Sesula Bay

Sesula Bay (also spelled Šešula) is a small, well-sheltered cove on the island of Šolta, about half a nautical mile south of the harbour village of Maslinica and roughly 15 nautical miles from Marina Kaštela. Low hills ring the bay and block most winds except a direct westerly, which is why it is one of the most visited anchorages on Šolta's western side.

Anchoring in Sesula Bay

The cove is a long, narrow inlet that cuts deep into the coastline, and it runs surprisingly deep at its mouth — around 47 metres — before shoaling to about 7 metres in the north-eastern corner, where boats usually moor over a bottom of mud and sea grass. Crews who prefer to lie to their own anchor tend to drop in the middle of the bay in roughly 8 metres of water. Two long-standing konobas on the shore, Šišmiš and Šešula, are known to lay out free mooring buoys for guests who book a table, and there is a small diving centre and a fish farm in the same inlet. Because the ridges on either side are low rather than sheer, the bay stays comfortable in almost any wind except a westerly, which blows straight in through the entrance, so it reads as a settled-weather overnight stop rather than an all-weather refuge. Sesula Bay is one of the anchorages you'll visit on a private gulet charter from Split, usually as part of a day's sailing that also takes in Maslinica.

Maslinica, Half a Mile North

Maslinica, the village at the head of the next bay, takes its name from the olive groves behind it and is the only settlement on Šolta's west coast. It exists because of piracy. In 1703 three brothers of the noble Marchi family obtained permission from the Venetian authorities to found a new settlement here and to raise a castle with defensive towers, so that the exposed western approaches to the island could be held against raiders. The building survives, restored as the Martinis Marchi heritage hotel with a marina attached, and it is still the most conspicuous structure on this side of the island. From Sesula it is close enough to reach on foot across the low ground between the two bays, which is why crews tend to treat the anchorage and the village as a single stop.

The Island Behind the Anchorage

Šolta covers about 59 square kilometres, stretches some 19 kilometres from end to end and never gets much wider than four and a half, rising to a modest high point at Vela Straža, roughly 237 metres. The 2021 census counted 1,975 permanent residents spread across eight settlements. Grohote, the oldest and largest, sits inland, and beside its church of St Stephen lie the remains of an early Christian basilica. Stomorska, at the eastern end, is the oldest coastal village on the island, founded in the seventeenth century as a port for seafarers who traded Šolta's limestone, olive oil and wine. Rogač holds the ferry pier, while Nečujam, the largest bay on the island, is its main tourism centre.

The Greeks knew the island as Olyntha, a name usually explained as "unripe fig", and under Rome it became a summer retreat for the citizens of nearby Salona. Remains of villae rusticae have been identified at Donje Selo, Gornje Selo and Nečujam, and in the Piškera cove at Nečujam the outlines of a Roman maritime villa and its fishpond are still visible beneath the water, a complex traditionally connected with the emperor Diocletian, who retired to his palace at Split in AD 305. Later centuries left lighter marks: the island passed under Austro-Hungarian administration, received its telegraph connection in 1874, and saw brief but real fighting in the Second World War, when British and American commandos raided it in March and April 1944.

Farming still defines Šolta more than tourism does. Šoltansko maslinovo ulje, the island's olive oil, is protected at European level and is pressed from two varieties, Levantinka, known locally as Šoltanka, and Oblica, with the fruit picked by hand. The indigenous red grape Dobričić is more important than its small output suggests, since DNA work has identified it as one of the two parents of Plavac Mali, the best-known red variety in Dalmatia. Beekeeping is older still and organised enough that a local cooperative was founded in 1875; Šolta honey remains the product most visitors carry home.

Getting There

Šolta lies only 9 nautical miles from Split, which makes it the closest island to the city and an easy first or last night of a week afloat. Car ferries cross from Split to Rogač in about 45 minutes and the fast catamaran in roughly 15, so the island stays connected year-round without ever feeling like a suburb of the mainland. From the charter marinas at Kaštela the run down to Sesula is around 15 nautical miles, close enough that a boat leaving in the early afternoon is normally tied to a buoy well before dinner. And because the island is barely 19 kilometres long, a single morning ashore is enough for Grohote's alleys, the basilica remains and the olive terraces before the anchor comes up again.