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.

Although we understand that Mariadz is VAT paid in Malta and hence officially an EU boat, as a British registered boat we like to leave the EU every eighteen months to “reset the VAT clock”. This stops an EU country charging you VAT on your boat as a permanent import and the boat only has to leave EU waters for a day to be reset. This was a problem for people during Covid, since they couldn’t move their boats or get crew to help due to lockdown we know of a few boats in Spain that were caught out and the owner had to pay VAT on the perceived value of their boats.

On mariadz, as readers will know, we like to be squeaky clean so even despite our Maltese VAT certificate we still leave the EU every year.

So we decided to try and do this at the end of the summer of 2024. We have a perfect weather window and we are thinking of spending a week to get to Montenegro, an overnight run, followed by going up the coast to Croatia as we did the previous year and island hoping at some of our favourite places. An admirable plan, in which we planned to work during the week but have fun in the evenings and weekends.

Brindisi, in common with some other Adriatic ports, has a real problem with growth on the boats when they are stationary and generally there are people around who will don scuba gear and armed with a scraper clean the bottom of the boat for you. This helps immeasurably with hull speed through the water and is a requirement in Brindisi whenever the boat is left for a few months,

This time, Maria asked our pontoon friend Mukbil if he would do it. Mukbil is an incredibly friendly Turkish guy who helped us to move our berth after the marina put huge boats either side and across the water so it was impossible for us to negotiate the cats cradle of lazy lines from people’s boats to get into our berth. This came to a head during the summer when we had four attempts to get into our berth and kept fouling on different lines. This sounds quite amateurish to be honest but we had never had a problem before but cutting out the turning space for us meant we could not go in straight and the large motor boat next to us had their line taught so that it came pretty much to the middle of the channel and met the lines on the other side. To add insult to injury, as the marina pulled us off the lines where we were stuck, they used a black workboat which left huge black marks all over the side of the boat. Not difficult to get out with some elbow grease but frustrating all the same. Anyway, enough was enough and we demanded to be moved to a pontoon where we could get in with ease i.e the other side of the pontoon we were on. After a long time and constant nagging of the marina, Mukbil reached out to us and told us that the boat opposite him was leaving and we were in there quickly. So we have moved to P pontoon and our friend Mukbil has been brilliant.

Anyway, I digress. Mukbil agreed to go under our boat and clean it off so we could go and by the time we arrived at the boat, her undersides were looking clean.

We have got our provisions and are ready to go so we do our normal pre-flight checks, the engine is fine, everything is looking good to go.

Leaving the berth is flawless as usual…. More of that later…. And we are on our way. As we round the sea wall and fort to head to the outer harbour, we engage the autopilot that will see us through the journey so we are not too tired. Half way through the bay, we are veering off course and there is an alarm from the autopilot. I go down below to reset the systems hoping that will resolve the issue. We start again but it does it again and it gets much worse as we come out of the harbour when the entire navigation suite including depth, speed, autopilot and wind indicators stop working, the autopilot on its own we have dealt with before but not having the rest seems like a problem too far when we have sixteen to eighteen hour journey ahead of us, we reluctantly agree to turn back, see if we can get the problem fixed and let’s see if we can go in a couple of days.

We get back in and talk to one of the local guys who agrees to take a look for us. I won’t name names but I will describe what happened….

Firstly he is banging his way through our neat and orderly electrical system randomly cutting cable ties which didn’t make me 100% happy. He starts to look for the navigation controller. This is situated behind the raymarine chartplotter at our navigation table. In his eagerness to get to this he starts breaking the plastic covers around the chartplotter. What!!! He suggests that it will be ok when they go back because you will hardly see the crack! The chartplotter is out and he starts to pull wires from the navigation controller. I can only assume that he shorts something in there because there is a loud bang and he looks round quite worried whilst not admitting to anything. I’m beginning to lose patience as he single handedly sets about the boat. But he is finished for the moment after about 45 minutes of work saying the navigation controller has failed and we need a new one. His performance so far has not filled me with confidence but he says he will come back tomorrow with a view of how much it will cost to fix and how quickly it can be done. On these situations I go back to the team that I trust and for electronics work, Ollie at Seapower is my man. I call him and explain what has happened and he agrees it is likely to be the controller. Ollie can supply that for us but it will likely take some time but he agrees to give me an idea of cost including express shipping to Italy. Ollie never lets us down 😀

The next day dawns and we are still hopeful that the holiday can be back on. This is stopped in its tracks when our electrician comes back to us. He quotes us more than €2,500 to get the part and it may be here towards the end of the week. Bang, there goes our holiday, our spending money and anything else we had left. with that kind of timeline I would much rather give the work to Ollie and when I speak to him he confirms that the price given seems really high and in fact the system had been initially installed with a whole load of other work for less than that. Ollie has got a price for us which is hundreds less even including delivery and we order through him with a not dissimilar delivery timescale. However, we have had trouble with things being sent from the UK for us before so I am a little concerned whether we will get the part when we expect it. I shouldn’t have worried as the delivery is like clockwork and Ollie has even found a spare surround to replace the one that has been broken. Absolute hero and saved us money too.

So I have my new navigation controller in hand and decide that this is a like-for-like swap and do I really want a screwdriver waving madman anywhere near my boat again. How hard can it be…..

To be fair, the hardest part of the whole operation is actually unscrewing the old box from the inner wall and putting up the new one. It’s made harder because of the awkwardness of the space you are going into and the non-standard screw heads that took a bit of working out. However once in place, it is a simple task of plugging the old wires into the corresponding space in the new box. I now have a working navigation system again but this has all taken the full week we had allocated to being away.

We decide we will pop out of the harbour for the weekend, not least of all to make sure the new box is working as expected and invite our fantastic friends Carlo and Sabrina to come with us, the week may have been a wash out but at least we can spend some quality time with our friends. I think I have done the dockside configuration correctly but there may have been a problem so when I get to the outer harbour of Brindisi and switch over to the autopilot, it immediately goes the wrong way, oops! May need to do that again.

We are anchored outside of the harbour having a light lunch and a small drink while we chill and chat. At the end of a lovely afternoon, I decide to quickly do the configuration again whilst anchored and see if that works. It’s not exactly dockside but hopefully won’t be a problem, we start to head in and this time the autopilot behaves exactly as expected and I am quite chuffed with myself.

At least the boat is working and ready for our next trip whenever that will be.

