Boating in the Adriatic: the best day to go

Three winds decide the day here. Jugo builds a long swell from the south-east over a day or two and leaves it running after the wind itself has eased. Bura falls off the mountains in gusts, harmless in one channel and vicious in the next. And the maestral fills in from the north-west most summer afternoons, which is why water that was glass at nine is short and steep by four. A single wave height for a single point tells you none of that.

Bonasea walks your boat along the route every half hour and asks what the sea is doing where you will actually be, so the sheltered side of a channel scores differently from the open water outside it. The lee of every island is measured from a high-resolution sea mask, which is why the Kornati passages get realistic numbers instead of open-water pessimism, and the ICON-2I model resolves the bura channelling that a global grid smooths away.

Depth figures are modelled averages rather than a survey of your bay, and the comfort score is an estimate from weather models rather than a promise. Bonasea does not replace official charts, publications, regulations or the skipper’s judgement. Read the warnings for these waters before you leave, and trust your echo sounder over the app.