Anyway, move on six months from our last attempt to go to Montenegro, with me working hard in two jobs at Manchester and Moorfields and Maria working hard at Avanos. We now need to get the boat out of EU waters if we want to keep our safety net regarding VAT on the boat.

In recent months, we have been joined on our pontoon by an amazing American family who are a pleasure to be around and have made every visit to the marina a pleasure. On the other side of our boat, the marina have recently added another boat that we do not recognise. As part of putting it there, the marina removed one of our lazy lines, replacing it with another line. That wouldn’t be so bad if they hadn’t been knocking into the side of Mariadz with their work boat whilst doing it leaving large black streaks on the hull.

As we prepare to leave, I need to check all of the systems. The electric toilet is not getting any fresh water, often this appears to be that it is stuck – it is a ten year old pump and there may be some rust in it. Normally a gentle tap unlocks it but today that isn’t working. I spend ages taking everything apart and it isn’t working properly and refuses to sort itself out. Eventually I decide to go to my stash of old pumps that have failed and been repaired. The faulty one is a Parmax 2.9, so reasonably powerful but I only have a Parmax 4.0, that will do! I swap the pumps over and the flush is working again and pumping a lot of water very fast – I think I may prefer it…

Finally, we are ready to go after another long day at work and saying our goodbyes. I am at the stern loosening off the lines and one gets caught as we leave our berth, fortunately our American friends are on hand to resolve the issue or we would have been still attached to the pontoon. It’s a tight exit with the two boats either side and Maria is inching forward.

I notice we seem to be caught on a line hanging back from our bow and as I walk to the bow I see to my horror that both the lazy lines on our bow are still attached. What was I thinking? Maria is valiantly trying to keep control of the boat as I let the lines go and watch them drop before giving Maria the all clear. Considering the issue, we got away without any stress and can go on our merry way. A close call and we were fortunate there isn’t too much wind.

That brings us to the weather. The Adriatic seems to have two types of wind wither it blows down or blows up and you can guarantee it is never the way you want it. We discovered this coming back from corfu a couple of years ago when it was incredibly lumpy getting close to Brindisi in the face of a quite strong wind.

It has been windy for a few days but we agree we have the opportunity, with a British bank holiday weekend, to get over to Montenegro. There is a northerly based wind, and if we are to go to Tibet in Montenegro we need to head north and although there is some west in the forecast we will be close to the wind for most of the trip waiting for the wind to die changing course to north and heading in. The trip back could be problematic with, typically, the wind turning 180 degrees and strengthening for our return. However, the forecast changes and now it looks like we have a window to return in.

We have got over our little snags coming out and as we enter the outer harbour we don’t think twice about switching the autopilot on. We start to head towards Montenegro, aiming a little further south than usual so we can use the wind to give us some additional speed as we motorsail. I am down below when the alarm goes off and maria shouts down that the autopilot has switched itself off…. We check and everything seems to be ok and we reengage with some trepidation but for the moment there is no repeat.

The wind is tight on the bow but we can adjust our course and sail so we decide to get the main and stay sail out. I go to the main outhaul winch and press the button and nothing, the other winch is working fine. I check the two large sheet winches and only one of those works also. This is going to be fun. I have a winch handle in hand when Maria asks me if I can use the working winch so with three quarters of a wrap around the non functioning winch, I lead it to the working winch on the other side of the coach roof and get the main out, although we do need to head to wind to tighten the sail up properly. The stay sail outhaul uses the functioning winch so that is fine. It looks like another call to Ollie’s remote support service and maybe some more parts being shipped over!

A further few hours out of Brindisi and we are making good progress, the sails are keeping us out of the troughs of the waves and we are sailing nicely at about 7knots. Not necessarily in the right direction but we know the wind will go and we can correct the course and arrive earlier than if we were thrashing into the wind and waves. After a couple of hours, Maria is playing around with Navily, the tool we use for recommendations for harbours and anchorages. Instead of Tivet where we went to before why don’t we go to Bar? It is closer and on the exact line we are currently sailing. The reviews seem positive, we can refuel and the check procedure seems quite slick. So a change of plan but not of course. Regular readers will not be surprised. Maria and Adam heading to (the) Bar? You are probably more surprised that we hadn’t thought to go there before, especially when the marina is called the Marina Bar! It must be fate!

