Having to alter our plan for this season to leisurely hop up the Albanian coast, we now planned to jump from Sarande to Zelenika, Montenegro in two stages. 105 nautical miles to Durres, and then 80 nautical miles to Zelenika. We don’t like entering unfamiliar ports at night, and our limited motoring speed combined with shortened daylight hours meant we couldn’t do either trip during the day. So two overnights it was. We popped over to Balena to say goodbye to Gerret and Katrin, and then stopped by Panic Major to say goodbye to Johan and a Jenny. It truly felt strange leaving those two as we had been boat neighbors for the entire time in Sarande and had enjoyed many an evening on each others boat over cocktails.
Of course the forecasted winds never fell into place, so it was a motor slog, but at least it was comfortable. We passed by the mountains of Himare and made a note to return in the spring on our passage south next year. We were able to put out our jib and at least sail part of the time. The next morning we pulled into Durres and dropped anchor next to George on Juventa, who had been a boat neighbor for a few days in Sarande. We made arrangements to clear out together. Of course our dinghy outboard still wasn’t working, so George kindly put his outboard on our dinghy and we headed into town.
Our agent, Llir, met us at the dock and dropped us off at a local restaurant for lunch while he handled the paperwork. I highly recommend the clay pot with baked lamb and yoghurt! We walked back to the port and Llir took Trip by car to fill a couple of jerrycans with fuel, just to make sure we had enough to get all the way. When they came back, the four of us sat over a final beer and Llir talked about the relationships between Albania and different countries over the years – it was quite the history lesson. Albania is still struggling to catch up in tourism infrastructure after so many decades of isolation. A $2.5 billion contract has been signed to transform Durres into the largest (super yachts and all) marina in the Mediterranean. I’m happy to know that they will get their share of visitors, but I worry about a super yacht marina being dropped into a country that is still experiencing so much poverty and is rife with corruption. Regardless, I feel privileged to be visiting at a time like this.
Trip finally got the dinghy outboard reassembled properly, and we were off again. Did I mention the lack of wind? It was another motor slog up to Montenegro. We were approaching well ahead of our scheduled arrival, and there was a faint breeze, so Trip killed the engine and we ghosted along at 2.5 knots under jib for a few hours. The mountains of Montenegro became visible as the sun rose and we were on our way to the last country of this season.
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