Ist Island

Ist is a small island in the northern Zadar archipelago, sitting between Skarda and Molat at roughly 44 degrees 16 minutes north, 14 degrees 46 minutes east, and about twenty nautical miles out from Zadar itself. It covers 9.65 square kilometres and had a permanent population of just 182 at the 2011 census, a density of under nineteen people per square kilometre and a figure that has roughly halved over the past fifty years as islanders moved to the mainland. The Croatian government has looked at reversing that decline through its National Programme of Islands' Development, including a long-floated proposal for a bridge to neighbouring Molat that has never been built.

A Butterfly-Shaped Island

The island's outline is pinched at the middle into two hilly lobes joined by a narrow isthmus, which from above gives it the shape people compare to a butterfly and which, seen from sea level, can briefly make it look like two separate islands. Two bays bite into that waist from opposite sides: Kosiraca in the north-west and Siroka in the south, each with sand at its head and only a little over a kilometre of land between them.

The single village, also called Ist, spreads across the isthmus between the two bays, with a small marina on the Siroka side. The southern coast is the steeper one, and the interior rises to Straza at 175 metres, from whose summit Dugi Otok, the Kornati, Olib and Silba are all visible on a clear day. Olive groves and vines still work the sheltered slopes inland, and the surrounding shallows are scattered with coves and islets that make the island feel considerably larger from a boat than it does on a map.

Getting There from Zadar

For a place with fewer than two hundred permanent residents, Ist is unusually well connected, and both bays serve as ports for different vessels. The car ferry berths at Kosiraca in the north, while the fast catamaran calls at Siroka in the south, the two terminals barely a kilometre apart on foot. One car ferry route runs from Zadar's Gazenica terminal to Ist and on through Olib, Silba and Premuda to Mali Losinj, the full run taking around seven hours end to end, while a second seasonal service links Zadar with Rivanj, Sestrunj, Zverinac, Molat and Ist.

The catamaran works a Zadar to Molat, Brgulje, Zapuntel and Siroka routing and operates daily through the year, with crossings ranging from about fifty minutes to an hour and twenty depending on how many calls it makes along the way. That is fast enough to make a day trip from Zadar workable in summer, though the island rewards the people who stay rather than the ones who come for four hours.

The Battle of Ist, 29 February 1944

Ist has one entry in the naval history books. On 29 February 1944, two Free French Navy destroyers of the 24th Destroyer Flotilla, based at Bari, intercepted a German convoy in the channel off the island. The French ships were Le Terrible and Le Malin, under Captain Pierre Lancelot. The German escort was substantial: the torpedo boats TA36 and TA37, the corvettes UJ201 and UJ205, and three small minesweepers, all shepherding the 6,311-ton freighter Kapitan Diederichsen.

The French found their targets by radar in the dark and opened fire at around 9,000 yards. Le Terrible closed to 4,500 yards and put a torpedo salvo into the freighter amidships, setting it burning fiercely, while Le Malin hit the corvette UJ201 repeatedly until its magazine detonated and it sank instantly with all hands. The freighter was destroyed and both torpedo boats were damaged, TA37 badly enough that it had to be towed to Pola. German casualties came to roughly 150 killed and wounded. The French took none at all.

Water, Anchorages and Birds

What brings most boats now is the water. The bays at Kosiraca and Siroka both offer shelter, with holding over sand and rock, and each gives a different degree of protection depending on the wind, so there is usually somewhere workable on one side of the isthmus or the other. Sea temperatures reach a comfortable 23 degrees Celsius through June, July and August, warm enough for long swims and clear enough for snorkelling along the rocky margins.

The surrounding shallows and islets of the northern Zadar archipelago are recognised by BirdLife International as an Important Bird Area, on the strength of their breeding populations of fish-eating seabirds, so the quiet here is not only a matter of low population. Its clear water and unhurried anchorages make Ist one of the anchorages you'll visit on a private gulet cruise in Croatia, a stop where the pace is set by the ferry timetable and very little else.