exactly why provisioning matters here. There is no resupply in the Kornati — the islands are a national park with a handful of konobas and no shops worth the name — so a yacht going in must go in full. We size these deliveries for the whole cruise, and orders travel on EU logistics from our French cellar, typically two to three working days from confirmation.

The local wine is genuinely distinctive. Babić from the stone terraces at Primošten, between the two cities, is one of Croatia’s best reds and is grown on some of the most extraordinary dry-stone vineyard land in Europe. Maraschino, the cherry liqueur, has been made in Zadar since the eighteenth century and belongs on the back-bar for the story alone.