A cunning plan and an unwelcome guest...
Dubrovnik to Italy
After saying a sad goodbye to Jo and Tom in Dubrovnik, (who were leaving us to go on a super yacht with crew!) and picking up Lynda’s daughter Chamonix, we set sail for Albania, an overnight passage of 170nm. It was nice to get back out to open ocean after the bustle of towns and tourists, and with a good breeze we sailed most of the night.
The following day, we had a visit from a pod of Albanian dolphins. We had been warned of local wild winds along the coast, and sure enough, as we approached the port, we could see the wind whipping up the sea, and heavy rain clouds looming. We dropped sail and cleared decks in anticipation, however the storm seemed to spin around us with gusts up to 40 knots, without causing too much havoc.
Saranda port was definitely not St Tropez, lots of ugly hotels and municipal buildings, with tourist beaches inside the harbour even though the sewage from hotels is pumped out each night, ew! We achieved our purpose though, which was to exit the EU briefly before re-entering in Greece. This was one step of Bill’s cunning plan to side-step the schengen 90 day visa restriction for foreigners. After a lot of lost sleep and early morning epiphanies, he came up with the plan to return to Preveza, Greece, where we left Moonshadow in winter, and repeat the procedure we did in May where we used a yacht agent to clear us into the EU, then cleared us out again the following day as crew on our boat. This way we could hopefully cruise through any region in the EU territory without incurring questions about visas. It involved a bit of back-tracking however also gave us an amazing spontaneous night in Paxos…
After clearing in and out of Albania which involved a local yacht agent, we took off to northern Corfu for a welcome swim in clean water. Technically, we were not to supposed to go ashore in Greece before clearing customs, but it was the weekend and customs were closed so there was no point in rushing…
As we were going past Paxos where Ness and Richard live, we decided to anchor off the main port of Gaios, then sneak ashore under the cover of darkness for a quick hug. As an added bonus, our friends Magali and Xavier happened to be visiting Paxos on the same day, so they booked a room for the night and joined us for a gorgeous Greek supper, complete with smashing plates, a mandolin player and attempts at Greek dancing…
Unfortunately karma caught up with us in the morning, when with dusty heads, we discovered evidence of a visit from a local rodent overnight. We had anchored and tied back to rocks on Rat island, just off Gaios, and forgotten to put the rat stoppers on our shore lines. We went ashore in search of a rat trap, which consist of a piece of plywood covered in superglue. You put some food in the middle and when the offending rat climbs on, they get so stuck they apparently rip their own feet off, nice…however our villain seemed to have eaten and ran as there has been no evidence since.
With a nice nor’easterly breeze, we sailed down to Preveza and anchored off waiting to go through customs formalities on Monday morning, and to meet Phil, who was joining us for the next leg. Bill had experience of the customs clearance process here, so once again we went with the agent to the police office, then customs, then port police, then round all three again to clear out, all on a very hot sticky day.
We tied back to the quay in Preveza and hooked up to shore power so we could enjoy some air conditioning in 35 degrees, as swimming in the port didn’t look great. It seemed ok for the resident turtles though, who spent all day swimming along the quay chewing on sea grass, pretty cool!
After stocking up, we dropped lines and headed out to sea, initially for a swim (water temperature was 30dg) while the wind was light, then west overnight to Italy once the breeze filled in.
This was a sporty passage with the wind on our beam and lumpy seas, so while our boat speed was great 9-10 knots, the crew were worn out by the boat banging and crashing around, (Wally would had been very anxious). We were relieved to see the headland of Le Castella in early daylight. The eastern seaboard of Italy is not as popular for cruising yachts with long exposed beaches and anchorages are few and far between, so we headed into a very small marina (barely wide enough to turn Moonshadow around) for the night, and visited an old castle for which the town is famous.
The next leg was a bit tricky, around the boot of Italy which has 3-4 knots of fluctuating current, plus strong head winds unless carefully planned. Bill checked his weather apps, and as it was forecast to be light for the next 2 days, we needed to leave first thing in the morning, which meant going through the busy straits of Messina during darkness. With 5 of us onboard, watches were set 3 hours on, 6 off, a luxury we hadn’t yet had on Moonshadow, and boy, were we thankful for the extra eyes! Both coasts of Messina was ablaze with lights from ports, ferries, ships, sailing yachts navigational flashing lights, as well as unlit tiny fishing boats and random fishing buoys. Each watch had to constantly have eyes on the radar and plotter as well as standing on deck looking out for stuff in the water. The ferries roar out of their terminals a full speed so we had to time crossing their ports, and the straits have a traffic separation scheme with a roundabout, so ships can do a mid-channel U turn. We hugged the coast to stay out of any shipping traffic, however it took us through more buoys and fishing boats. Then when Bill and I were on watch, the current suddenly took us sideways and spun our bows around. We had been warned about whirlpools, and it felt like a sea witch was playing with us.
While exciting, it was a relief to leave the straits behind and enter the Tyrennian sea in the early morning light. We discovered the seawater is not as salty here as the Adriatic during our first swim up the coast from Messina, and also rediscovered the joy of Italian day boat trippers, who love to roar past at close quarters all day, leaving the boat constantly rocking around with the cook swearing like a pirate.
We had a well deserved full night sleep in the port of Tropea, which was a lovely surprise, a beautiful old town seemingly growing from big cliffs above stunning beaches with crystal clear water, and sand! This was the first sand we had since leaving Sardinia last year, and must mean there is sea life and shellfish in the water, as opposed to Greece and Croatia where the beaches are all pebble.
We knew there were few ports or sheltered anchorages along this coast so planned another 140nm passage up to Amalfi, and with a rested crew we set off to motor most of the way north overnight. All was well until early morning when the engines dropped back to neutral when Bill was on watch. He assumed there was something fouling a propeller so after waking me, he jumped overboard with his knife. With nothing found, he figured out the starboard electronic throttle was faulty which was a larger problem as there is no manual override for it. Luckily we could still engage the port engine controls we carried on to the Amalfi coast with its enormously high cliffs holding teetering villages.
It was obvious now that we were in the Italian high season, with enormous motor yachts anchored off each port, muscly power boats full of half naked Italians, and the eternal day boats and ferries wizzing by every 5 minutes. It was a relief to go ashore even in the heat of the day, just to stop wobbling.
We had a night on an expensive mooring in Minori then figured out we could anchor for free in Amalfi after the day boats had left, yay!
After a few days wobbling around in beautiful Amalfi and a visit to the Galli Islands, with bellies full of pasta we said ciao to Phil and to Chamonix, who were continuing on their respective journeys from Sorrento. Thank you so much for all your help guys, and for sharing our Med odyssey!