Italy

Brindisi harbour at night 10th July, what should have been a pleasant crossing of the Messina Straits with a forecast F4 was a rough ride under a force 7 with max. gusts of 35kn and our max. speed of 9kn. Once across the straits and under the lee of the mainland the wind disappeared completely and we had to motor, nevertheless we did the 78 mile passage to Rochella Ionica in just under 12 hours. This is the region of Calabria with a spectacular mountainous back-drop fronted by mile upon mile of unspoiled beaches but nowhere to anchor because there is no shelter. view route

Rochella Ionica is a very nice marina with finger pontoons, water, a bar/restaurant showers, toilets, wifi, and even a washing machine. It's free because it's unfinished but there is no sign of continuing development, in fact there isn't any maintenance work being done, it's in limbo. It's one of the Porto Touristico's built with EU money to bring tourism to the area but like so many things it may have cost a lot but it's been done on the cheap. There is no electricity on the pontoons so we had to run the engine every day for power. We ate at the restaurant/pizzeria and were pleasantly surprised, the yachties were well outnumbered by local people which considering the town is 3km away must say something. The town is bigger than expected and has a good supply of provisions, plus there is a new supermarket much closer.

Brindisi After eight pleasant days we decided to move on. We had planned to go to Crotone but diverted to La Castella when we saw the magnificent castle, we successfully negotiated the very narrow entrance to the inner basin but it was tiny and far too shallow, just 0,2 meters under the keel. Like a lot of places along this coast they continually silt up and nothing is done. The outer harbour was completely taken over by fishing and local boats so we pressed on to Crotone with a strong SW wind behind us, we were flying at 8.5 knots. The marina here has no facilities other than power and water so it's expensive at 35 euros a night and the fuel is outrageously expensive!

We were told about another free marina at Ciro so off we went passing miles of unspoiled beaches with a large herd of cows on one of them. The scenery is changing, small rounded hills down to the beach with larger flat topped hills behind with towns perched on top and mountains in the distance. Ciro marina is supposed to be a Porto Turistico but is so sub-standard that a large part of the quay in the middle basin meant for visiting yachts has collapsed into the harbour and the rest is taken up with trawlers and small local craft. The local people were very unhelpful, they don't want tourists now that they've had the EU grant, very sad so we decided to do an overnight passage to Brindisi but stayed long enough to have lunch.

Lecce The 134nm passage took us across the notoriously stormy Gulf of Taranto, round the heel of Italy and into the Southern Adriatic. We arrived at Brindisi.after twenty two and a half hours of sailing and stayed for seven nights. We had planned to go directly across the Adriatic to Vlore in Albania until Tan heard the word Montenegro! After a disastrous start scraping the port side stern on leaving the quay we set out for Kotor in Montenegro, got 8 miles out when the clew parted company with the mainsail so turned around and with the wind behind us we made good time getting back to Brindisi and tied up alongside the quay in the same position as before where we stayed for a further eight nights during which time we took the train to Lecce and had a pleasant day out but Lecce is not as nice as Brindisi.

They buils Churches everywher! 8th August we left Brindisi again, this time for Bar in Montenegro and scrapped the boat again twice, getting fuel. We have put more scrapes on the boat in Brindisi than in the last 5 years even coming through the canals and locks just through carelessness.

Montenegro

Montenegro is bordered by Croatia to the North and Albania to the South and over the past few decades has experienced considerable turmoil, from earthquakes, political uncertainty and the effects of the wars in Croatia and Kosovo. Despite all of this the people are helpful and outwardly friendly once approached. Surprisingly, since January 2008 the currency here is the Euro.

The 93nm overnight passage across the Adriatic Sea took just under 21 hours. The wind was very light and the sea calm so we had to motor-sail most of the way apart from five hours under sail during the night. We stopped 40 miles offshore for a swim. Only saw one dolphin on the whole passage.

Island of Stradioti We tied up alongside the customs quay and went through the Montenegro entry process, got a crew list form from the harbourmaster and presented him with copies of the boats papers, insurance, certificate of competency. In return he gives you a small chit with the cost of the vignette on it, a staggering €220 for 1 month. Fill in the form and take it to the police who stamp it then take it to customs who ask you if you have anything to declare then stamp it, Then to the post office to pay the money, they charge you €8.60 for the privilege and give you a receipt. Now back to the harbour-master who gives you a vignette to stick on the boat.

