BAR? no, not that sort of bar
9th August 2022
After our first overnight crossing we arrived, through the morning mist, to these incredible mountain/hills lining the coast. Photo’s struggle to show the scale of the coastline but it is awesome. We’d been told that Bar was more of an industrial town so the port was the first indication of that as we tied up to the Q dock. Tony went off to do the first “check-in” procedure with the officials and apart from no signs on any buildings or doors giving clues to where to go, it went well. We then went around to Marina Bar to check in. Another first, backing into our berth in the marina was helped by no wind and friendly marinaro’s on hand to catch the lines.
After checking in at the marina office we put our heads down for a nap. Looking around in the afternoon, it was easy to see signs that life had not been kind to Bar in recent years. There was a general “run-down” feel to the town with many empty buildings and shops. The most vibrant part of the city centre were the bars and restaurants. Every place that looked cared for and looked after was a restaurant.
The beaches along the town foreshore were crowed with holiday makers and as we rode our bikes along the beach past some beach clubs and bars, we didn’t hear any English spoken but we had been told there would be a lot of Russians in Montenegro. It is hard to know what language we were hearing, Croatian or Russian both sound crazy to me.
We ended up staying two nights in Bar and on the last evening a fire could be seen burning on the hillside close to some houses. The water bombing helicopters came the next morning to finish the job. A few days later we saw some fires burning on the hillsides as we got to TIvat and were told they had started from lightening strikes. I can imagine the difficulty of fighting fires on those mountains.
BUDVA
We had a night’s stopover after leaving Bar in a bay near Budva. Budva, to quote Wikipedia is known as.
“The Budva riviera, is the centre of Montenegrin tourism, known for its well-preserved medieval walled city, sandy beaches and diverse nightlife. Budva is 2,500 years old, which makes it one of the oldest settlements on the Adriatic coast.”
That night at anchor we experienced the well-known winds that tear down from the huge hills along the coastline called Katabatic winds. The winds can go from mild to wild in a short time and you can experience anything up to 30-40-50 knot gusts which can cause anchors to drag if they are not set well enough or have out enough anchor chain. We experienced up to 20 knotwinds with gusts up to 30 knot that night and that was enough to keep us awake for a while and on anchor watch. In the morning it was as though it had never happened, and peace had been restored to the world, so we set off for Tivat.
After our first overnight crossing we arrived, through the morning mist, to these incredible mountain/hills lining the coast. Photo’s struggle to show the scale of the coastline but it is awesome. We’d been told that Bar was more of an industrial town so the port was the first indication of that as we tied up to the Q dock. Tony went off to do the first “check-in” procedure with the officials and apart from no signs on any buildings or doors giving clues to where to go, it went well. We then went around to Marina Bar to check in. Another first, backing into our berth in the marina was helped by no wind and friendly marinaro’s on hand to catch the lines.
After checking in at the marina office we put our heads down for a nap. Looking around in the afternoon, it was easy to see signs that life had not been kind to Bar in recent years. There was a general “run-down” feel to the town with many empty buildings and shops. The most vibrant part of the city centre were the bars and restaurants. Every place that looked cared for and looked after was a restaurant.
The beaches along the town foreshore were crowed with holiday makers and as we rode our bikes along the beach past some beach clubs and bars, we didn’t hear any English spoken but we had been told there would be a lot of Russians in Montenegro. It is hard to know what language we were hearing, Croatian or Russian both sound crazy to me.
We ended up staying two nights in Bar and on the last evening a fire could be seen burning on the hillside close to some houses. The water bombing helicopters came the next morning to finish the job. A few days later we saw some fires burning on the hillsides as we got to TIvat and were told they had started from lightening strikes. I can imagine the difficulty of fighting fires on those mountains.
BUDVA
We had a night’s stopover after leaving Bar in a bay near Budva. Budva, to quote Wikipedia is known as.
“The Budva riviera, is the centre of Montenegrin tourism, known for its well-preserved medieval walled city, sandy beaches and diverse nightlife. Budva is 2,500 years old, which makes it one of the oldest settlements on the Adriatic coast.”
That night at anchor we experienced the well-known winds that tear down from the huge hills along the coastline called Katabatic winds. The winds can go from mild to wild in a short time and you can experience anything up to 30-40-50 knot gusts which can cause anchors to drag if they are not set well enough or have out enough anchor chain. We experienced up to 20 knotwinds with gusts up to 30 knot that night and that was enough to keep us awake for a while and on anchor watch. In the morning it was as though it had never happened, and peace had been restored to the world, so we set off for Tivat.