Night Riding The Levant Wind Near Velebit

An old dalmatian sailor told me of his unusual trip from Zadar to Rijeka with his small sailboat. The boat had a keel but was hardly even a one tonner. It was just a 20 something sailboat with a small cabin, a small jib and sail you can see all across the dalmatian ports, something like this:

Small boat with a cabin on the Adriatic Sea

What was so special about his trip? Well it is quite a long trip for one. He, being an old experienced sailor, knows about the winds. In the summer, everyone knows Maestral is the prevailing wind when the weather is nice. Maestral is named as such - Veneto Maestro, or the "main wind". So everyone takes advantage of this, and sails late morning to late afternoon, while this wind is strong.

But fewer sailors know about the cousin of Maestral, the Levant, or Levanat in Dalmatia. And  even fewer take advantage of it. Why? Because even if they know about it, this wind is in its power at night, after midnight to after sunrise.

Levant is usually not as strong as Maestral. However, what happens in the northern Adriatic between Zadar and Rijeka is that there is this extremely steep and high mountain range called Velebit running all along the shore.

So what happens at night in the summer is the cold wind from the Velebit comes rushing down the slopes of the entire mountain range and provides for the boost to the normally weaker Levant.

So, this old dalmatian sailor was telling me about this amazing trip when he picked the night right after a hot and sunny afternoon, the first sunny afternoon after the five-day stormy weather streak in the middle of summer.

The trip from Zadar to Rijeka is several dozens miles long, and even the big ships will take all night to cross the distance.

But by picking the timing judiciously, knowing the map well, and taking advantage of the rushing wind down from the Velebit range, he was sailing like a maniac in the middle of the night with his small boat. And in a single night made the distance that would normally take the whole day or a couple of days.

He wouldn't go into much detail but I can only imagine a super speedy small boat, rushing through the smooth seas in the middle of the night, and a big yellow moon there to light the path...enchanting.

 Certainly something to brag to your grand kids about!