The next day I speak to the local electrician, he doesn’t need to worry because I was able to get it installed and it works fine. Thanks for your efforts before and how much do I owe you? He asks for €250. I am perplexed. You were on the boat for 45 minutes, broke stuff and then gave me a ridiculous quote for a replacement. Apparently, he wanted to charge me for the fitting of the unit that I had done! needless to say, that wasn’t happening, and I pointed out that he had broken part of my chartplotter and on the internet that costs €30, another huge thanks for Ollie finding me one. We settle at a much lower number, neither of us happy which I guess is the sign of a good negotiation. He won’t be back on our boat though.

What a stunning holiday. This was our first holiday in mariadz in the Mediterranean, we needed a good break and we found both places welcoming and beautiful. We have had no real exposure to either country before apart from a day trip to Dubrovnik on a cruise ship 17 years ago. We did not know what to expect of the people and knew nothing of the languages so we were very grateful for the excellent English spoken everywhere. We will try harder next time and at least we are now starting to pronounce the islands better!

On this trip we travelled every day, so we could see as much as possible. We have found some places where we will definitely return and very few that we think are done. A return next year will see us stay in some special anchorages for a few days and explore some new ones too.

In total we travelled nearly 500 miles and added seventy hours to the engine which seems to prove that the med either has too much wind or none at all. In our case none or in the wrong direction. That said, we had glorious weather for the end of May and early June with only one short storm, although it was a doozy! It also meant that despite filling up in Montenegro, we used quite a bit of fuel, about 285 litres. We were actually told that Croatia was cheaper for fuel than Montenegro but didn’t check that. Montenegro was substantially cheaper than the €2.20 that Brindisi expected. That was so bad that we contemplated filling up by can which would have meant 50 litres at a time but would save 60c a litre!

However, the great experience does cost, Croatia in particular is suffering very high inflation as it normalises under its new position in the EU. However, there had been evidence prior to this that cruising in Croatia was expensive, when the cruising permits were introduced which, although an annual charge, are now €250 for a cruising permit and tourist tax. In addition, there are the national parks when you come into a pretty normal looking harbour to be told to pay €40. Restaurant prices were also high with a couple of meals coming in at over €150 for the two of us. One was pretty normal fare too but the other was a special meal with a fantastic view (you may have seen the photo…. 😀). It is definitely getting more expensive, as are a lot of Mediterranean countries. We will be able to report on Greece later in the year.

Our encounters with officials went very well which,upon going, was probably our biggest concern. But now we are used to the routine of police, harbourmaster and customs. Our papers are now very much in order although our crew sheet could be better and will be properly printed for future adventures. In both Croatia and Montenegro we were fortunate to have someone guide us through the process which definitely made things easier.

Although we spent a couple of days in marinas which went well, the point of this holiday was to spend time in quiet bays with crystal clear water. We definitely achieved that, whether it was in site of tree covered mountains descending into the water in Montenegro or the bays of Croatia with trees to tie a line to. We got used to med mooring with a line to shore although with two people it isn’t easy. Taking our time seemed to do the trick as well as being able to laugh at your own mistakes which were frequent but, as they say, no one died – everyone got to go home, so it is all good.

It may have taken some time, and a little cajoling, but the dolphins eventually arrived and when they did the display was amazing and made us both smile. I think I know the real reason they turned up….. you know you have really got to book these guys, they are busy, busy, busy!

We also had our first attempts at using a drone to get video and pictures. I will let you judge but I suspect there is a little more work to do after our initial attempts.

As usual, there were a few problems with the boat and we have a small list of things to fix prior to our summer week in Greece, which will probably be a lot busier than Croatia in June.

Finally, it reminded us why we do this and why we still have plans to travel the world, doing this for a long time sounds like heaven.

We have had a good nights rest and having done a lot of tidying up the night before, we don’t have much to do to get ready to depart on our return to our home port of Brindisi. The various weather predictions are showing either 5 knots or 10 knots of wind from behind us so at least we aren’t beating into a bad sea, but it looks like we will be under engine for the whole time back. We will get sail up with any excuse but I suspect that this may be an exception with no wind across the boat.

Brindisi is 130 miles from Mljet almost south, we would normally hope to do it a bit quicker but under engine, and we are nice to our engine, this will probably take about 20 hours which gives us an arrival time early in the morning after dawn. Our rule is not to approach an unknown port at night and although we have been into Brindisi before, and it is well lit at night, we are not taking any chances.

As we head off from Mljet, it feels like the end of the holiday although we have nearly a days worth of sailing left to do. We have to skirt the island and then it is 122.5 miles on the same heading. The sun is blazing and the wind is on the nose, most of it from our own forward movement, but we will see what happens once we get away from the island and it’s funnelling of the winds.

A little later there has been some shift and we decide to get some sail up although the sea is flat and there isn’t much wind. It gets us less than half a knot but at least it is work the engine doesn’t have to do. Maria is keen to see dolphins again but we haven’t seen any on this break or in this part of the Mediterranean so we are not hopeful.

A little while later and the wind on the beam has strengthened to about ten knots, all our sail is up, the engine is off and we are bombing along at seven knots. Maria prepares lunch and has decided to go full Italian celebrating our return with bolognaise and bruschetta.

Unfortunately the wind only lasts a few hours before it drops and shortly before dark we have to drop all sail as our wind indicator does a complete 360 showing the wind coming from all directions. It is close to the end of the daylight and it has been very hot so we decide to have our showers which of course have to be taken in shifts. Maria goes off first and comes back ready for after sun to be applied having caught a bit of colour during the day.

She then takes over watch while I go to the shower. A cold shower at the end of a hot day in the sun is very welcoming but maria frantically shouting for me wasn’t. I stop the shower, grab a towel and soaking wet run up to the cockpit to see what the problem is….. they came, they came. A pod of about twenty dolphins is playing off the bow of Mariadz and Maria has the biggest smile on her face. After a few minutes, my heart rate is returning to normal – I had no idea what the problem was when I ran up top. I return down below to dry the floor from the bathroom through the saloon and get changed. It was lovely seeing the dolphins but maybe a calm call of “Dolphins” next time rather than “Adam, Adam, quick, quick….” Which makes me think there is something wrong. 🙂

Maria continues her Italian theme with a carbonara for supper which we eat quickly before sunset and now all navigation lights are on and the instruments are turned down to their night mode to preserve our night vision so we can keep a good watch. That said over the last ten hours we have seen two sailing yachts and that is it, the closest of these was two miles away and the other nearly four. There is nothing on AIS so we are prepared for a quiet night.

