Month: October 2017

A mere 3 1/2 hours after leaving Corfu we were at anchor in Sarande, Albania, greeted by no less than Queen Victoria.

Mike met our agent, Mr. Zholi, who took away our paperwork.  50 Euros and less than two hours later we were checked in to the country and free to head north.  We motored for four hours and set up camp in Palermos, or Porto Palermo.  The cruising guide states that there is an abandoned military base in the north end of the bay, and that you should not anchor there.  One cruiser reported being forced to move at gunpoint.  One guess where Mike headed to anchor!  Right in the middle of our procedure a man started walking toward us on shore, whistling sharply to get our attention.  We don’t speak any Albanian, but we got the gist and moved.  A few minutes later we were alongside a very high pier.  I pulled a muscle climbing up to tie the lines. What? No sympathy? We were greeted by a pack of barking dogs and a herd of goats.

We were a bit nervous about the water cooling off as we head north, but the bay was just too clear and enticing, so I dove in.  I’ve changed.  The only problem with crystal clear water is that you can see all the junk on the sea floor, but a few old tires weren’t about to dissuade me.  Mike was exhausted after our early morning and long day of motoring, but I couldn’t resist staying up to watch some Dancing with the Stars.  Shortly after 11pm we heard a boat pull alongside and hail us.  Okay, Mike heard it, I had my headphones on. At first we thought it was a fisherman whose spot we had stolen on the dock, but it was soon evident that they were officials checking our paperwork.  That’s a first!  After lots of paper shuffling, conferring in Albanian, and a couple phone calls, they established that all was in order and offered Mike smiles and a swig of hooch.  He politely declined and shuffled back to bed.

In the morning while I slept, Mike went for a walk hoping to explore the local castle.  It wasn’t open yet and there was a guard puppy, so that will have to wait until our next trip to Albania.  You never know.

We were on our way by 8:30 am.  When I asked Mike where we were going he directed me to the description in the cruising guide: “Ishulli i Sazanit–there is a small naval harbour on the NE side of this island, situated in the SE end of the bay of St. Nicolo. This is a prohibited area, and approaching within one mile of the island is forbidden.” Really?!?! Mike assured me that Mr. Zholi had obtained permission for us to spend the night, plus the cruising guide is at least six years out of date.  The Albania section is also prefaced with the disclaimer that the authors have never been to Albania.

So, we toodled into the harbour and were greeted by three very nice soldiers, the caretaker of the facility, and two beautiful dogs.  They explained that it was a military harbour and boats are not allowed to spend the night without special permission.  You don’t say.  They called their superior who said no, we could not spend the night.  The soldiers were very kind about the whole thing and very apologetic.  They told us we were free to stay in the harbour until 5 pm and explore the island and then we could anchor just outside.  We thanked them and said we would just head out now.  Very relieved that this information was all communicated with smiles and chit chat rather than guns.

We anchored in the bay and Mike decided that since we had a pretty long journey to get to our final Albanian port, Durres, it made sense to leave around midnight and do our first small passage.  He took an extended nap to prepare.  I, however, went about my day as usual, heading to bed around 10pm.  Mike woke me up at 11:50 to help him get underway and then I went back to bed.  An hour later I heard Mike put up the sails and turn off the engine  Ah, I thought, he is truly having fun now, sailing by moonlight.  He woke me up again at 4:30am to help him take the mainsail down. I enjoyed a little night time on the water, observed the lightning on the horizon, and then it was back to bed until morning. Hey, this passage making isn’t so bad!

At 8:30 the next morning we were alongside at the commercial port in Durres, greeted once again by a small pack of dogs: two female adults and two puppies.  One of the adults had a large abscess on a front paw. I wished Dr. Mimi were with us.  We’ve been pretty lucky in that most of the dogs and cats we’ve encountered have been in pretty good shape, but it sure tugs the heartstrings when you meet one that isn’t.

As we were trying to figure out how to make a call to our agent, the man himself, Captain Ninga, showed up at the boat.  He gave us some tips on how to spend our day in Durres and said he would be back at 7 am the next morning to check us out of Albania.

