A Day Onboard

Just a few more great pictures to wrap up our 2015 season.  These are courtesy of our travelling companion JKip (Thanks, John D) and include photos, that for us, are often impossible to take.

Another very early morning start. Heading out Canal di San Marco, Venice

Some of the best views from the cockpit. (This is Pula, Croatia)

Getting in a little camera action
on a windless Croatian coast

Yes folks - all 3 sails out at once. 
Unbelievable but it does happen!

A hard day at the office...

Time for a little turistico-ing in Kotor, Montenegro

While those (crazy) boys scale the ridge on a hot day

And make it to the top for some great views. 
Now, can you spot WJ3 at anchor?

Lickety Split

Preveza, Greece.  Just in time for the weather…

So, here we sit back in Preveza with cleaning rags in our hands doing long promised chores and waiting for haul out.  So where did that cruising year go?  It seems only yesterday that we met with our Dangar Island neighbours, June & Paul, as they cruised through this area on their way south for the season.

Oh, look!  That cute cruise ship is back in Preveza

We’d left Kotor early and made for Bar to check out and leave, well, strand really, JKip in time for his transfer home.  WJ3 turned her nose south and made a relatively uneventful overnighter to Saranda in Albania.  Here we rested for a couple of nights, got up close and personal with the famed Italian temperament at the dock and ate delightful seafood dinners so cheaply you just wonder how they do it!  Having left Montenegro after a tax-free fuel mix-up (with no resulting fuel for us), we arrived in Saranda on the smell of an oily rag.  Agim, our ever-friendly agent, arranged for a tanker for us and the Riva docked next door.  Somehow, totally unawares, the Riva owner managed to flood gallons of diesel into the bay.  Catastrophe averted by merely ignoring it!  And don’t forget to only scrub your own boat down….

After leaving Saranda we managed a little sailing until, in the lee of Corfu, the winds just died.  We hugged the Albanian coast until it became Greece and bobbed southward until some 11 hours later, arrived in Preveza - a current against us most of the way.

Although I promised not to post up any more haul out photos,
we had to include this one with Aktio's new travel-lift.  Smart, hey!

Heat wave conditions continue and we are now, aside from totally over it, under 2 vast awnings trying to protect WJ3's decks from overheating and cooking us at night in our little cabin.  The sunbrella awning (made for tropical Caribbean weather) also keeps the rain off.  Handy, given that since being back we’ve had evening storms with amazing regularity, some quite wild.  

These storms have had victims and one limped into the Aktio yard a few days ago – sadly a Hunter with ½ a rudder, a twisted prop and damaged keel.  The anchor had failed to hold and the boat was swept back onto a rocky shore.  A reminder for us never to take anything for granted!

The yellow trailer still gets to tuck WJ3 into bed though

In a few days’ time we’ll be winging our way over the Baltic Sea – for a little boatless touring with daily weather considerations being set to “umbrella or not” level.  Sounds like fun and we’ll keep you posted!

(Rather than wax lyrical about the current cleaning regime, we will try to tame the hodge-podge of photos from this year.  With any luck, some may even be posted up before we depart for this final leg of our trip!  For annual cruising statistics, you will have to wait a little longer...)

A Very Fine Natural Harbour

Kotor, Montenegro

Thankfully, our check out procedure in Cavtat was far less taxing on the Cap’n than our entry some five weeks earlier.  We even found the Q dock empty (we're still stunned!) but were again slugged a docking fee.  So, free at last, all crew legal and with a little wind, we managed a short sail to new horizons – Montenegro.

Imposing Montenegro coastline

Only 25 miles and yet a whole life-time away from Croatia, we pulled carefully onto Zelenika Q Dock, now on the challenging windward side of the bay.  Big black bumpers left their mark but the bow-thruster made for an elegant departure and we were soon anchored off the small private resort island (an abandoned Russian development) of Sveti Marko.  The Kotor fiord is quite stunning visually and the waters clean and relatively deep.  Anchorages then are few though not far, and we had lucked in to find both shelter and mud, so settled in for a relaxing Sunday afternoon watching locals at play.  Nearby, the peaceful monastery on the tiny Our Lady of Mercy islet set the tone for our stay in this delightful country. 

Perast Islands

Relaxing swim at Sveti Marko

Next morning we had something of a decent sailing breeze so took the opportunity to do a quick round of the inner bay sailing through the narrowest neck of Verige JUST as a huge cruise ship came silently motoring through.  Composure recovered, we sailed past the Perast Islands, Lady of the Rocks & St George, festooned with tourist boats and visitors.  There are other interesting historic buildings over in Perast town itself.  I was told by a local that the town once consisted mostly of villas owned by wealthy sea captains.  Then it was on to the town of Risan where we’d hope to anchor to look for Roman mosaics, but southerly winds prevented us so we set our sights back to Morinj where we potted about looking for a suitable place.  Nothing appealed here, so we moved on to Orahovac were we caught up with the French boat we’d seen earlier at Cavtat - its exhaust discharging great dark gobs of diesel all over us and the harbour – but no one seemed to care. 

Well, I'll bet we gave him a bit of a scare!

Kotor from our anchorage.  The Castle is up where?

Our final stop was Kotor, a mere few miles away, and a pleasant anchorage with a cooling breeze in a stunning location.  This became our base for a couple of nights to visit the charming old town of Kotor.  Whilst the crazy (oh, I do mean brave) amongst us decided to climb to the Illyrian Castle of St. John, balanced on a cliff-face some 1200m uphill on 1350 steps, GS made for the Cat Museum (of course!) and then the Lapidary Museum in the delightful St Michael’s Church (13^th c) now home to a small but plentiful collection of artefacts dating from the Copper Age to the 18^th c.  Other than that, she chatted her way around various shops and galleries, really just to enjoy the ambience of the labyrinthine streets and friendly locals.  I suppose by now you’ve guessed that you’re all getting 2016 Cat Calendars for Christmas!

Evidence of The Climb - Kotor & WJ3 at anchor (both climb photos thanks to JD)

Looking further up Zaliv Kotorska