13 September 2017 – Cavtat – Croatia

Another day, another country.  So we woke up early and got the boat ready to go.  Richard even took off the passerelle and hauled the boat in close to the pier so he could get off to sign us out.  However, when I called up to ask for assistance signing out of Montenegro we were told to slip anchor and go to the customs pier.  So we did that.  The men were waiting to take our lines and drive Richard to the various offices to do the necessary paper work.  So before 9am we were ready to go, having been warned that we mustn’t stop anywhere in Montenegro.

The first hour of the journey was fine.  Back though the inland sea in sunny conditions with little wind or waves.  But that didn’t last long.  When we got to the open sea it was entirely another matter.  There was a moderate following wind, but the worst of it was a very lumpy uncomfortable sea with at least a metre swell or more. I put up with it for about an hour and decided I needed to take a pill and lie down.  Poor old Richard did all the work for virtually the whole of the trip.  In the last hour I got back into the cockpit, but we were almost here.

We have stopped in the first port of entry in Croatia.  It worked out quite well.  As the pilot books told us there is a customs pontoon that we had to tie up to. We thought it would be alongside, but it was stern to.  The ground crew helped us with mooring and finding the offices to sign into Croatia. 

So we are now legal again.  We decided to stay here for the night, not knowing where else to go.  It is a charming seaside town with old buildings and lots of boats.  The only problem (and it is a bad one) is that it is exposed to the main winds and we are bobbing all over the place.  It is scary getting on and off the boat because the passerelle is moving up and down and side to side.  There are even waves breaking on it!  It is also hellishly expensive.  We knew Croatia would be expensive, but to pay £90 to stay on a town pier without electricity or water seems a bit much to us.  But there you are.

We phoned the other marina near Dubrovnik to see if we could go there tomorrow.  They can moor us tomorrow night, but not over the weekend.  That doesn’t leave us enough time to see Dubrovnik, which we really want to do.  It charges the same as here, but has all services included in the price.  But in the circumstances we are likely to stay here and take the bus into Dubrovnik tomorrow.


Despite the lurching of the boat I made dinner on board for a change.  I have had to take another pill to survive the motion of the boat.  I recall this is like Taormina, where we had another terrible night a few seasons ago.  As the afternoon breeze goes down, the motion is getting better.

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