We ventured into Durres to check out the Roman amphitheatre and have lunch. Cheap!!! We spent 20 Euros while we were out, and that bought us: a pizza and glass of wine for me, a porky meal and small beer for Mike, a huge tip for the waiter, and then at the grocery store we got 6 cans of local beer, a box of dog biscuits, and then six beautiful oranges at a fruit store. Not bad! If you want to go on an inexpensive Mediterranean vacation I think Albania wins, hands down.

When we returned to the boat we got a visit from a port security guard. I assumed he wanted to check papers but no, he just wanted to shoot the breeze for an hour about Canada and Albania. I was hoping the dogs would come around later, especially Mama, but no luck.

In the morning Captain Ninga came by and took our passports to go check us out.  While we were waiting for him to return I saw Limpy and the two puppies rooting around in some garbage a few hundred feet away, so I started to walk over. As soon as Limpy heard my whistle she came bounding over and hoovered some dog biscuits. This of course attracted the puppies who were too little for whole biscuits but ate all of Limpy’s crumbs. Our agent returned with our passports, so all checked out we pushed off from the dock. Of course, as we were motoring away we saw Mama running down the quay, attracted by the commotion. We were too far away to throw her some biscuits, so I’m a little sad about that.

Just as we got out into open water we spied a hitchhiker on the jib sheets.

He worked his way around the boat exploring the mainsail cover, hanging out under the overturned dinghy on deck, hopping onto one of the winches in the cockpit, sitting on the dinghy engine, and even hopping onto my arm at one point. I shrieked, but it didn’t deter him too much as he eventually he got bold enough to move gradually down into the cabin. He started on top of the open port berth door, then onto the open window over the stove, into the port berth, and then the far corner of the salon behind my hanging bathrobe. He’s pretty entertaining and cute, but I’m afraid to think of all the places I’ll be finding bird poop for the next few days.

 

Mike finally opened the salon hatch and shooed him out, and soon after we spied our first Montenegro town on shore, he flew off.  I guess he’d reached his destination.

Bye Albania, you’re a funny place.  Very friendly people, great value for your money, lots of English spoken, but not really set up for cruisers as the above photo of our “berth” in Durres demonstrates.  We’re glad we spent a couple days there, though.  If I were more conscientious I’d send this blog post to the cruising guide folks now that we are people who have actually cruised in Albania!

This post is slightly ahead of where we are in the blog, but it’s too special to wait!  Check out our dolphin encounter last week!!!!  My only regret is that I didn’t get video of when he vertically reversed out of the water tail first.  Really.

DOLPHIN

First of all, here is a bonus shot of Thelma checking on the mainsail. Does she look happy with it?

I’m happy to report that the ladies made it back to Canada without incident, save a crying baby on the ten hour flight from Athens to Montreal. Then my poor Mom endured a six hour layover in Montreal before her connection to Fredericton. She had a day that was truly 24 hours long. Hope your trip to Greece was worth it, Mama!  Thelma and Sharon both referred to it many times as the “trip of a lifetime”, but I’m not 100% clear if that was because they had such a great time or just because it was so far to travel!

After the moms went on their way, Mike and I slept some more and then used the rental car to do a grocery run. Oh, and we spent 250 Euros on a new solenoid because the damn windlass failed again yesterday! I really hope that is the last anyone needs to hear about the windlass.

The next day we left Gouvia Marina and settled into our old spot in the bay south of the Old Fort in Corfu Town. We decided to stay put for a days so I could get at least four coats of varnish on the port side toerail. Duty calls.

We enjoyed our time camped out with a few forays into town for food and sightseeing. First we hit Pane e Souvlaki. The souvlaki was truly delicious, grilled over an open flame, but it was dark meat. Normally that would mean I gave my whole meal to Mike, but it was so tasty I ate it anyway. Mike had a great falafel sandwich and we both got some crispy fresh-cut fries.

A couple days later we decided to try lunch at a Mexican restaurant that Mike found online. Turned out they weren’t open for lunch, so we decided to try Pane e Souvlaki’s sister restaurant, Pane e Psaraki. This place was a smidge fancier and more expensive (fish-centric), but their WiFi was screaming fast so it was worth the extra money. My grilled squid was so pretty I had to take a picture.

