Italy to Montenegro & Dubrovnik

Over the 29^th– 30^th  June, we had a fabulous night sail over to Montenegro…force 4/5 all the way WNW, which meant we could sail in a straight line! The only exception being at 3 in the morning when it went from a westerly 15knots to nothing and then within 5 minutes it completely changed direction to an easterly at 15 knots! David managed to get some entertainment along the way with a performing dolphin, but given he was strapped on, he had no opportunity for any photos !

We went in convoy with a Canadian couple, Bill & Vesna (Croatian born) we had met in Brindisi and for once it was nice to know that we had a friendly face behind us, in case we needed it!

We reached the coast at 7 am

Montenegro and the Entrance to the Gulf of Kotor

and  went straight into the  Gulf of Kotor in Montenegro and motored round with our mouths wide open, we can honestly say we have not been to anywhere with Seaclusion that has such stunning scenery.

Gulf of Kotor

We hardly spoke for the 10 miles it took to motor to Porto Montenegro, where clearly the other half live. Wow, such huge boats, sail and motor, which at least it meant that we got the poshest shower block to ourselves most times. The clearing in ( customs process ), was a breeze, only because we were met at the quayside by a lady in a golf cart who took David through the whole process, visiting 4 different places to get clearance and a sailing vignette ( license ) before being returned to the yacht and then being able to moor up in the marina. Without her help, he would have been wandering around aimlessly for hours scratching his head in frustration !

Summing up the last reserves of energy, we washed the boat down, did some laundry, well dropped it off as it was a service wash, returned to the yacht that night, which was more than ideal as it contained our sheets and duvets and went walkabout through the marina and out the other side into Tivat to sort out our wi-fi.

Porto Montenegro

That night we ventured back into town with Bill & Vesna, who I have to say helped a lot when it came to translating the menu, although it didn’t turn out to be the best meal we have had. Still the company was great and David and Bill, who is a canadian dentist, seemed to digress to being teenagers.. something to do with the wine perhaps?

The following day, 1^st July, we motored further into the Gulf, round to Kotor, (me thinks a motor boat would be better if living in these waters permanently). Again just stunning scenery.

We dropped anchor for the night, ate on board and chilled out for the evening and enjoyed the views

Kotor at Night

The next day we jumped in the dinghy, adorned with camera to go sight seeing around the old walled city of Kotor, which is now a world heritage sight.. The plan was the night before, to go and take a walk up the rather large hill to a castle at the top and take in the views over Kotor, but this went Pete Tong, after a night out and not getting ashore till about 11.30am when the temperature was already in the 30’s, but even without those views, I will let the pics to the talking , again!

Kotor by day!

After a second  night on anchor in Kotor, we then headed back to Porto Montenegro to fill up and clear out as we were told that we could stay 1 night after clearing out.

We passed the Star Clipper in all her glory, which was the boat we spent a week on in the Andaman Sea a few years ago.

On arriving at Porto Montenegro, we waited nearly an hour for the customs officer to return from her break, David went off to the office, only to return rather frustrated, having been told that if we cleared out then we had to leave Montenegrin waters immediately! So we didn’t, instead we headed off to a place called Herceg Novi, being the nearest place to the exit of the gulf and Croatian waters, with a customs quay a mile away! This was a tiny little harbour, made turning a little interesting, with a wind blowing we moored alongside to start with and then as the wind dropped we and a couple of other boats pulled our respective boats around by hand to moor stern too, in case other boats needed to come into for the night, not that they did.

This was what looked like a quiet sleepy place but at about 9pm then turned into the rocking place of Montenegro, or at least it felt like it. The atmosphere was great. After dinner out, we got back to the boat and realised that there must be a local tide as the space between the quay and the bottom of the dinghy on the stern, which was fine when we left before dinner, was now impossible to get underneath, so the water level had dropped about 2ft, fortunately, with the help of the davits, we were able to then jump across, which was just as well as we had a few locals on the quayside probably disappointed by the fact that they didn’t get a professional limbo lesson. But we just sat on the boat, limoncello in hand, people watching as the most popular bar it seemed was at the end of the harbour wall so everyone had to walk past us!. Grateful however it wasn’t quite like Spain going on through the night, it all came to a peaceful end about 1am and we turned in to grab some shut eye for an early start to clear out of Montenegro, clear in to Croatia in a place called Cavtat and get to Dubrovnik in time to meet Steven at the airport!.

4^th July, CROATIA! First stop was Cavtat, to clear in, not that I could get off the boat. David had to patiently do the clearing in thing and I will let him let you about that experience… suffice to say we don’t have to do that now for a couple of months!. All I will say is that it was not quite as pleasant as Montenegro and if you didn’t have cash or access to it, you were royally screwed.

We then motored (yes Force 0) onto Dubrovnik, passing the old stone walls and Fort

Croatia & Introducing Dubrovnik

to pass under a seriously tall bridge and motor down river for about 2 miles passing cute houses along the riverside to reach the marina. After floating around the entrance for a while until they gave us our berth no (if you saw how tight it was in there, you would understand why we hovered at the entrance), we moored up safely, in time to catch up with some Movingweather Clients, Dave and Sandy, who are based there over the summer, a charming couple who have given us lots of hints as to where to go, and then David jumped on the bus, well 2 buses to get to the airport to meet Steven, whilst I stayed behind to clean the boat and make his bed (it only happens once I might add!!)

Due to a delayed flight and  nightmare on the buses, they finally found their way back to the boat about 11pm, but hey, the lad has arrived and we have the pleasure of his company now for a month!