This evening we will be alternating rest and trying to get a couple of hours at a time. Maria has been yawning so I suggest she gets the first bit of rest. However, at ten o’clock I notice a few splashes near the boat that are not our wake clashing with the swell. The conditions are very benign, having settled down to a 4 knot north westerly with a gentle movement of the sea, so I go to the bow to investigate and it is true we have more dolphins. As I return to the cockpit wondering whether I should wake Maria, she is upright having seen I wasn’t in the cockpit. I said “we have dolphins, come and see” (see that is how you do it!). The sight at night is even more amazing than during the day. As you look down into the darkness, you can see plankton seemingly hanging in the air and what appear to be flying dolphins. Only when they break the surface do you get the impression of water. The display lasts a good fifteen minutes with them playing in our bow wave. however, now Maria is awake and won’t go back to sleep so I suggest at 11pm that I get some sleep.

At 1am Maria is getting tired so we swap over again, this time I have something interesting. Two large cargo ships coming straight at us on exactly the same course as each other. When I check we go straight through the middle of them and they will be past in 30 minutes so all is good. As we approach Italy, there is a need for a sharp look out for the remainder of the night, especially after last years encounters with small unlit fishing boats off the North Sicily coast. For extra security I put the radar on. We are getting close now and can see the lights on the land, soon enough the night and the holiday will be over.

The moon is well and truly up now which provides additional light and the stars look amazing. If I’m not scanning the horizon on these night watches I am looking into the sky at the millions of stars you can see when there is no light pollution.

Maria and I alternate resting through the night and before long it is light again and we are only a few hours from Brindisi. As we approach, we start to see other boats, a couple of yachts, large container ships anchored to the south of Brindisi and some faster motor boats. One goes across us seemingly heading South but before long has done a wide turn to approach us from behind. It is grey with guardia du finanza on the side, they ask us to come to a halt. It’s all very polite and professional and they have put out fenders on the side to avoid rubbing against us. They ask to check our papers, which should be in order having been checked several times in Italy over the last months, never mind Montenegro and Croatia. This takes some time which is surprising. After about half an hour, they have papers for us to sign and it appears we have been checked in to Italy. They ask us if there is anything to declare and we say no but they ask to inspect down below. The whole stop, papers and search takes about 45 minutes but eventually they let us go and at least we now don’t need to go into the port offices.

So we have been away from Brindisi and we are returning on the weekend of the Brindisi – corfu annual race. We have no idea if the marina will be full or empty! We call in and I use my faltering Italian to explain we are returning to our berth and would like some assistance. This is no problem and we continue on approach to the marina. Our helpful member of staff is there to help us and takes both our stern lines after maria expertly reverses into our spot. He then passes us the lazy lines for the bow and we are done, the end of a great holiday.

So after City’s glorious victory in the FA cup despite the best endeavours of the officials on the pitch and in the VAR room, it is half way through our holiday and time to start thinking of heading back south east and eventually towards Brindisi.

Our destination for today is Uvala Poplat on the western side of the island of Korcula. Of course the winds are blowing in from the south and east because that is the direction we are heading! The west facing bay looks really nice but getting there is going to need us to tack a little.

We are the end boat on the pontoon so our exit is easy with Maria making the boat go sideways away from our companion and then going straight ahead. We also use the lines to help with this, releasing the stern line nearest to the other boat which helps us to shift away. Drop the two lazy lines on the bow and walk slowly back aft while those lines sink to the bottom so we don’t get one wrapped our prop. Finally release the last line on the stern and we are already on our way.

There are quite a lot of boats out today, none of them going in the same direction as us mugs though. We do see one beautiful square rigged cruise ship, Sea Cloud, but when Marina checks it out, it is about £9,000 for a week. Maybe will stick to our own mini cruise ship.

After a big tack, we are now heading directly into the bay and as we get closer it is time to get the sails out.

Mariadz has in-mast furling and we are generally pretty good at getting the sail in and out without any problems. The trick for us is to keep tension on the sail using the outhaul while the continuous line brings the sail in. On this occasion, however, the continuous loop gets caught in a handle bar in the cockpit under the winch and locks itself tight. We look in disbelief at the beautiful knot under tension with the sail still mostly out and now our means of getting it in blocked. I can’t even move the furler to free mode which would remove the tension and allow us to undo the knot. After a few minutes of thought we decide to try and wedge a flat head screwdriver to ease the knot a bit. Miraculously, this works after a little time and we are able to free the knot, carefully make sure that the continuous line doesn’t play with anything else it shouldnt and get the sail in.

We arrive in Uvala Poplat and there is one other boat in the anchorage. Their position means we need to drop and anchor and attach to a tree but we are confident of this and interestingly after we have finished they do the same on the other side of the bay.

As mentioned we have an anchor buoy to let us know where the anchor is which proves very useful. It has 20 metres of line on it which is doubled at the moment because we generally anchor in less than ten metres and it means it is close to the anchor. Today we think it will be ten metres depth so I attach it and deploy the anchor to see the buoy bobbing a metre under the water, drat it must be eleven metres! We lay out some chain as I get prepared with our three lines combined, y shaped mooring line ready. As Maria holds station, I attach the line to the boat and then off to find a strong tree. I climb the rocks to get to my chosen tree, having remembered to pull out the ribs anchor, attach it to the boat and launch it at the rocks so that the rib doesn’t float away. I have just finished tying the knot when I notice that the line is underwater and has an angle in it. It is clearly snagged on an underwater rock. By now my bowline around the tree has been pulled taut and I can’t get enough slack in the line to undo it. Frustrating isn’t the word. So it’s back to the boat, get the boat hook to unsnag the line. Nope! I get to the line but can’t shift it because it is under tension from both sides. Right! I now have to go back to the boat, undo both lines at the stern, gather in the line until I get to the rock, unsnag it by driving away from the rock before putting it all back together again. That works so it is back to the boat again being careful with the lines and making sure they don’t get caught in the prop. I successfully tie on the first line however the other mischievous line that I want to tie to the other side of the boat has snuck out of the rib and immediately wrapped itself around the prop, stalling the engine.

Everything we do which should be simple is having unwanted issues. I lift the engine clear the line, tell it off for going out without permission like a naughty child and lower the engine. I attempt to restart and there is nothing, grrrh. So I wonder if there is a cut off I need to check. Lift the engine, take the top cover off engine, take a look, nothing obvious and lower engine. Why won’t it start, maria suggests checking the safety cut off, yes it is in place just below the ignition but it is a fair ask since we first got the boat there have been engine start issues that have been exactly that. However, the gear stick is still in drive where it was when the engine stalled which will stop the engine starting. Into neutral and Connie starts first time and purrs in tickover. I can now tie off the second line onto Mariadz. As I finish this, I look back to the tree and the line is caught under another underwater rock. This one is closer to shore, shallower and easier to clear. Having done this and back on board Mariadz, I can now tighten the chain a little to straighten the boat and get the shore line holding us.

