We left Messina on July 12 to sail to Croatia. Supposedly an uninteresting coast so we planned to make the passage fairly quickly as we wanted to be in Croatia before the 22nd. We did have some nice sails along the way and found some nice marinas, anchorages and mooring buoys to tie up to for the night. The first marina was Rocella Ionica, an interesting place that fills up with other cruisers late in the day as they are all travelling North or South. We met a few other cruisers, swapped tips and stories for what lies ahead and ate great Pizza! Next day we headed another 60M to Cabo Collone and picked up a free buoy in a marine reserve. Nice place to stay a night before continuing 75M to Maria de Luca. Next day we were debating to have a rest day or continue. The forecast was for NE winds which would have been on the nose, but at mid day it was Westerly so we decided to try sail 20M to Otranto. Well 20 minutes out the wind was indeed NE and the swell made for terrible sailing, let alone 3 knots of current running against us. I looked at the time, checked the fuel and we decided to pull the pin and head back to Maria de Luca. This leg will definitely need better conditions and an earlier start. We anchored off and relaxed the next day waiting for better conditions. Next day we tried again. Conditions hadn’t improved but we were keen to keep moving. We had 20 knots of wind on the nose but an early start meant we could still sail. Sephina took a lot of water over the bows and handled the conditions like a trooper. We were sailing at 8 knots over the water, but tacking into wind and tide meant we were averaging 2 knots toward our destination. A little bit frustrating but finally we arrived at Otranto 10 hours later.
You can see by our course how much the wind and tide effected this leg.
The initial tacks were good, close to 90 degrees, which was great considering the sea state, but halfway along you can see the angle reduces to closer to 60 degrees. Anyway, it was nice to be through the Otranto straights and hopefully the current that bottlenecks here will decrease as we head further North. We tied up to the commercial quay in Otranto for a night and spent the first hours doing official paperwork with the most official officials we have come across to date. It took four coast guards to discuss how to deal with us and what paperwork was needed. They finally seemed all OK and handed me the official document they said I needed. Next day I spoke to them and said we were leaving and maybe headed further up the coast or maybe Croatia, depending on the wind. The Captain took my document, screwed it up and said I won’t be needing it after all. Later back on Sephina I realised I lost 50 euro from my pocket. So much for the free night, but I’m still wondering if it ended up in the official document and had something to do with the Captains change of heart…
They told me to wait 10 minutes for the local policeman to come stamp my passport then we could leave. One hour later he was still a no show so we headed North.
The wind was nice from the North so we tacked offshore 10 miles or so to try get out of the South going current. Six hours out we decided to keep sailing overnight toward Croatia instead of continuing up the Italian coast. Conditions were good and we had a nice crossing,lots of dolphins came to play with us and in the night the jumped along beside in the dark as I helmed. The wind veered 50M from Dubrovnik so we decided to head to Montenegro as it was still early. Stunning scenery as we sailed into Montenegro and made our way 10M into the natural Fiord. We stopped a night in Tivat and the marina very efficiently handled the paperwork for customs and immigration while Jen and I explored the town.
Next day we continued deeper into the bay to Kotor. An amazing old walled town. Jen and I climbed to the top of the walls to look down on the city as the sunset, really magic !
We ate in a nice cafe and listened to a cool band playing old french songs. After dinner we wandered some more and met Alexander and Radislav, two Serbian musicians who were playing guitar and singing in the street. They had just finished playing but we sat on a step and continued to sing and play guitar together over beer and wine. A great night. We invited them aboard Sephina for lunch the next day and continued the jam. We invited them to join us for the sail to Dubrovnik the following day and they joined us, along with another friend, Anna. Not the best sailing conditions but we arrived to anchor in the river outside the marina just on sunset, and had another great night listening to the guys play classical guitar, Serbian songs as well as classic rock.
Next day we headed into Dubrovnik old town to see the sights. It was great having Alexander and Radislav with us to tell us a bit about the towns history. Amazing really..
Hopefully we will meet up again in the near future for some more great times!
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