We continue on our course and it is soon going to be sunset which seems to be often when we see dolphins. This time I haven’t radioed in beforehand (see previous blog!), but they do arrive. Unfortunately they seem to be more preoccupied with feeding than playing with Mariadz, so we go past as they splash and jump out of the water. Maria is a little disappointed but is still smiling after the experience of seeing them.

We are into the night with a quarter moon so not much light but it is quite uneventful with most of the action on AIS being resolved well before we are near anyone and the odd fishing boat not showing their AIS, to hide their fishing grounds from competitors, so well lit as to be seen from a distance and easily avoided.

The sail over is going well, as I try to catch up on some work I haven’t got done this week and Maria keeps lookout or rests, we both get a few hours sleep but at the end of a hard week of work, a very early start to get to Italy followed by another crazy day at work, we are pretty exhausted as we start to see land on the other side of the Adriatic, maria is resting as I avoid the stationary large fishing vessels, zigzagging between them and keeping my distance in case they have nets down, soon we are through these and it is getting lighter. Unusually for me this is the first time I have taken the remote for the autopilot out of its cradle, and it dies immediately! After ten years the battery has given up…. These things are like consumables 😉. Another thing to add to the list…. Ollie!!!!!

Montenegro seems an amazing country with both parts of it we have seen being huge green hills/mountains plunging into the sea with lots of hillside villages. Very picturesque. As you approach Bar, the left hand side of the approach is very like this but the right is a commercial area with a headland covered in what look like large gas cylinders. Such a shame as you imagine it was quite beautiful before this was done.

Our timing is perfect as we arrive at Bar shortly after sunrise, allowing Maria to get the sunrise shots above the hills as we approach,

We head into Bar and straight into the commercial area of the harbour where the customs dock awaits. We have been warned on Navily that this dock is not the best to tie up to with a number of bollards missing, large tyres guaranteed to mark you hulk at intervals and not many areas to secure lines. The wind has dropped but the sun is in an awkward position but we find the dock and Maria gently ferry glides the moody to the dock as I step off in search of somewhere to attach a line. Fortunately the wind is gently pushing us onto the dock, where Maria has successfully missed all of the tyres, and I am able to find loops on the wall of the jetty to thread our lines.

Just over fifteen hours after leaving, we have completed the 106 mile journey with no further hiccups. We go to the police where we are greeted by a very friendly border officer who stamps our passport. This took a little longer than usual because her stamp was out of 8th and she was trying to use a biro to put ink on it. After about ten tests she has worked out where it was needed and we were ready to go. Next stop the harbour master, which is apparently a five minute walk away.

In our defence we are tired…

We head towards the road outside of the marina and think the harbour master’s office will be obvious and right on the commercial side of the harbour. Having checked several buildings we haven’t found it. Ok. Let’s walk back to the marina side and see if it is there. Not obviously, we walk mostly around an official looking building with the flag of Montenegro outside but no signage for a harbour master so our search continues. At this stage, my watch is telling me we have walked one kilometre and are no nearer to finding the office, we walk along the marina wall, find the marina office but still no harbour master. The map we have is quite vague as we start going through the buildings near to the marina, mostly coffee shops, bars and restaurants. We are now getting quite frustrated. Another look at the map and we start to look at a horseshoe of shops and bars. Nope! Now we have to ask and I walk into the fishing shop and chandlery in this horseshoe of shops, as soon as I walk in, he says, harbourmaster? Yes! Go to the other side of the shop and it is on the far side of the building in front of you, tucked down an alley. I grab Maria and we are on our way. It is the official looking building we have looked at previously but literally down the right hand side there is an alley with a recessed entrance that has a sign above it. As we get in, someone has just arrived ahead of us and so we have to wait outside.