We are sitting pretty, at last. Something is telling us today is a day for problems.

Another boat comes in, a bavaria 37 cruiser which is often a charter boat. They go around the entire bay, which is quite large, before deciding that their best place is about thirty metres from us. Still it’s a front row seat for the show. We see their dinghy doesn’t have an engine on and the man has to row it to shore having thrown a very long line into it. The guy goes onto the rocks in bare feet (ouch), that doesn’t look nice. He also has a very long line which seems to be completely tangled together now. You can feel his frustration, somewhat similar to my own an hour previously. It takes ages to untangle the line but eventually he gets the line around a large boulder and drops the rest back into the dinghy. However, he is struggling to row the boat and pay out the line. After a few minutes watching his pain, we call across to offer some help which after initially being refused, is gratefully accepted. So I am back in the rib, avoiding all lines and heading to join him near the rocks. I attach a line to his dinghy and start to tow him back to their boat as he pays out the line. On board he is able to tie it to their cleat and my work is done. All done for now and they invite us over for a drink as a thank you for the help. A little later we pop over and meet a really nice Slovenian family. They are having a reunion family holiday with their 35 year old son and 29 year old daughter. They speak excellent English and correct all of pronunciations of the places we have visited 🙂 so we are starting to learn a little more about Croatia.

On our return to Mariadz, Maria makes up a nice dinner with pork chops and a little pasta and then it is off to bed. As we switch the lights off their is a strange ticking noise we can hear. We start taking up floor boards desperately trying to understand the cause of this noise before the ticking noise is traced to pistol prawns outside of the boat. During our search, we see some water in the aft bilge and quickly hoover it up. Being lazy, I put the water down the toilet. Maria is worried she didn’t just hoover up water…. Why was I so lazy as to not dump it overboard. We now have a blocked toilet. I am hoping that whatever it is has got through the toilet and been caught in the joker valve which would be easier to fix. So of course it isn’t that. A job for when we stop next.

The next morning we set off early to sail to Lastovo on our back to Mljet. As usaual the wind is coming from over the Lastovo island so similar to yesterday there will be a tack required. We are actually making reasonable time and the southern tack is quite fast.

Tonight we will be docking on the sea wall in lostova, the restaurant, Konoba Aragosto, has had good reviews. We are on approach it looks a pretty well protected bay. As we get in, we can see one other boat outside of the restaurant as i finalise getting the fenders and stern lines on. In quite a strong cross wind, Maria gets Mariadz going backwards onto the dock. Someone is there to help us and as they often do he is keen to give me the lazy line straight away. I ask him to tie the stern lines first so that Maria can power the boat away from the deck held by these. I get them ashore, those distant memories of messing that up are hopefully behind me.

Once we are settled we can set to fixing the toilet or at least understanding what is wrong. Firstly we need to know where the blockage is, a pretty horrible thought when you are talking about toilets. I recheck the back of the toilet. There is nothing in the non-return joker valve and water in the pipe so I next go to the diverter box (which allows us to go from the sea to the holding tank. When I open this up, it is full of calcium so I clean it up. So I have now gone right the way to the through hull which when wide open doesn’t let water into the boat. It is blocked and we can clear some out but the right angle bend at the top of it, stops us getting it all. Ave attacked it quite hard and we are now able to get water coming in but there still seems to be a problem with the emptying of the toilet – one for tomorrow when we aren’t in a dock and I can go under the boat and try and clear the outside part.

This glorious, messy and smelly exercise takes me pretty much to dinner, especially by the time we have cleared up the boat and me. Shortly before that though, two people in uniform come to the boat and tell us we have to pay a fee for entering the national park so we get stung for €40 for entering the national park. We go to the restaurant for dinner and and have a mixed starter of meat, cheese and gherkins, a John Dory fish which we share and a pancake and ice cream pudding. With some wine and sparkling water, our bill comes to €160. The most expensive meal we have had. It was nice but not the best we have had. A few nightcaps on board to finish the night and it’s off to bed.

In the morning the two boats either side of us are making lots of noise at 8am, so that means we will be up then! Our plan to go to vucine bay on the mainland of Croatia before going to mljet tomorrow. The winds should be ok but it will be tight and potentially like the last few days with some tacking going on

We are thinking of leaving but need one of the boats to move ideally since we are squeezed tight. We have nearly had one problem with our kedge anchor protruding proud of the rest of the boat and we don’t want a repeat. There are ominous black gloves to the west of us and just as one of the boats is thinking of leaving, a huge storm blows in with strong winds and rain lashing down, nobody is going anywhere for the moment. It’s a good wash for the boat but we have the mesh sides up which allow some rain in! So all of our cloth covers are wet. However, this is all coming in from the west completely against any of the weather predictions. Although I guess as this heads south then those winds will come in as predicted.

An hour or two after our intended departure time, the outside boat leaves and we are ready to go too. It means we won’t arrive at the anchorage until gone 4pm, late for us.

As we get out of the bay, it is an easterly wind of 12-14knots. We will motor sail with most of the main and the stay sail so we don’t heal over too much. Mariadz, and Maria, don’t like that. We want to head east and it would take a very long time just sailing and tacking there. Maybe if we had more time. We start heading north east towards the island of korcula that we have visited already, actually our heading is pretty much straight at korcula town on the far side of the island. Rather than two tacks maria would like to break it up a bit more into four tacks which also gives us some options if the wind changes direction, I guess. As we finish our final south eastern tack we have lost a bit of time but the wind has shifted south a little which allows us to aim directly for our destination as the sun comes out to dry our stuff and make Maria happy.

We are about half an hour out when I see a yacht with sails down with a motor boat in attendance. The motor boat seems fine but the yacht is on a collision course. We are sailing on a starboard tack quite close to the wind and in the groove and it looks like that sail boat will pass just behind us. Until I notice the tow rope between the two of them when they are about half a mile away. Ah. Maybe we will go behind the sailing boat then… it’s a quick diversion and we are soon back on our course.

We approach the beautiful bay of Uvala Vucine and there is one other boat who are right where we wanted to anchor, at least we are good at choosing spots! We anchor a little south of them but in a good spot in 8 metres of water. The water is so clear you can see the chain all the way back to the anchor and when we float past it the anchor too.

The water is fantastic and clear so we have to go for a swim and use Maria’s new personal watercraft which goes at 4.3km hour. It’s really good fun and a lazy way to swim. I go and check the anchor and do a quick tour of the boat.

We also fly the drone again to get some great views of the bay and mariadz in it. It is beautiful. The drone landing is still very stressful but no damage done so a result.

