italy to montenegro
8 August 2022
We left Otranto on Monday morning at 6.30am heading for Vlore Albania. As we were motoring out Tony said, “Should we just head for Montenegro?”
Crossing to Albania would involve checking into the country at Vlore, paying an agent to handle the check in process with the authorities and repeating the process in Shengjin before leaving Albanian waters and heading to Montenegro. So, the idea of avoiding the fees and bureaucracy and not spending 2-3 days travelling through Albania to Montenegro was appealing.
So just like that we changed our heading for Bar, Montenegro and we anticipated arriving there Tuesday morning around 6.30am. So we were starting our first overnight passage!
The evening watch started at 7.30pm for me when Tony laid down in the saloon while I manned the helm. It was still light when my watch started, and we had the sails up. The wind had just changed direction and had started to fill before Tony put his head down. I was watching the wind gust up to 20 knots but luckily no higher than that as that may have require me to wake Tony to make some changes.
I was keeping my eyes on the chart plotter to watch for approaching boats and looking out for lights. There had been a yacht that had been behind us all day since leaving Otranto but had been following the wind most of the day. That evening it was slowly gaining ground. The moon was up and looking back I could see the Yacht was close to us and looked like it was sailing in the moon light. At the same time a different boat was coming towards us but was far enough away to not be worried. Until then I felt as if I had things under control. I could see both boats and knew they could see me then the yacht called on the radio as it was getting ready to pass to make sure we knew it was there. The radio call woke Tony with a start and then he panicked at how close the yacht was and had I know it was there and why didn’t I change course or wake him up or, or, or?
My next watch started around midnight. Tony had not seen any boats during his shift. Not long after he went to bed the chart plotter filled up with boats showing on AIS and I could see their lights in the distance, cruise ships, power boats and a fishing boat. The cruise ships were all lit up and were easy to keep watch on. Again, they were nowhere near us but tracking them on AIS and through the binoculars kept the night interesting and made the time pass quickly.
We arrived in Bar, Montenegro around 8.30am and tied up Phantomas for the second time since leaving France, at the customs dock in the commercial harbour. Tony as the captain, was the only one allowed to leave the boat until we were checked in. The check-in process was not quite as straightforward this time, but it got done! We then decided that as we were so knackered, checking into the marina and sleeping would be a good idea. We called the marina and went the short distance around the breakwater to stern moor for the first time into the berth and with the help of the marina guys had Phantomas secured in no time. Tony had done a great job and ticked another “first” off the list. Stern to mooring in a marina.
We left Otranto on Monday morning at 6.30am heading for Vlore Albania. As we were motoring out Tony said, “Should we just head for Montenegro?”
Crossing to Albania would involve checking into the country at Vlore, paying an agent to handle the check in process with the authorities and repeating the process in Shengjin before leaving Albanian waters and heading to Montenegro. So, the idea of avoiding the fees and bureaucracy and not spending 2-3 days travelling through Albania to Montenegro was appealing.
So just like that we changed our heading for Bar, Montenegro and we anticipated arriving there Tuesday morning around 6.30am. So we were starting our first overnight passage!
The evening watch started at 7.30pm for me when Tony laid down in the saloon while I manned the helm. It was still light when my watch started, and we had the sails up. The wind had just changed direction and had started to fill before Tony put his head down. I was watching the wind gust up to 20 knots but luckily no higher than that as that may have require me to wake Tony to make some changes.
I was keeping my eyes on the chart plotter to watch for approaching boats and looking out for lights. There had been a yacht that had been behind us all day since leaving Otranto but had been following the wind most of the day. That evening it was slowly gaining ground. The moon was up and looking back I could see the Yacht was close to us and looked like it was sailing in the moon light. At the same time a different boat was coming towards us but was far enough away to not be worried. Until then I felt as if I had things under control. I could see both boats and knew they could see me then the yacht called on the radio as it was getting ready to pass to make sure we knew it was there. The radio call woke Tony with a start and then he panicked at how close the yacht was and had I know it was there and why didn’t I change course or wake him up or, or, or?
My next watch started around midnight. Tony had not seen any boats during his shift. Not long after he went to bed the chart plotter filled up with boats showing on AIS and I could see their lights in the distance, cruise ships, power boats and a fishing boat. The cruise ships were all lit up and were easy to keep watch on. Again, they were nowhere near us but tracking them on AIS and through the binoculars kept the night interesting and made the time pass quickly.
We arrived in Bar, Montenegro around 8.30am and tied up Phantomas for the second time since leaving France, at the customs dock in the commercial harbour. Tony as the captain, was the only one allowed to leave the boat until we were checked in. The check-in process was not quite as straightforward this time, but it got done! We then decided that as we were so knackered, checking into the marina and sleeping would be a good idea. We called the marina and went the short distance around the breakwater to stern moor for the first time into the berth and with the help of the marina guys had Phantomas secured in no time. Tony had done a great job and ticked another “first” off the list. Stern to mooring in a marina.