The check in process is really easy, I think they are impressed that we have our own official crew list, with the Mariadz logo on it – it’s all about the branding baby! It doesn’t stop them typing the detail into the official form though but the process is smooth and relatively quick. One thing I have noticed with officialdom around boating is the excessive use of photocopying. There is a lot of paper with multiple documents being printed multiple times. We leave twenty minutes later clutching our official pieces of paper which once handed to the police and customs means we are official!

It’s been a hard few days, with a lack of sleep combined with hard work and most recently a long sailing trip where one or other is always on watch. We are tired but looking at the weather it is clear this is going to be a quick turnaround if we are to get back to Brindisi before the next front of bad weather arrives.

First we have to refuel so on leaving the customs pontoon we head to the marina where the fuel pontoon is positioned really well at the entrance. Maria has spoken to the Marina about a berth and getting fuel and they are waiting for us on the fuel pontoon with another member of staff waiting for us on a very nice berth on pontoon 7, where we will be alongside and right at the entrance of the marina.

Maria brings Mariadz in beautifully to the fuel pontoon and 400 litres and a shade over €500 later Mariadz is topped up. This was less fuel than I expected but is part of our safety first philosophy brought on by our experience going to Dunkirk more than a decade ago.

When we changed the engine of Mariadz, we bought a modern engine which interfaced with our navigation providing fuel consumption figures etc. this allows our system to calculate exactly how much fuel has been used, I have set our tank size to be slightly smaller than it actually is to provide a reserve (in addition to the 70 litres of fuel we carry in cans just in case. However, 400 litres means we probably had half a tank when we left Brindisi, when our gauge was reporting nearer a third!

Fuelled up, we are ready to go to the berth behind us and Maria is shattered and asks for me to bring her in. Rather than spin Mariadz round in several pirouette’s to get there, I decide to go astern all the way to the pontoon. Fortunately it works fine and we are soon in our new berth and ready for some rest. I quickly go to the marina office to pay our dues and then it is back to the boat to get some sleep.

Despite having had little sleep for a few days, and some early starts, we can’t get more than a few hours sleep before we decide to get up and have some breakfast. We decide to take advantage and have a little rest but leave earlier to return to Italy.

I feel a lot better as we prepare to head back. Our trip out had been at the end of a long day and a long week including a very early flight and several late nights of work. I have had some sleep and feel a bit brighter, maria isn’t so sure so I will let her rest first when we get going. We walk to the harbour masters office again, which is incredibly easy to find! We are in a few minutes checking out and decide to walk to the border police to see if they will stamp our papers and let us leave directly from the marina. Their first question is where is your boat, it needs to be on the customs pontoon. Oh well, it was along shot I guess.

Returning to the boat, the departure couldn’t be easier, we are literally at the entrance of the marina and as I release the lines, Mariadz ferry glides from the pontoon and we are on our way. We return to the customs pontoon and into the office where we wait five minutes to get everything done and we are on our way back.

A final check of the weather reveals that there is even less wind, a fact we can attest to when we leave the harbour and find ourselves with 1.5knots of wind. It’s going to be a long drive home! There are no dolphins before dusk which is disappointing for Maria but as darkness falls, I can hear Maria “purring” loudly.

AIS is a wonderful thing and you can get over-reliant on it, you need to keep an eye out too but as an example the way it helps me to spot that I will be too close to a cruise ship hammering down the Adriatic while it is still 15 miles and 45 minutes away is brilliant. I make a slight course alteration to increase the gap between us and after a time they adjust slightly to create a gap of more than a mile. But when it is 330 metres and lit up like a Christmas tree, it feels closer and like you could watch the big TV on the top deck. I also remember this from our time crossing the top of Africa where we were so bored we were excited when a ship was likely to be within a mile. We could see twenty miles away and then they changed course and we would barely see them!

Maria and I are trying to be sensible with our rest this time and she goes down and I try to give her four hours rest until after midnight. I get the same and after a quiet night with a little wind and some dodging of ships we are soon on approach to Brindisi as the sun rises. Maria grabs some last rest, we will probably have a busy day and don’t want to lose it sleeping.

We are expecting to be in before 8am, so a little under 16 hours having had no wind or sails up to help this time.