Leaving Montenegro and onto Croatia ..... July 2009

27 - 30 July 2009

***Stern tied to the tip of the Customs Dock in Cavtat*** The cute harbour and town of Cavtat*** Passing the walled town of Dubrovnik*** The most scenic view from our anchorage up the Dubrovnik River***

We had a couple of false starts trying to leave Montenegro. On our first attempt the engine stopped before we had let the last line go from the marina. The lift pump was not pumping the fuel through so Skipper added Montenegro to his list of maintenance in exotic places and first tried to repair, unsuccessfully, so then replaced the pump. We had had a spare onboard since our departure from Thailand so fitted it and got the engine running again. By this time we decided it was probably too late in the day to leave so stayed another night. The next day the forecast showed winds of over 35knots overnight during the next two nights, so we just stayed nicely tucked up a little longer.

We finally let the lines go from PortoMontenegro Marina in Tivat, Montenegro on 27 July and headed into the bay. About 10 minutes out the engine stopped, from memory the first time it’s ever stopped underway, but Skipper went below and bled it and it fired up again with no further hiccups. We were beginning to think we were not meant to leave!! Our first stop was the customs dock at Zelenika for checking out, there was little wind so we put all our fenders in a big pile and nudged up next to the big black tyres. Check out was quick with no charges, and no issues with staying a little longer than our 7 day permit. We pushed off from the dock and headed onto Herceg Novi in search of the fuel dock. It is tucked away at the end of the ‘marina’ and small boat harbour, there is barely room between the bow lines from the stern tied boats and the small boats on moorings to enter and we touched the bottom while on the fuel dock. The diesel is only .82euro cents a litre so worth the effort. Exiting was even more tricky, we had no room to get the bow around to motor out so our stern had to be pulled around by hand and then Skipper did an excellent job of backing us out, avoiding the odd lump of concrete jutting out underwater. Three docks in one morning was way too much entertainment for us and we were happy to escape to open water, put the sails up and head for Croatia.

It is a short hop up the coast, we had a good sail and around 20 miles later we entered the small port town of Cavtat. This is a popular customs port for yachts, as the alternative - slightly further north in Dubrovnik, is on a large commercial quay with those big black tyres we all try to avoid. The quarantine area is at the end of the town pier and you must tie to this in order to check in. Unfortunately a couple of super yachts were already tied up so we did a somewhat unconventional manoeuvre and stern tied perching on the corner of the dock, but it did the trick. About half an hour and 250Euro later we were all checked in to Croatia with our 1 year cruising permit. We had an uneventful departure from our 4th dock of the day and motored around the corner to the bay of Tiha just on the other side of the headland where it was free to anchor. Yes we had reached Croatia, the only country in the whole world (as far as we know) that in certain places, which are not advertised by any signage or leaflet, there is a charge to drop your anchor. In Cavtat harbour we understand the charge to be 50Euro per night, eek!!!

We stayed three nights as on our 2nd day we were joined by New Zealand friends (who will remain nameless!!) on their way south to Italy. It was great to catch up and we went out for dinner in the lovely little old town of Cavtat. By the end of the meal a gentle breeze started to blow, and we had seen on the forecast that we would have 20knots overnight so we finished dinner and headed back to their dinghy. Our dinghy had been left tied to their boat out at anchor. As we walked around the corner into Tiha the wind was much stronger but probably still only around 20knots so we headed straight out to their boat at speed with the waves crashing over the dinghies bow. The big problem was we could not find their boat, we could see Balvenie and she was where she should be but we could not find their boat, and of course it was dark by this stage. Heading downwind, across the bay towards the rocky shore we found her, attached to a charter boat (unmanned), our dinghy painter (rope for those not familiar with what a painter is!!) having wrapped itself around the charter boats anchor chain. Both boats had dragged and were perilously close to the rocks but the charter boats anchor seemed to be holding them, just. It seemed to take forever for us to untangle our dinghy which we had to leave attached to the charter boat as we could not get it around or under the anchor chain. Eventually our friends got their anchor chain up and after several attempts we managed to get their boat clear of the other anchor chain so they could reverse away to safety and re-anchor. Once they were securely attached we speed back to collect our dinghy, just moments before the charterers returned, pulled up anchor and left into the night.

