Amblin’ through Albania

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!