What you don’t see is that right after this photo was taken I sawed into it and the plate was covered in ink! I should have taken a picture of that too, but I was too busy trying to eat my squid before it was covered in blackness.

A couple days later we tried the Mexican spot again, this time for dinner. Success! La Tabernita provided some tasty food, if not completely authentic. The highlight was the La Tabernita special spicy margarita. The waiter warned me it is a very very spicy drink. He was correct! It hurt my mouth so so much, but was so tasty I had a second one for dessert! Mike stuck to the wine, with a couple sips of my marg for good measure. Again, the food wasn’t very authentic, but our chili nachos and my giant carnitas taco were all very tasty. We will see you again, La Tabernita.

After talking with David, it sounded like we were going to have to get back to Athens for mid-October to meet a guy who was going to assess Coral to start getting her ready to sell in the EU.  We wanted to take the long-cut around the Peloponnese instead of the Corinth Canal, so it was time to hit the road and head south.  Our first stop was our old spot off of Mourtos on the mainland (site of the dramatic 2am thunderstorm with the moms). We found a great spot to anchor with a nice sandy bottom.

The next day we headed over to Paxos again, but this time we went to Lakka on the northeast tip. It’s a cute little town with a gorgeous bay–crystal clear water and sandy bottom. I’m sad we didn’t bring the moms here–it is spectacular. David and CM said they haven’t checked it out yet because it is always so busy in the summer, and I can see why. Even in mid-September there were forty or so pleasure boats hanging around. In the same conversation David also said he was considering shipping Coral to Florida as she would be easier to sell there.  Being built in Maine would have more cachet in the US than in Europe. Hmmm, stay tuned…

We went ashore for a tasty meal that was not affected in the least by the 45 minute power outage. I ordered chicken curry risotto. Risotto? Not so much, but it was a good chicken curry with rice. Mike had some of the amazing pork you could see roasting on a spit in the window (a very effective way to get people in the door).

The next night was calling for winds that were not great for our spot in Lakka, so we continued south and went back to the dock in Gaios. I got some _serious_ downloading done, a thousand thank yous to Alex’s Place!  I also demanded a little alone time while we were there (does a person ever need to spend 24/7 with another person, no matter how much you like them?) and spent it at the Blue Grotto having a pizza diavolo. Oh. My. God. It was one of the tastiest pizzas I have ever had. No WiFi at the restaurant. I’d like to say I read my book (same book for six months now, though in my defense it is a very long book), but I didn’t bring it with me, so I crushed candy instead.  Then I did groceries where I spied these two guarding the store.

We stayed in Gaios for two nights and then headed back over to the mainland. A little excitement as we were exploring Ormos Valtou just north of Parga: Mike wanted to explore the bay with the mainsail up (me not so much). We jibed and when the main snapped over, the clew of the sail popped off the boom. Oops, sorry Leisurefurl. We dropped the anchor and then dropped the mainsail onto the deck. Mike bundled it up with a rope and then we proceeded south in search of more shelter to deal with the situation. An hour later we were anchored in Ormos Ayiou Ioannou. It’s a beautiful double bay with a gaggle of pipefish and a freshwater spring welling up from the sea floor. You can tell where the spring is by the eddy on the surface. The next morning we reinstalled the mail sail and Mike did some dinghy patching.

Next stop–Preveza. It’s on the mainland just over the causeway from Lefkas Town and the home of three popular marinas where folks leave their boats for the winter.  We anchored in the bay near town and then dinghied over to Cleopatra Marina to replenish our varnish, thinner, and sandpaper, along with a new circuit breaker for the windlass and a rail clamp–dare to dream!

The next morning Mike did some groceries and we headed deeper into the giant bay, the Gulf of Amvrakia. It’s the home of the National Park of Amvrakikos Wetlands, and it has the wildlife to prove it. As we departed Preveza we saw a seal swimming by and a whole flock of herons hanging out on top of the fish farm.

We stopped in Koronisia for a super lunch at a sleepy harbourfront restaurant (calamari and fries, bien sur), with lots of cats politely hoping for scraps. I couldn’t resist feeding them, and as I was tossing some squid to a cat, it reached up and pricked my finger with a claw. How bad is cat scratch fever?