A Sunsail boat full of brits comes in. We all watch the glorious sunset and then eat our bbq dinner on deck drinking some very nice wine that we bought from our favourite enoteca in San Michelle. A little taste of home since we are going back soon. At the end of the meal, Maria decided to feed the fish the left over bread, they are going wild for it.

In the morning we are woken by bird song and the sun shining full on my pillow. We decide to have another swim before leaving without about 100 fish. Then it is on our way to Mljet with no wind. As we depart our friends that we met in Mljet, Annie and flinn say they are coming to the bay and will arrive during the morning. Such a shame that we have just missed them.

It’s a scorching day with what little wind there is offsetting the wind that Mariadz is making by driving forward. It is reminiscent of the coast of Africa last year when we watched Christian reading a book with sweat dripping off his face, must have been a raunchy book.

We have messaged the Maestral restaurant, brother and sister Tim and Linda, and told them we will be there at 1pm, and we arrive in the bay at 12:58. Linda comes to help us with the mooring buoy which was nice and we settle down. There is a 50 foot cat on the other buoy and we seem quite close, we are also close to the “roundabout” of rocks in the middle of the bay.

It is really hot and we decide to go for a swim giving Marina another opportunity to play with her James Bond toy. It also gives me a chance to check the distance to the shallows and also to review the holding weight at the sea bed that we are attached to. Actually the bay is quite deep until you get very close to the central rocks and we are attached to a three foot cubed lump of concrete. Mariadz is safe. While we are swimming there are three large yachts that come into the bay and go back out, maybe they were hoping for our mooring buoy.

Our dinner is booked early at Maestral but we are grateful that we booked since they are full of boats and people tonight in contrast to the other restaurants in the bay who have 3 and 4 boats on their docks.

It is time for dinner and we are looking forward to this, we checked the menu when we were here last week and it looked lovely. Maria has seen the five course tasting menu which looks good but like a lot of women, just wants to change a few things on it… we are decided and also take Linda’s advice on Croatian wine, this is a white from the Dubrovnik region, which is excellent. I’m sure if we were going back we would buy a few bottles of that.

The meal and view, including Mariadz gloriously sitting in the middle of the bay, are perfect. At the end, they offer us a choice of liquors but again Maria can’t choose and we have both. This is the most expensive meal we have had on holiday but it was fantastic.

We had decided to have an early sitting for food, so we could chat to the siblings a little but it also meant we were back on the boat shortly after West Ham started playing for their first European honours in forty plus years. It’s another victory while we have been away and we know Kristy, Stu, Isabella and bump will be happy.

A quick nightcap and off to bed to get a good nights rest before the long journey back to Brindisi.

After a great night’s sleep, we awake early on Saturday morning to another glorious day in Uvala Smrka. Today it will be a short sail to the town of Milna and our first Marina in Croatia. Maria has coincided this with the FA Cup final so that we may watch it in a bar, even though we have the technology to watch it on board if necessary.

First off we are going to explore the bay and the submarine pen. The bay is pretty and we have some nice pictures of Mariadz anchored but the submarine pen is basically a large cave, I had in mind all sorts of James Bond villain underground engineering. No one is going to take over the world by refurbing that!

We return to the boat and decide today will be the first proper flight of our new drone, bought using the contents of the £2 jar. We get a number of shots of Mariadz and a video. Of course the most stressful part is bringing it in to land when there are lots of lines and protruding bits of stainless steel to break its fragile props. We decide to land it on the cushions on the aft sun bed and this works well until the breeze flicks up a towel just enough to catch it. Still everything seems to be ok but note to self no towels on sun beds for next flight.

Again, this will be about an hour and a half with no wind so no sails up 😦 we are basically just going around the island of Brac and the entire journey is uneventful. As we approach Milna, we radio the marina as advised in the guide books. There is no reply, a couple of more attempts and still nothing. Eventually I telephone the marina to be told by a lovely young lady that someone will be waiting on the pontoon for us.

It’s lazy lines again and he is putting us on the outside berth of the outside pontoon. There is no one else on there but apparently they will be full later. Maria brings Mariadz in and I throw the lines and then take them back so we can adjust ourselves from on board. He then passes us two lazy lines for the bow. He gives us a bit of advice to keep the stern lines loose while we tighten the bow but this isn’t our first rodeo! Still nice of him to give the advice. Bow lines on we then tighten them up further by tightening the stern lines and bringing Mariadz in close enough to the dock that we can step off the swim platform. She will not be moving.

We get off with the boat papers to check into the office and are greeted by a very friendly lady and we have a lovely chat while we check in and pay our fees. We get back to the boat where we now have power so Maria decides she will do some washing while we go off for a swim in the sea and then a shower in the very clean facilities. The coast of Croatia has been quite rocky and so we need swim shoes to get in and as we walk to the beach area, there is a bronze statue of a man fishing using a net from shore. This is just below a picturesque fish restaurant, bargo, which could be somewhere we can try later depending on how the day goes. The beach is rocky, like a lot in Croatia, but the sea is very clear if a little cold for us at 20 degrees.

We have our showers which is in lovely soft water great for Maria’s hair so she is happy. We then get back, tidy up and hang out some washing before heading into town a couple of hours before kick off of the FA Cup final.

It’s hot today and a lovely stroll into a nice little town. As we look back at Mariadz, it looks like the gypsies have turned up hanging out their washing! In town, there is a large sailing boat tied up on the quay and a bar just after that with a very nice outside area for eating. We ask them if they are going to show the game and they are afraid it isn’t on a channel that they subscribe to. However, there is a bar called Vox around the corner that will definitely have it. We quickly nip to Vox to confirm they will have the game and we are all set.

However, now we need to get some food and we agree to go back to the first bar, Bargo. They have a fish platter for two that sounds good and Maria is worried there won’t be enough food and so orders some calamari too. When it arrives we have two tuna steaks, large prawns, prawns on skewers, muscles and other shellfish with a huge plate of calamari. You know your fish platter is going to be filling when there are two tuna steaks! The food is great and we have a lovely view across the bay with me in the shade and marina in the sunshine. That is until the mini cruise ship, Princesza Diana, comes in and docks right in front of us. Oh well, we will be leaving shortly to watch the football.

We arrive at Vox next it quite full of Mancunians who are staying at a local hotel with their brightly coloured wristbands. There are some city fans but more United fans who are very quite noisy for 13 seconds until city score their first goal. Unfortunately, they get the opportunity to be noisy again later but city finally quieten them down with a winning goal and twenty seconds after the final whistle they have all gone!

After watching the trophy lift, that will be two out of three now (hopefully one more to go before this holiday finishes), we return to the marina to find the pontoon is filling up quite quickly. We had seen on our outside camera that somebody had come in next to us, glad we decided to put all of our fenders on that side and the rib on the other side.

