July too late to head to Croatia from Turkey?

[transformer]

"of typical high winds in the Adriatic beginning in August"

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Nothing beginning in August. Especialy not "high" winds. Main wind during summer is Maestral (in Croatian), for you Mistral.
Mistral is a “benevolent”, a friendly NW wind looked forward by especially sailors and all those who enjoy the summer season under its breeze. Mistral is a daily wind blowing from the northwest and created by the differences in temperature between the mainland and sea. It is fairly frequent from spring to autumn and strongest in July and August.
It usually starts blowing around 9 or 10 in the morning, reaches its highest strength in the afternoon and fades at sunset. Mistral is generally weaker in the north Adriatic than in its south.

and sorry for earlier rant.

[svBeBe]

Thanks. Now, that was helpful. It appears from this and some others' comments that arriving in Croatia very late July or early August and cruising 30 days before venturing onward straight to Rome (Ostia) is a workable idea. That's what I needed to know.

Judy

[donradcliffe]

I'd say its quite doable, but you will feel rushed because there is so much to see. I'd plan on being in Ostia by the end of October. We left Croatia in mid September, then spent a week in Venice before working our way around to Vibo Valentia for the winter. The Med is no place to sail in December to February.

[atoll]

if the budget allows i would reccomend using the corinth canal,cape kithera at the bottom end of the agean can be a mini cape horn in july-august.

lots of nice places to stop on the way as well,and saves a good few hundred miles slog to windward after leaving the agean

[transformer]

and I forgot something more and could not edit post...

I should mention Bura (Bora) in earlier post.If there is any chance that you are still in the Adriatic at the beginning of september, you should be worried about Bura (Bora). Bora is usualy winter wind but sometimes can start blowing at the beginning of september.
It vertically descends the slopes of the coastal mountains and moving towards the sea. It thus creates dust clouds that reduce visibility. It rarely blows for more than three days, but blows in gusts and therefore might be very severe and unexpected, so, if you have not encountered Bora so far, I advise you to reach the nearest harbour. The areas where some of the strongest Bura winds occur are: Trieste Bay, Velebit channel famous for the Bora of Senj), Vinodolski channel, Bay of Novigrad, areas around Sibenik, Split (in particular Vrulje near Omis), Makarska – lowlands of Biokovo, Zuljana Bay on the Peljesac peninsula, River Neretva estuary, Risan Bay in Boka (Montenegro). On the contrary, areas where some of the mildest Bura winds occur are: western coast of Istria, southern area of Biokovo stretching towards Trogir, from the coast of Poljice to Dugi Rat, as well as the coast of Montenegro. In short, it might be said that where coastal hilltops are lower than 600 meters or more than 4 kilometres from the coast, the mildest Bura winds occur.

[athene]

For what it's worth, we cruised Croatia from mid-June round to the end of August before laying up in Portoroz, Slovenia. We only had one spell of violent weather during that period - a two-hour thunderstorm in Piran, Slovenia with a swell big enough to bend our fairleads. The good thing about Croatia is that you're never more than a couple of hours from shelter and the forecasts are generally pretty accurate.

For more information on Croatia and in the absence of your pilot books, take a look at the World Cruising and Sailing Wiki (Croatia - a Cruising Guide on the World Cruising and Sailing Wiki) which has data on all the Croatian ports and islands and most of the anchorages.