Tuesday 5 September 2017 – Durres (Albania)

Well the alarm went off at 5:45 and having disconnected the electricity and taken in the passerelle last night we were ready to set off at first light.  We got slightly delayed by a policeman who could only speak Italian (and I guess Albanian) who seemed to think we had failed to do something necessary to leave.  We know that wasn’t the case, so we were just nice to him.  In the end Richard worked out that what worried him was our Cruising Association burgee.  It seems he though it might mean we had some strange native of an unknown country on board (there seems to be a habit here to put up a courtesy flag for the nationality of everyone on board if they aren’t the same nationality as the boat’s flag).  Anyway Richard showed him our membership card and he gave up.  We were about 10 minutes behind the time we hoped to leave.

I made a light breakfast on board.  Richard then put up the mainsail in the hope we might get a bit of wind.  We each had a couple of hours kip below while the other kept watch.  When I went up for my watch I found both sails up and we were motor sailing at over 6 knots, which could make a lot of difference in covering the 60 miles to Durres. 

In the end it was a long, somewhat boring, but nice and uneventful journey under motor with some sails assisting and we did it in 10½ hours.   The only problem was that when we called up the Harbour Master an hour out he told us that a boat had to leave to make space for us, so we had to delay going into port for half an hour, which we did by turning the engine off and sailing the last hour in a force 4.  Quite nice really.

Anyway berthing here is very weird.  This is a container port.  On the other side of the port there is a smaller harbour used just for ferries which come and go all the time, so no yachts are put there.  The harbour master and our agent get together and find a space for private yachts.  We were supposed to berth in a space left by a cruise liner, but a tall ship left the same dock first and we have been put there.  It is perfectly safe and comfortable, but strange being in the middle of a commercial dock.  There is no water or electricity and you can be asked to move to make way for a ship if one is coming in.  Our agent knew there was nothing coming in today, so we are fine.  However, we would like to leave the boat and go to Tirana tomorrow, so he is checking to see if anything is due in.  Otherwise we will have to stay around here. The dock is also fairly high but I have managed to get on and off the boat, albeit rather gracelessly.

This evening we had the energy to walk into town.  This is another seaside resort and we walked all along the prom to a restaurant recommended by the agent.  We had a good meal and eventually even got some WIFI.


It was quite cold today, but it has warmed up this evening.  I was getting worried because I didn’t bring that much in warmer clothes, assuming I would only need such things in October, not September.  The forecast is for warmer weather up to about 28C.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wednesday 4 October 2017 – Certosa Island, Venice

The weather certainly did improve today.   The sun has been shining all day and it even felt warm.   With the better weather my view of the marina has improved.   The best thing is that we have found toilets and showers only 50 yards away!   They are a bit tired, but we had heard that.   They seem perfectly functional and certainly will make our life a lot easier. We have decided to spend the day sorting the boat out.   We start at the marina office where we try to get a further discount for being a member of the Cruising Association.   As we suspected because we got a 10% discount on the bill for a Boat Show special they are unwilling to give another discount.   Fair enough.   We speak to someone about the maintenance work we want done over the winter.   We need to send him an e-mail with the full details and he will get in touch with the appropriate tradesmen. I do a load of laundry.   Not a roaring success.   Their ...
Read more

Monday 11 September 2017 – Porto Montenegro

Up fairly early.   Went to the toilet block.    There is still no hot water.   The weather doesn’t seem so bad and for a few minutes Richard contemplates setting off from here today.   But the forecast is bad, so we stay put.   The marina office sends a golf trolley to us to take us to the showers on the other side of the marina where there is hotish water. We finally joined the washed of the world.   We have a leisurely morning trying without much success to download the Times.   We finally succeed and decide to take a walk into Tivat (the local town). We discover there two supermarkets, and a proper market selling fruit and veg and fresh fish.   We also make it to the tourist office where we get details on how to catch the bus to Kotor.   We shall probably do that tomorrow if we are still stuck here. I stop at a Slam shop and buy myself a new waterproof jacket.   My Quba sail’s one is no longer properly waterproof and giv...
Read more

Monday 2 October 2017 – Marina 4 (Quattro) – Italy

So it was today we left Croatia.   It was all very simple.   The office at the end of the pontoon opened at 8am.   We had had our cereal and decided to have coffee under way.   Richard went there as they opened and was back all finished within 15 minutes!   So we rushed off and slipped our mooring at 8:15. The weather has been much the same as before.   Cool, not much wind and sunny.   Richard did put the Genoa up for an hour or two with the engine (which gained a third of a knot) but generally it was the usual motor all the way.   The only problem was that the sea was a bit lumpy.   It was coming at us from the side so we were corkscrewing.   So I took a pill.   I don’t need to worry about running out now.   We only have one more day of sailing! We had to go 30 miles, so it was a bit of a slog.   At about noon, or a bit later I suddenly felt very tired and fell asleep in the cockpit.   This isn’t unusual on ...
Read more