We returned to Balvenie and did anchor watch until around 5am when things eased right down and life returned to normal. This was not an experience we would like to repeat, but it seems most of the stronger winds up here come through at night, and even though we are always happy that we have dug our anchor in firmly, not everyone else does the same, and some of the holding is not great. Although in this case the charter boat possibly saved our friends boat from ending up on the rocks it seems many charter boats seem to drop their anchor till they think it touches the bottom, turn off the engine, put all their fenders out and go ashore.

From Cavtat we motored in very light winds the short hop up to Dubrovnik. We passed the old walled city, fishing harbour, customs and cruise ships docks and then we anchored the night up the river outside the ACI Marina. It was very busy with traffic into the marina and again the wind came up overnight, everyone seemed to be holding ok during the night but in the morning a large catamaran that had been fine all night started dragging down on the power boat next to us, luckily is was daylight by then and they were aboard and re-anchored. Anchoring in Croatia just might be a challenge. When the wind eased mid morning we went ashore and finally managed to fill our gas bottles, something we hadn't been able to do in Greece. When we got back to the boat there was an easterly blowing so we decided to save sightseeing in Dubrovnik for our return, lifted anchor and sailed west.

Cruising Info for exiting Montenegro, arrival Croatia and Dubrovnik:
Anchorages/Docks -
Zelenika Customs Dock Montenegro - 42 26.994N 18 34.278E 8m Concrete Dock, large black rubber bumpers. Difficult to leave in afternoon seabreeze
Herceg Novi Fuel Dock Montenegro - 42 26.99N 18 32.07E 2m but we stayed afloat - just! Very tight, no turning room. Diesel .82euro cents per litre
Cavtat Customs Dock Croatia - 42 34.98N 18 12.94E 8m. Look for big yellow square sign with Q on it, this is the customs area
Tiha Anchorage at Cavtat - 42 35.07N 18 13.21E 6.2m, sand and weed, some poor holding dig in well
Dubrovnik River by ACI Marina - 42 40.29N 18 07.14E 8.8m, we held ok
Internet - Some unlocked at Tiha, signal on and off . No signal in Dubrovnik
Money - Croatia uses the Kuna. 01 Aug 2009 7kuna = 1euro. ATM's by Customs dock in Zelenika and in Cavtat town, don't remember one at ACI Marina but no doubt one there
Provisions - Small supermarket and good fruit market at Cavtat., supermarket also at ACI Dubrovnik and another up road enroute to LPG Station. About 1km walk in Dubrovnik upriver to LPG station (follow homemade road signs), cost 157kuna for about 15kg's gas. Will fill any connection
Formalities - Montenegro Checkout quick and straightforward. All offices together on dock
Croatia Check in about 30minutes, offices all close by. Cost for us 247Euro for one year (minimum) cruising permit. Purchased courtesy flag at souvenir shop in Cavtat

Exploring the "Black Mountains", Montenegro ..... July 2009

17 - 27 July 2009

***Regatta Week in Montenegro gave Mark a chance to go racing on British yacht Monty B*** Annual festival at Perast making their way out to Our Lady of the Rock*** Overlooking Lake Skadar, the biggest bird sanctuary in Europe*** Looking down into the fjord-like inland waterway with Our Lady of the Rock in the foreground***

When we headed for Montenegro, this small new country, with a compact inland waterway for a coastline we expected to spend the week exploring the few small bays dotted around with shallow enough water to anchor. We had heard from cruiser friends via our morning 'radio net' that there was a new marina there offering free berths but we didn't know where. Then we were lucky enough to make contact with friends on Samsara who had found it and gave us details. After clearing customs we headed straight to PortoMontenegro Marina in Tivat. We decided to stay the duration of our cruising permit in the marina and discover Montenegro by land instead, a great idea!!