We are just pottering now, tidying up the now dry washing when a nice lady comes up to us and asks us if we would like to eat in their restaurant this evening. After our large lunch we don’t expect to be too hungry but this is the place we looked at earlier and it looked very nice.

We arrive for our table a little later still not feeling too hungry but take a look at the menu. It is a really nice menu, designed like a newspaper with little articles dotted around describing the history of the restaurant and the husband and wife owners. We decide to eat a light supper, a scorpion fish and she persuades us to have the fish pate to start. As we have found with all of the food in Croatia it was very tasty. At the end we have had enough but I enquire about desserts. We are offered a tiramisu, my favourite Italian dessert. We didn’t come to Croatia to eat a dessert which would be immeasurably better in Italy, but the wife mentions that she is Italian! Oh well, that changes everything… one of those with two spoons please!

This marks our furthest point north and tomorrow we will start the slow journey back towards Italy.

After a lovely evening, we decide to get up early because we have six or seven hours of travel with little wind. So it is six o’clock when the alarm goes off. We get up quite quickly, get the coffees and drinks together so that we can get on our way.

As we go past Korcula Town, it looks stunning and on the far side of the town is a large marina with a number of 50 metre motor boats, similar to Casanova. Clearly they have to get out early since about half a dozen of these leave at the same time as we go past. We need to be careful not to get in anyone’s way but we seem to be in the middle of a convoy of ships. This is fine for a while but the problem is that there is a little blue fishing boat in the way. As one of the big boats goes to avoid him, the electronics on our boat light up – he will hit us in two minutes! We give them a little room knowing they will return to their previous course when they get past him but better safe than sorry. The water is an absolute mill pond, so no sails for us today but we are enjoying heading in the same general direction with our escorts.

We take the opportunity of a bit of tranquility to clean up the boat. In particular, the seats for the rib have been stored for a year and are quite mucky and once this is done, we decide to focus on the stainless steel around the boat which has become tarnished. This is incredibly rewarding as it shines after we have put a bit of effort into it. Maria likes things shiny!

I go down below and randomly check the state of the batteries. Overnight they generally go down to about 70% but I had noticed they were only at 50% this morning. I am disappointed to see them at 36%. The solar is contributing but it is a little cloudy and the combination of navigation on top of everything else is pulling from the batteries. So why is our two year old hardly-used super-duper alternator not doing what it should. This was supplied and fitted by Ollie at Seapower who, as described previously, has done a fantastic job with the electrics on Mariadz. Firstly we check the voltage at the alternator which is reading the same as the batteries on our battery monitor. There is a regulator on the wall which controls the alternator and it flicks through its settings, confirming that the controller thinks it should be charging. Ollie thinks there is either a problem with the alternator or a problem with the “blue wire”. If it is a problem with the alternator there isn’t much I can do so fingers crossed when I check it later. We always have the generator to top up if we need.

We arrive in our chosen anchorage Uvala Tarsce which is deep in the middle but everyone anchors and then attaches mooring lines to trees and rocks on the side to stop them moving. Similar to med mooring without the docks and cleats – and you are a little bit further away from the rocks than the dock! This is a first for us, but an important skill to learn. Our first step is to prepare to drop the anchor, this will stop Mariadz going onto the rocks. Then the mooring lines are tied to a tree on the shore which will stop her moving around.

As mentioned this was our first attempt so it took about forty minutes to complete. Firstly, I started to drop the anchor and then got Maria to drop the rest as she came back in astern towards the shore. When I went to the bow to check, I noticed that we only had twenty metres of chain out which wouldn’t even touch the bottom where we started so we had obviously been holding the anchor suspended above the sea bed until it got a little shallower, but the anchor wouldn’t be where we would want it. So start again. This time I do an initial anchor drop to the depth of the water and then leave it to maria to continue dropping anchor as we go astern. We are good now and sitting about thirty metres off shore. As for the aft lines. I have decided to go with a bridle across the two aft cleats, which should pin her better than a single line to shore from one cleat and share the load. I use our two shortest mooring lines and then join these to one of our longest. This all goes in the rib as I head to shore paying it out as I go. I am a few metres from shore when I run out of line! Back to the boat again and get another line, this is twenty five metres long but with a snubber. The good news is it reaches, the bad news is trying to do a bowline, quite an easy knot, when you are threading a large snubber through the knot is more difficult than you think. Eventually, and after several attempts, I get it done. Maria then suggest that I add fenders to the line so people know it is there. Now I am done and we are sitting pretty – anchor out and lines to shore.

This particular anchorage is famous for having a very good restaurant a five minute walk away. More of that later, but first let’s discuss leaving the rib….. the walk to said restaurant starts at the beach at the north west corner of the bay. That means we have to get the rib out and take it to the beach. Now for some reason we are always keen to lock up our property if we are leaving it and as we look at the beach it is clear there is nowhere for us to leave the rib safely. We come up with a plan using a disused rusty ladder and similar to what we have done with the big yacht, anchoring off this and then tying up to the ladder. I drop the anchor in the small bay, tie the rib up to the ladder and then let the rib settle on its anchor while we start the short walk, or trek, through the undergrowth to the restaurant.

When we arrive the restaurant is a little oasis, overlooking another bay. It’s quite busy with three front row tables all occupied. The owner is really nice and the menu is small but with lots of local favourites. We have an aubergine pie, similar to a meat-free moussaka, followed by a 50cm meat kebab, all washed down with the owners homemade, very tasty red wine. It was fantastic. We are also able to check on Mariadz via the remote anchor app that tells us she is exactly where we left her and the boom mounted security camera that shows the view behind her and the line to shore nice and tight. After the meal, the owner delivered a small bottle of carob grappa, that was very morish! We are a little merry after this for the walk back through the undergrowth. Connie the rib is sitting pretty in the middle of the small bay where the beach is. I pull her in to get on board, release the lock and the mooring line and drift back to the anchor. After retrieving the anchor I can run up to the beach where Maria is waiting with the camera bag and the beach bag.