After lunch he headed around a bunch of small islands to the back side of Koronisia to anchor for the night. Mike did a little kiting investigation but it didn’t look too promising. We did see a lone dolphin hanging around at dusk. Where are your friends, buddy?

In the morning we proceeded on to Vonitsa. We left Coral at anchor and went to visit the castle on the hill above town.

During our stroll we saw two little tortoises.  I never would have seen them, but Mike heard the rustling both times and busted them. (They were complemented later by the big turtle that swam by Coral in the bay).

As we descended back into town we met these two guys–they were very excited to see us, but not a single bark came out of their mouths. Very impressive.

Later that afternoon Mike was getting fidgety, so we went back to land and walked across the causeway to a park with a nice forest and running trail. No, of course I didn’t run, but we were lapped by a couple of runners several times during our stroll, so I gather that’s mostly what it’s used for.

By this time we had heard back from David and it’s a sure thing that Coral is Florida bound!  We have to deliver her to northern Italy for the end of November, so the next day when we left the gulf we turned north again.

We explored this adorable little bay, but it was tight quarters, so we continued a smidge north to Two Rock Bay.

Two Rock Bay did not disappoint.  Gorgeous clear water with an interesting sea bottom, schools of pipefish and hundreds of other adorable little fish that followed us around like puppies as we snorkeled.  The two types we see a lot are Saddled Sea Bream and Mediterranean Damselfish.  Speaking of fish, I saw one of these guys back in Lakka.  By far the most colourful fish of the entire trip. We enjoyed the bay so much that we stayed for two nights.  Mike used the down day to go up the mast and change the anchor light.

Then it was back over to Paxos.  We took a peek at Mongonisi on the southeast coast, but decided to go back to the dock in Gaios so we could top up our water and feast on some more WiFi from Alex’s Place and some more pizza from Blue Grotto.  Soooo good!  I also went out for groceries and cannot believe I missed this sign on my two previous trips to the store: uh, yes, I would definitely like to use your shopping troll!

The next day it was back to Mourtos for our fourth visit.  I guess we are creatures of habit.  A little drama on the crossing back to the mainland:  a lone dolphin sighting, a giant military ship sighting, and after Mike soaked one of the dock lines and squeezed out the water he tossed it in a pile on the deck, turned his back and when he turned again it had snaked off the deck and was long gone.  Oops.  It was kind of funny until we replaced it and realized how much a dock line costs (over 100 Euros).

The next morning it was back to Corfu.  Pretty sure this is our final Corfu visit (never say never–when we left the last time I thought it was our last visit), so we anchored south of the Old Fort again and gawked at our neighbour–The Maltese Falcon!  You should totally click on the link and check this sucker out.  She left early the next morning before we could take a photo, but there is no shortage of photos online of this giant sailboat.

For dinner we headed back to La Tabernita for another delightful meal.  When I ordered my spicy margarita the waiter said no, it was too spicy.  I assured him that I had been to the restaurant before and had consumed not one, but two of them, to which the bartender laughed and said “Oh, YOU’RE the one!”  I asked what makes it so spicy, and he has Scotch bonnet peppers stewing in his simple syrup.  That would explain it. One benefit is that I sip my marg a lot slower than usual, but enjoy it twice as much.  Must mention this to Les when I get back to Ottawa. (Mike just pointed out the obvious–Les will not be interested in selling fewer margaritas!)

We’re on a schedule now, so it was back to Gouvia for one night to replenish supplies, get an oil change, fill up with diesel, drop off laundry, buy foul weather gear, and redo the bolts that connect the boomvang to the mast. We spent our final night in Greece in Kammeno Bay, just outside Gouvia, and treated ourselves to a couple drinks at the fancy resort in the north end of the bay.

Finally, on the morning of October 9th, we hauled up our anchor and headed to the commercial port in Corfu.  We left very early, which meant I enjoyed my first and last Greek sunrise (Mike has seen hundreds).

We tied up to the dock and Mike headed in to check out of Greece, just over six months after our arrival.  A lone seal playing in the harbour was our final sight of note. I’m going to miss this place.  I’ll be lobbying to come back and buy our own boat, but will have to tread lightly or Thelma may have me silenced permanently.

Albania, here we come!