2023-24 Winter Berth

It’s October and we’re settled for the winter! It’s become quite difficult to find a winter berth in the Med, for a few reasons: We have to cope with Schengen rules (90 days in, and 90 days out of most EU countries). That leaves limited places where we can winter the boat and feel free to stay on board. In the past, Croatia, Turkey, Montenegro, Tunisia, Albania were all options in the eastern Med. However, Brexit meant that British boats are no longer free to winter in Schengen waters and have increased the competition for slots in these limited places. Croatia entered Schengen this year and took themselves out of the running. Albania simply doesn’t have the infrastructure for what I consider a safe and comfortable winter experience (yet – it’ll be there in a few years). Demand for Turkey has skyrocketed (Brexit, Russian boats no longer permitted in the EU with the war, inflation, etc) and prices are now exorbitant. That left us with Tunisia and Montenegro. By chance, last winter (January 2023), Trip and I came across two videos and blogs from cruisers staying in Porto Montenegro. We had never heard of the place, and it was wildly more expensive than what we would normally pay (with far more upscale services than we would use). But as we began researching our options we realized: a) Montenegro made the most sense given our sailing plans, b) The history, ancient cities, and landscapes were amazing, and c) Options were running out fast due to demand! As it was we booked our berth back in February and there were only two berths left (we would have normally done so mid-summer with far less pressure). Porto Montenegro it was.

We’ve never stayed in a luxury mega yacht marina, and probably never will again, so we are making the most of it! We got a special offer of; pay-for-6 months, get-one-month-free, so our contract started October 1. We came in a few days later because we didn’t know if there would be a rush, and the weather was so nice why not stay out at anchor. (And maybe I calculated how many clean clothes we had left before I needed to do laundry and I’m tired of doing wash by hand!).

Med-mooring would be a new thing for us. We use marinas infrequently, and in the past we’ve always had a side pontoon or finger dock to tie onto. With med-mooring, you back into a slip, tie off your stern on either side to the dock, and take ‘slime lines’ (named for the marine growth as they sit under the surface many a day) that run parallel to your boat, and tie them off at your bow (they are attached to a heavy chain running parallel to the dock). We have too much COTB (crap on the back) like our low davits, solar panel, wind vane, so we need to go in bow first.

A marinero (generic term for a boat handler within a marina) guided us in by dinghy (we had also already been round to the marina office and studied the map of the docks to know exactly where we would be going). We passed by mega yachts (more on that later) and what I call the mini-megas (the big boats wanting to be mega yachts but not quite qualifying – still enormous to us).

Eventually we turned into our row and came into the pontoon. Tying off the bow was easy enough, hand the lines to the marinero on the dock and he wraps them around the cleat and hands them back (so you can control all aspects of securing the boat from the boat). The slime lines were a little trickier. The smell and feel of the slime was awful (I had been warned to wear gloves but forgot). And we just simply couldn’t get the boat straight in the slip, she was sitting cock-eyed. We tugged and tugged and finally gave up, she was tight and we were locked in. We were home for the winter.