We had just the right weather window of southerly winds before storms would hit, so we decided to sail straight from Montenegro to Venice, Italy (we would do Croatia coming south again). We waved goodbye to SV Priscilla (they were upping anchor so they could take our spot), headed over to Zelenika to clear out, and we were off.

We knew the first 24 hours would be motoring, letting the seas calm and the winds switch. It was uneventful and we were able to do a little bit of motor-sailing.

Eventually we went wing on wing with the jib poled out and the preventer on the main – then we took off like a shot as the winds filled in from behind. It was a rolly passage, but an amazing 17 hours of great sailing.

We opted to motor overnight as the winds died, to avoid some of the gale force southerlies that were expected from further south. Unfortunately we motored a little bit too far right into a dead zone. We left the main up and did a little bit of sailing, but it was mostly motoring into Venice.

We were surrounded by lots of fishing boats as we neared Venice, along with multiple stationary platforms. Luckily, the platforms were well lit and all the boats (unlike in the US) had AIS for identification (particularly useful as fishing boats tend to move in an erratic pattern, depending on the type of fishing they are doing).

Fishing boats, lots and lots of fishing boats

Luckily it’s still early in the season for boating traffic, and there were very few boats coming into the harbor (boats zipping around the harbor is another story). It was tight maneuvering in the yacht club, but winds were light and we got ourselves sorted. Then it was off to clear into the country, always an amusing and patience-trying exercise.

The offices were well documented from previous cruisers, but the first immigration officer we spoke to insisted they didn’t handle passports, until he spoke to a colleague and then brought us into the passport control room (cue the eye roll). They got a bit more efficient from there and we were stamped into Italy and Schengen quickly enough. Then it was off to the Capatanerie to get our Constituto (boat papers). We had arrived at the end of the day, and the officer was leaving, but Trip nagged (nicely) the officer enough that he hung up his jacket and processed our paperwork right then and there. Then was excited to show us other islands in Italy that we should visit.
Welcome to Venice!