Now, originally, we had to get Connie because of Maria’s inability to sit sensibly in a standard rib without proper seats. She would fall into these and end up lying face down in the rib for the journey with her bottom in the air. Connie solved this with her four seats which allow Maria to sit comfortably and ride elegantly. Or so we thought…… The bags are on board and Maria starts to climb in and then in slow motion falls backwards out of the rib grabbing onto the rib for just long enough to give her a long lazy fall into the sea. The group of girls on the beach tried, unsuccessfully to avoid laughing as Maria comes up soaking wet and giggling. This group of girls are staying on a yacht anchored about fifty metres from the beach but one is obviously a little tired and wants to go back to her friends, swimming just off the yacht. She asks for a tow! Having dropped her a line we gently set off. She says she is fine and wants to go faster, hmmm, barefoot water skiing perhaps. I give a few more revs and that idea disappears very quickly as she splutters to slow down. We settle back down and drag her slowly back to her boat. Her friends can’t see her and are wondering why I am driving the rib at them, until I turn and they see their friend waving. We drop her off, retrieve our line and zoom off back to Mariadz who is sitting exactly where we left her. But we already knew that.

On our return Maria is very “happy” and wants to dance on the bow, I suspect it is the loud group of boys playing music and laughing on the catamaran next to us. We also have a little swim and as I swim around to check the anchor, Maria decides to dive off the bow, with some encouragement from me… the bow seat is probably 1.5m over the water so maria did have second thoughts but still went for it and did a good dive in.

More drinking, singing and dancing ensued. We even had a small boat come up to us selling local wine, olive all etc which of course Maria decided to buy before, even in her drunk state, she decided to make a spaghetti bolognaise for a snack dinner. It is lovely and eventually we fall into bed quite late.

The next morning we are up quite early, today we will be going to Hvar which we have always pronounced the same as Huzzah in the TV show, The Great! Today we will be going to a small cove at Jagodna in Hvar which has a restaurant that gets rave reviews. It will be our first time picking up a mooring ball this holiday and although the bay is a little open, the wind is not predicted to be high so we should be ok. Maria is having interviews today about a potential new job so we want to get there nice and early so we can get settled. But before we leave another boat comes alongside selling fruit, bread and croissants. It would be rude not to wouldnt it? We have some fresh bread and I have breakfast – maria doesn’t like to eat first thing.

However, before we can leave, it is onto the serious business of the non functioning alternator. Ollie has suggested that it could be the “blue wire” so I go into the engine room and check the wiring from the alternator. There is a blue wire that goes into a little black box and then out again. I check these for fitting and there is a noticeable click when I press on the blue wire in the black box. Could i be that lucky? I haven’t got the heart to get Maria’s hopes up so I remain calm as I fire up the engine…. 20A going into the batteries (a little more excitement), up the revs and 60A going into the batteries – he shoot, he SCORES!!! By the way darling, I have fixed the alternator, said as nonchalantly as possible. Maria is equally happy although we will all know that the real hero here is Ollie.

It’s only 90 minutes for us to cover the nine and a half miles to our destination and so before noon we are coming into the cove. I have booked a table at the restaurant in the evening and they described three black buoys which are all free. It is very picturesque with wooden gazebos with sun beds amongst the rocks and ladders down to the water. On closer inspection these black buoys seem remarkably close to shore for a 54 foot boat but we agree to give it a go.

Maria has great calls with the interviewers who clearly really like her and rate her. By the end of the day they have made her a good offer, reasonable salary but lots of extras that help to make it more palatable. While this is going on, I am distracted by how close we are getting to the rocks ashore. I decide to take advantage of the free buoy and tie our stern to the buoy nearest the restaurant, that will stop us swinging. It is successful at stopping the swinging but the gap between the buoys is about sixty feet and quite quickly the buoy attached to our stern starts banging on the hull, leaving a number of black marks, grhhhh. As Maria finalises her call, the wind and swell have picked up and the exposed nature of this bay is becoming apparent.

At 6pm, an hour before our table is booked, we make a decision. We are not comfortable here and we will find another bay that is protected. Opposite us is the island of Brac and we can see a really nice looking bay, Uvala Smrka, which has an old disused submarine hideout. It is six miles away and we have two and a half hours of daylight remaining so enough time. It will also require us to get a line ashore again, hopefully we will be quicker than the forty minutes and various mis-steps of the first attempt.

We head into the northerly wind and the fair amount of chop that we have already experienced within the bay, dragging the rib behind us. When we arrive, it is a gorgeous little bay with a couple of other yachts, one is anchored in the spot we could have gone and the other is anchored with a mooring line to shore where there are a number of established trees at the water line. We find our spot on the eastern side and I drop the anchor to twenty metres til it touches the sea bed. Maria then goes astern towards our chosen tree paying out more chain as I get the mooring lines and rib ready. Once again we will have lines from each stern cleat that will join a longer line that will go around the tree. Similarly to last time, I am a couple of metres short of line when I get to the tree but also the tide has taken Mariadz to be almost parallel to the shore. I get Maria to pay out more chain and come back towards me. At the same time, I decide to use my super human strength to pull the stern round of the 25 tonne boat. Needless to say my efforts don’t do too much, apart from pull muscles in my shoulders that will hurt for months, but Maria is doing well at getting her closer to shore and at the right angle. I can now tie around the tree and do a pretty bowline knot.

As I return to mariadz, the mooring line is laying in the water doing nothing and the anchor is angled straight down meaning it isn’t pulling us either. I decide to initially shorten the bridle at the stern in the first instance. Which helps a little and then a bring up a little chain and Mariadz straightens up and sits very nicely in her spot. It’s now getting a little late so we will leave exploring the bay until tomorrow morning.

Dinner is a couple of burgers that we were going to do on the barbecue washed down with an Italian red and then, for the first time this holiday, we switch on the TV and watch one of our programmes, a comedy called The Great, huzzah!

We have had a good nights rest and didn’t hear the overnight rain so must have slept soundly. We can dry out the boat and again the forecast is for little wind today so we can go up the eighteen miles to our next destination, the beautiful bay of Okuklje in Mljet.

We are not the fastest people to get going in the morning and it is gone 10:30 before we are ready to move. The bay is pretty empty at this stage with just one other boat still anchored. I retrieve the anchor and our buoy, untangling the mess of knots as I go and we are off for our first island in Croatia.

What wind there is, works for us quite well. We decide to get some sail up which improves our speed and we are going along beautifully under a full main, with the traveller moved to optimise performance, and the stay sail with the tell-tales showing the wind going across the sail perfectly. We are motor sailing but not putting too much pressure on the engine as we progress at a shade under 7 knots. At this rate we will arrive at around lunchtime in the bay so hopefully we will find somewhere good to anchor.

There is a bit more traffic here including a motor vessel Casanova, that seems keen to come straight at us. Slight adjustments on both sides and the 50m boat, three times the size of us, slips by our port side.

Actually the advantage of motor sailing with little wind is the sea state is calm but you are still getting a fair bit of wind, albeit generated by your engine pushing the boat forward. To be fair we could probably have tried to sail it but I expect it would have taken six hours to get there and this is a popular and busy location.