Tivat is a small tidy town set along the waterfront with a busy beachfront and bustling outdoor cafe scene. Their summer music festival was on, so there was live music every night set in a small outdoor theatre against a backdrop of a floodlit ancient stone wall and crypt, magical. We strolled up every night at 9.30pm and enjoyed a mix of styles, never quite sure what we were in for as we couldn't understand any of the programme, one night was a children's pantomime - we gave that one a miss and went for a gelato instead !!

The two day Montenegro Sailing Regatta was also on, Mark was offered a spot onboard Monty B, our dock neighbour in the marina. The winds were light and fluky, the fleet varied but a good time was had by all and he enjoyed being out racing again.

We took the local bus around to the ancient walled town of Kotor, it sits at the end of a very deep fjord in a magnificent location. The castle walls rise high above the town, clawing into the steep mountainside. It is a beautiful small town in excellent condition. Its narrow alleys are a maze, originally designed this way to confuse unwelcome intruders. There are churches everywhere, cafes, restaurants and a few boutique shops, but this is also home to many locals and the sight of laundry hanging from windows and balconies above certainly gives it that 'lived in' feeling. We visited 4 times during our stay, one night to attend a well advertised concert - we had a pizza in the square then set out for the concert but couldn't find it in the maze, we asked several people but ended up admitting defeat and headed home, next time we were there we discovered the indoor concert venue was no more than 50 feet from where we had had our pizza, but we had been looking for an outdoor theatre!!!

We also visited Perast, a tiny waterfront village tucked between the deep fjord and mountains. It was July 22 and on this day for the past 550 years the locals make their way out by boat to a tiny island they have 'built' and throw stones overboard. This construction was helped by the sinking of 87 captured ships here!! Still, it is a part of their history and we enjoyed watching the procession and taking part in the festivities.

On another day we hired a car and set off to explore inland. First we headed south along the coast and saw Budva again, still looking just as manic as when we had visited on Balvenie so we headed inland to the old capital of Cetinje. It is now a small town, almost crumbling down but it still has some beautiful buildings in leafy lanes from the days in the late 19th century when it housed the government. Some of the old embassy buildings and former parliament building have been restored and house museums and art galleries, and some are art and music schools. It would all be splendid if restored, but for now has a feeling of decay with little hope of returning to its former glory. Next stop was to see the old stone bridge in the tiny hamlet at Rijeka Crnojevica, down a narrow twisting road into a valley, the road signs were few and far between and our map somewhat lacking in detail and we were quite amazed we actually found it. After the outstanding bridges we had recently seen in Zagora, Greece this wasn't anything too special but the scenery was worth the trip.

We carried on in the car to Lake Skarda home to the biggest bird sanctuary in Europe. The road was narrow, with potholes that big they nearly consumed our little VW Polo, but the views down over the lake were spectacular. We stopped for a late lunch but decided against a boat trip out on the lake, no doubt the best way to view all the birds, but when you live on a boat it's very difficult to pay for a boat trip!!! With many hours of daylight left we travelled further inland skirting the present capital of Podgorica, ghastly looking place with row upon row of concrete block square multi-storey apartment bunkers, no obvious town planning, no trees, rubbish everywhere, set on a flat plain surrounded by uninspiring countryside. Such a huge contrast in an otherwise clean, green, scenic country.