The customs quay was dirty and smelly so we decided to go to the marina, just the other side of the quay, it's very expensive €41 per night compared to €30 in Brindisi but there is electricity and water and more breeze here.

Otak with it's church and monastery The town of Bar (with a capital B) is a little confusing to start with because everywhere you look there is Bar (with a capital B) something, not to be confused with a bar (small b) that sells drinks! There are several supermarkets, by far the biggest is in a 1950’s style shopping mall which is a series of octagonal dome roofed pre-fabricated concrete buildings. Much of the town that was destroyed in the 1979 earthquake has been rebuilt I pre-fabricated concrete.

The town market is huge, housed in a roofed but side-less building with row upon row of stalls all vying for your attention. Many stalls were run by elderly women in traditional attire (black with white lace head-ware) and sold their own produce. This is produce shopping at it’s most intense but if you Around the edges of the produce market are butchers and bakers, didn’t find the candlestick makers but I suspect they were there. We found some of the best produce in Montenegro here.

Mountain fires Two days later we proceeded 16nm north up the coast toward Budva passing a tiny island with a church perched on top and anchored behind Sveti (island) Nikola - Lots of jet ski's, small power boats and a very noisy disco which was intolerable even at over a mile away blaring until 01:00. One night here was enough! Met Michael Taylor on his Oceanis 366CC.

Next day we continued travelling north up the coast and into the Gulf of Kotor. This gulf is surrounded by mountains, some over 1000 meters high, and consists of three large finger lakes each several miles long with many Alpine looking hamlets around the shores. There is still a lot of evidence of the strong previous military presence here, submarine pens carved into the cliffs, disused military areas with abandoned looking vehicles and ships. There is also quite a lot of development going on, especially the building of holiday apartments and the once prohibited area of Tivat military dockyard which is now owned by a Russian billionaire (who owns an English football club) is developing it as a mega-yacht marina, probably so he can park his own mega-yacht.

Dual rotor helicopyer For the next ten days we were anchored close in to the Island of Stradioti which used to be a Club Med resort but was abandoned when the unrest started. Many of the grass huts are still intact but the island is overgrown and nearby is the small island of Otak with it’s church and monastery.

Michael is here in his 36CC and told us about a supermarket on the mainland. We went off in search of it but only found some mini-markets and veg. Stalls. Next day armed with more information gleaned from Alexandra (a Serbian TV producer) and his girlfriend Mira, we set off again. It's about a 30 to 40 minute dinghy ride across the bay then walk past the end of Tivat airport runway, separated only by a low fence, and there it is, a surprisingly good supermarket.

Perast There have been mountain fires burning for several days, each day two old rotary engine airplanes would repeatedly take off from Tivat airfield with a load of water and laboriously climb up the mountain to deposit their load before returning for another load. An old dual rotor helicopter with a large canvas bucket slung below assisted. Each night the fire would take hold again until eventually two purpose built seaplanes arrived from Italy.

The night before we left Stradioti we invited Alexandra, Mira and Michael over for drinks. Next day we looked at Kotor and weren't impressed so stayed at Marina Prcanj about 3km outside Kotor. You can see the impressive walls of Kotor lit up at night and rising way up the mountainside. The marina is run by a very nice family but there is a lot of wash from shipping going in and out of Kotor. The village is very small and quiet with 2 small hotels, a bar/café and a mini-market.

Gospa od Skrpjela and Sveti Djordje We had planned to anchor at Risan in the 2nd finger-lake but didn't like the look of it. We passed the very pretty village of Perast where Tan wanted to stop but there was a strong wind blowing onto the quay and it would have been very difficult and uncomfortable, so returned to Stradioti and anchored in almost the same place but it took 3 attempts to get the anchor to hold.

Just off Perast are the two islands of Gospa od Skrpjela and Sveti Djordje each with their own church and belfry. The island of Gospa od Skrpjela is artificial, it was created by the people of Perast dropping stones on a reef or according to some sources, by filling captured pirate ships with stones and sinking them on the reef. This tradition started after the discovery on a rock of an icon of the Virgin in 1452. The island of Sveti Djordje was the site of a the most important Benedictine abbey in Boka Kotorska and was twice sacked and destroyed by Turks.

On the evening of 23rd August we left Montenegro and headed for Greece.