Bar – Monday 25 June 2018

We only woke up at 8am and then Richard got the weather.  The forecast has deteriorated and high winds and some rain are expected tomorrow and Wednesday.  So we made a last minute decision to leave right away and make our way to Bar (probably our last stop in Montenegro).  We were stuck in Bar last autumn for several days.  It is a boring town, but with a marina and shops.

The day did not start well. We made the most terrible mess of leaving the mooring.  We started off and I didn’t hear Richard tell my to cast off the forward line.  The couple next door shouted that R was going forward while the line was still attached.  I hurriedly let the rope go, but then further disaster struck.  Dave on the next boat shouted that we were trailing a line.  I couldn’t work out what it could be and then I realized that the pick up cord of the forward line had got tangled on a stanchion.  As I freed it, Richard let the boat go back and hit the pulpit of David’s boat!  Hysterics all around.  They said there was no damage and we couldn’t see any damage on our end other than the fact that the flagpole was knocked off, but intact. So it was great embarrassment all around as we finally left.  Some time later we noted there is a bit of damage on our boat.  The holder for the flag has bent and the flag now flies at a jaunty angle.  Richard hopes to hammer that out.

Thankfully the rest of the day went much better.  There was a tiny bit of breeze (a force 3) from behind.  Richard put up the Genoa leaving the engine on full to increase our speed by about half a knot.  As we had about 45 miles to go we have to keep a move on.  Also we want to be in Bar as early as possible in case the strong winds come in earlier.

So it was another slog by engine with a bit of help of the sail.  We kept up speeds of just under 6 knots which meant that we got to Bar by about 4pm, which wasn’t bad at all.  We stopped first for fuel, being down to about half a tank and the whole of Albania to get through.  We were then put on an alongside berth.  However the wind had picked up and was blowing us off and we made a mess of mooring up.  Thankfully the mooring man was able to pull us in when I was finally able to get a stern line to him on the 4thor 5thattempt.

The wind was quite strong for a couple of hours, but now at 10:30 there is barely anything at all.  But the forecast is still bad.  We are toying with the idea of hiring a car and exploring inland a bit.  We shall see what happens in the morning.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Venice - Thursday 24 May 2018

Well, we are still here in Venice and it doesn’t look like we will be able to leave before Sunday (though Saturday is still a possibility).  The weather has been hot and sunny and is getting to me. I fell asleep twice today! The saga of the works goes on.  We waited most of the morning for anyone to turn up and then walked the ½ mile to the office to find out what was happening when we were told the engineer and rigger were on the way to the boat.  So Richard rushed back to the boat and I loaded up the Times on my ipad. The only internet here is in the hotel so we have to come down to do anything. The upshot is that the water pump has to be replaced for a less powerful one.  The engineer is coming to do that tomorrow morning. Will we be charged for this twice?!  We can see another argument looming. The rigging in another problem.  After he put the main up Richard found that he could not rig the reefing lines.  We have had problems with them and had asked for that to be loo
Read more

Shengjin (Albania) – Thursday 28 June 2018

Image
Well our plans to check out of Montenegro didn’t quite go to plan.     We woke up to the alarm at 6am and went to deal with customs and the immigration police at about 6:45.     The customs office appeared to be closed, but when they heard us at the door they opened it and took our piece of paper from the Harbour Master.   However when we got to the police they told us they do not open until 7am and we had to bring the boat around to them.     By the time we did all this it was about 8am before we left Bar harbour.     The weather forecast was better but there were still problems.  The wind has dropped but there is nearly a metre swell in the sea.  I took a pill before we set out in the light of this.  With the sea state and the late start we abandoned the plan to go straight to Durres and headed to Shengjin instead.  In fact the journey was not that bad.  The sea settled down after a couple of hours.  The main problem is that it became very cloudy and cold. I had to put on long t
Read more

Luke Polace, Mljet – Tuesday 19 June 2018

Image
Well we have had another day that hasn’t gone to plan.     I never got though to Korcula marina. So we had to make some decisions.   The weather forecast for going back to Korcula was bad.     There were predicted to be 20 knot winds on the nose.     Also going to Korcula would mean going north when we want to go south.     So for all those reasons we gave up on that idea and decided it would be best to make our way to Dubrovnik where Jonnie had the details of an engineer who fixed his bow thruster earlier in the season.     So first Jonnie spoke to the engineer who said he could help us if we contacted him when we got to Dubrovnik. Then we made reservations to go into Dubrovnik marina on Wednesday and Thursday.  So today we would go back to our original plan of going to the island of Mljet where there is supposed to be a lovely bay.  There we could go on a restaurant pontoon if not too crowded or windy so we could manoever without hitting anything, or go on a mooring buoy or anch
Read more