Our next challenge was to visit the Ostrog Monastery, the Lonely Planet describes it as 'precipitously resting on a cliff face 900m above the Zeta valley on a long and windy road'. Maybe we should have read into that, that the long and windy road would also precipitously rest on the cliff face. I can only describe it as terrifying, one lane wide for two lanes of traffic, potholes even bigger than before, passing spaces few and far between and a steady stream of traffic. The views again were spectacular of course and the monastery interesting, but I was extremely pleased to be back down on the flat in one piece. Then it was time to head on back home to Tivat. Still using our very vague map we travelled down more one lane country roads, past tiny villages with houses still showing obvious signs of the recent war. We found compact vineyards around the village boarders, fertile valleys with fruit trees, farmers tending their fields and eventually we turned a corner and our pothole ridden track turned into a two lane highway for the final half hour as we descended on this deserted ghost road from nowhere, down to the waters edge not far from Perast. After 300kms we made it home to Balvenie, what a great day and a beautiful country.

Sightseeing info:-

The buses go from Tivat to Kotor hourly and take about 40minutes around the waterfront. 1.50E pp ow

Our VW Polo was 50E for the day and fuel was 20E, organized through Sip Travel in Tivat ph (382)32670090. They were very helpful and spoke enough English. It is compulsory to have your lights on at all times when driving (why????)

Montenegro - Country No 20 ..... July 2009

15 July 2009

***Stevi Stefan just south of Budva, sun loungers and umbrellas not included!!!***An artist captures the beauty of Kotor***The buildings of the ancient walled town of Kotor***Look at the the zig zagged wall going up the steep hillside at Kotor***

Our 170 mile overnight passage in the Southern Adriatic north from Corfu in Greece was reasonably uneventful. We were headed for Montenegro, a country that was once part of war torn Yugoslavia, then twinned with Serbia until May 2006 when it became totally independant.

We had left with very light winds forecast for a couple of days so motored the entire way. As we approached Southern Albania late in the afternoon, we could see in the distance a line of white water and motored into some choppy, messy seas and 20knots right on the nose for a couple of hours, then it dropped away as quickly as it arrived. We had variable winds overnight of 10 - 15 knots, but always on the nose and relatively flat water so just kept on motoring through. Several friends had done this passage to Croatia before us and got caught in thunderstorms and gale force winds, even when they had left on a favourable forecast, we wanted it behind us as quickly as possible!

As we motored along the coastline of this new country we enjoyed stunning scenery with high mountains coming right down to the waterline. We looked in at Sveti Stefan, a small exclusive resort island, famous over the years for the high profile people that stay there. The bay was netted off for swimmers, sun loungers and coca cola umbrellas crammed the shoreline, not quite my idea of an exclusive getaway.

We made landfall at Budva, a large bay on the Med coast. Eventually we were directed to the Customs Dock, tied up and preceded first to the Port Police for check in. All went well there, but Customs and the Harbour Master only work from 10am - 12noon so we could not check in with them and obtain our Vignette "Cruising Permit" until the following morning. We stay tied up to the Customs Dock and went off for a walk around the small but picturesque old town, nestled at the end of the harbour. On arrival back at the dock we were told by marina staff that we must leave the Customs Dock immediately and move to the outside marina wall where an available stern-to berth would be 61Euro. 61Euro to tie up anywhere is way too steep, but on the outside, unprotected wall it was a total rip off. One of our pilot books indicates no anchoring here, the other says its ok, we decided to give it a try, so in between fishing boats & tour boats, and with pedalos, jet skies and para sailing speed boats all wanting their piece of water we squeezed in to a spot for the night. Sun loungers and umbrellas totally covered the shore, hundreds of bodies were cooling off in the sea and music was blaring out from various bars, this was our first real busy holiday resort and it was all rather manic. In fairness things settled down before dark and we had a restful night with much needed sleep.

Next morning we dinghied ashore to complete our check in. 10am came and went, so along with several others wanting to check out we waited for the authorities to honour us with their presence. By 10.45am it was our turn but customs would not check us in as we were not on the customs dock. We told him we had been 'removed' from the dock by the marina staff, it seems this was not acceptable and he went off, with our papers, ranting and raving at someone. Some time later he returned indicating we must bring the boat to the dock, but we couldn't we showed him, it had been occupied by 2 enormous power boats, no doubt paying plenty of euros for the privilege. He could see this, but didn't change his opinion, in we must come!!!! Things were not going well, no one was being helpful, our first impressions of Montenegro were getting more tainted by the minute. We returned to Balvenie and decided to lift anchor and head on into the inland waterway which comprises of most of Montenegros coastline and try our luck there.

