19-Jun-2003 -- It doesn't happen very often that a confluence point comes to you. According to my experiences, hunting for a confluence means climbing down slippery slopes (47N 8E) or even worse, getting lost in a dense scrub bush, only to escape battered and bruised after an hour-long struggle (42N 9E). This time everything was different.
My girlfriend Sophie and I spent our summer holidays in Croatia, with a visit to the Plitvice Lakes and to the islands on the Dalmatian Coast. We had spent some fabulous days on the
island of Brač and Hvar, visiting the lovely, old village/town of Bol and Hvar. On June 19 we took the ferry Liburnija from Stari Grad on the island of Hvar to the city of Dubrovnik. The ferry had started its journey a day before in Rijeka with stops in Zadar and Split. As usual, I had brought my GPS receiver with me (I mean, what's a man without his favourite toy?). And the ferry cruise presented endless opportunities to play with all the features a GPS receiver has to offer. My girlfriend has thought that at least I should put my play instinct and the GPS to some good use and look for a confluence point. Much to my surprise, a check of the ferry course on a map
revealed that indeed we would come very close to a confluence, 43N 17E! Excitement surged.
Immediately I rushed to the top most deck of the ferry to get our current position. We were already very close to the confluence and we were steadily getting closer. Excitement turned into a mild form of
panic. There was the opportunity to get a confluence and we were sitting on a ferry, which moved at 30 km/h on a set course! How could I stop the ferry or change its course? I marked the confluence on the GPS's internal map and started to the track the course of the ferry. Very soon it became clear that we would not get close enough to claim
it a successful visit, but a least it could be considered an "attempt". The closest we got was 435 m from the confluence! Was there a category for the most effortless attempt of getting a confluence? Or rather, maybe I should have at least asked the ferry captain to change course. You never know, he/she may have also been a fellow confluence point enthusiast!
The confluence 43N 17E is in the water, about 3 km north of the island
of Korčula and about 1.5km south west of the peninsula of Pelješac.