We headed for Zelenika, the main port of entry for the fjord like waterway. The customs dock was on a lee shore as the afternoon sea breeze was blowing and there were nasty big chunky black tyres along the concrete jetty. We really didn't want to tie up to it so we anchored and Mark went ashore while I stayed onboard. I could tell by the arms signals and body language that they also wanted us to bring the boat alongside for checkin. I could also tell that this was not going to happen and that our stay in Montenegro was going to be a short one, Croatia is only another 20 miles. As Mark was taking one last look at the dock before getting in the dinghy one of the officals came out to him and they went back to the office, progress!! About 30 minutes later we were all checked in and free to explore. Welcome to Montenegro, things were looking up.

We called our friends on Samsara who had come straight here without the stop in Budva (smart move!), they had meet a boat while checking in that told them about, then shown them to, a new marina here called Portomontenegro in Tivat, as it's still under construction there is no charge, until May 2010, it's great and as I write this we are snugly attached, still there. We will take advantage of the marina berth and do our touring of Montenegro by land, the road winds all the way around the waterway so we will do it the easy way. Next posting will be on our excursions in Montenegro.

Cruising Info for Montenegro:
Anchorages -
Budva Customs Dock ... 42 16.748N 18 50.345E 3.5m side tied
Budva at Anchor ... 42 16.90N 18 50.68E 7m some weed but can see the sandy patches. Exposed to west but had very calm conditions
NOTE ... the pilot books show a town quay and a marina. It is all now operated by the marina with matching price tag. 61Euro on exposed outside wall. Does have mooring lines though
Tivat - Portomontenegro Marina ... Our berth 42 25.96N 18 41.55E Free berths until June 2010 (full over winter, waitlist only) Pilot book shows naval yard here. Entrance is on left side as approaching, huge red and white stripped crane on right side. Bow or stern to, two moorings lines provided. Everything brand new and of high quality. Prepay transponder for power and water on the dock. http://www.portomontenegro.com/ berths@portomontenegro.com phone 0382 3267 2353. Most staff speak good English. Try and call on VHF before arrival and they will direct you in
Internet - Didn't check in Budva. Free wifi in Porto Montenegro Marina, good signal
Money - Didn't see any ATM's in Old Town Budva but will be some further afield. Tivat plenty ashore less than 5 minutes walk. ATM close by Zelenika Customs Dock. Montenegro uses Euros
Provisions - Budva Marina has a fuel dock adjacent to the Customs Dock. No fuel dock yet in Porto Montenegro Marina. Diesel currently .82c euro a litre. Tivat has good supermarkets, bakerys, farmers market and a small chandlery all within easy walking
Eating Out - Cappuccino E1.50 We have found a pizzeria where we can have a medium pizza to share, 2 glasses of wine and 1 beer for E8.10 Bread .60
Formalities - We don' t recommend Budva but at a diferent time it may well have been very straightforward. Zelenika would be much easier with huge fenders and either a bow thruster or no on shore wind so you can leave the quay again. It was straightforward and quick once they agreed to let us stay at anchor.
Charges -Vignette (Cruising Permit)
7 to 12 metres 1wk 40Euro 1mth 95Euro 3mths 200Euro 6mths 280Euro 1yr 400Euro
12 to 17 metres 1wk 120Euro 1mth 220Euro 3mths 400Euro 6mths 540Euro 1yr 750Euro
Plus we paid 7Euro port tax and 10Euro (should be gold plated) for a courtesy flag.
We have heard that your insurance must be valid for the entire length of your cruising permit, this would be hard to do if you are wintering over and want a 1 year vignette.