A couple of hours later and we are starting to drop sails and looking for the entrance to the bay amongst all the tree lined hills. This isn’t as easy as you’d think but eventually it comes into view and we get into the approach ahead of another boat.

Maria has read about the restaurants in this bay and there are three to choose from but two of them Maran and Maestral seem to be the most popular and reasonably sized. Maestral seems to have the better reviews and so that is our decision. As we get into the bay, we are looking for somewhere to anchor but there are different coloured buoys across the bay and no obvious spaces to drop anchor. Since we don’t know the story on the buoys we decide we should probably moor stern to onto what can loosely be described as docks. As you come into the bay, the first docking area you see is for Maestral and then another is right outside Maran with two people ready to accept us and pass us the lazy lines for our bow. However, although there is a chair and table at the Maestral dock, but there is no-one there. Having told Maran we are going to the other one, we have to change our mind when we can’t get to the other dock easily.

To be clear, it is possible for us to stern-to moor on mariadz without assistance but it requires some preparation and care. Firstly we need to drop the rib and attach it to the bow so it is completely out of the way. Then I have to rig two lines to the stern, take them around the davits to the swim platform. Maria then needs to bring Mariadz in very gently so that I can step onto the quay but obviously not so close as to crunch the swim platform against it. I can then tie both stern lines which allows maria to power forward against these lines to keep the stern away from the dock. The next job is to grab the lazy line and run it to the bow to hold Mariadz straight and off the quay. Finally we need to loosen the stern lines so we can tighten the lazy line before tightening the stern lines again to keep mariadz pinned where we want her. Quite a faff, and very reliant on perfect boat handling that gets me close enough to get on and off the boat but not so close as to damage the boat. If there are people to help you the margins are much better and you have the boat further from the quay, so less chance of damage. A good enough reason to change our plans. Also, since we thought we were anchoring, the rib was still up in its davits and we were not very prepared this time!!!

Maria brings mariadz in very slowly next to a large 45 foot catamaran. The quay has an obtuse angle to it, like a flattened V, and the guys are positioning us right on the apex which isn’t great but we will get it sorted out. Unfortunately it does mean that we end up quite close to the dock and therefore can’t drop the rib to get on and off. However, maria has handled Mariadz beautifully and you can see that the Canadians on board are impressed with her effortless boat handling. And for once I threw the lines properly and both lines got ashore fine! In fact the only concern was that the guys had pulled us close to the catamaran and our push pit mounted fortress anchor was very close to their hull. A few fenders on that stop any potential problem. We get talking to the Canadians who are three lovely couples that have been good friends for nearly all of their lives. They welcome us warmly and suggest that we all eat the house speciality, peka, in the evening.

We find the other boat that has followed us in is also coming into the dock and they come in very nicely too and nestle next to us on the other side. We are wedged in, which is fine for now but could present some challenges when we want to leave.

The bay is very picturesque, obviously more so for having mariadz in it. Maria and I decide to brave the fact that it is approximately 20 degrees in the water to go for a little swim close by the docks. Bracing is a word that describes it, although there may have been little patches of warmth in there. We are not in long before showering down on the swim platform with the water still warm from the motoring we had done to get here.

It’s lunchtime, we are settled and it seems appropriate to break out a couple of beers before doing a little exploring. In the lovely heat, with a beer inside me and laying on our outside sun bed area, I may have momentarily drifted off…. Now apparently when I sleep I may snore a little and I am assured by our neighbours that this was quite loud and not like a kitten gently purring as I thought…. Oops sorry! At least it made them all laugh.

In my embarrassment I agree to go for a walk around the bay, if only to visit the other restaurant and see what it is like. It’s actually a lovely little harbour. There is a shack which seems to be the only shop and is closed because of the national holiday. We also pass the smaller restaurant which seems very quiet before getting round to the other side of the bay for Maestral. However, when we look at their outdoor barbecue there is a cat asleep in it. We won’t be eating there, we like cats! There are quite a few steps to climb to get to the restaurant but when you get there the view is fantastic with Mariadz sitting amongst five boats now. We decide to have a drink with them and mention that we had intended to come to them. It seems they have a sunsail flotilla of eight or nine boats coming in but they also mention that you can pick up either of the two white buoys in the harbour which are their’s, the red ones being Maran and the sole orange one being for the other restaurant. We are all very disappointed that it hasn’t worked out especially as the restaurant itself looks great, has fantastic views and is reasonably priced. We agree that we will return this way at the end of Croatian tour as the last stop before our return to Italy. But that will be next week!

Dinner has been booked early and so we have to rush back to get ready, have a quick sundowner with our new Canadian friends and into the restaurant five metres from the boat. The conversation and some wine flows at the dinner table and we are amazed at the strength of friendship our companions have built over forty plus years. The food is very good with both veal and lamb in our peka, very tasty and a lot of it. At the end of the evening, the bill arrives and it is by far the most expensive meal we have had but we have all had a good time and enjoyed what we have eaten.

A nightcap for our Canadian friends, includes Maria breaking out the liquors like an Italian. Not just a bottle of limoncello but amaro amongst others. The moorings charter boat doesn’t have a great glass selection but of course Mariadz has everything and the conversation continues until people start drifting to bed.

In the morning, we are greeted to another beautiful day but with a little more high cloud than previously, I’m sure this will burn off through the morning. Everyone seems to be going in their separate directions today and all planning to leave early. Rather than squeezing out of the gap like a champagne cork, we decide to let the catamaran go first. This is going well until their guard wire gets caught on our anchor holder. I am able to get this off quite quickly as they come off the power after my call but there will be a little reshaping needed to get that right again.

It is now our turn to go and we now have a familiar routine. I take the lazy line off as maria keeps the boat forward against the stern lines. I then release the line nearest the boat we are still touching as maria steers towards it which would swing the stern out. Held only by the other line, Mariadz comes off the other boat gently and creates a gap. A touch of bow thruster to straighten her up and we can go dead straight out of our berth.

Today there is even less wind than yesterday, in fact there is none it seems. The wind instrument showing 6.5 knots on the bow as we power through the water at, you guessed it, 6.5 knots. The trip to korcula is about 27 miles and we intend to anchor just below the old monastery and take the rib into korcula town. Be tourists for the day, not something we usually do.

So it is pretty much three hours under power with no sails while Maria sunbathes and I write these blogs. After about an hour I notice that Casanova is back, the motor yacht that steered at us the other day coming out of Dubrovnik. We are on a convergent course and will pass less than 100 metres apart, not something we are comfortable with. I adjust course and speed up but I can’t get enough of a distance to get 2-300 metres ahead and after ten minutes if futile trying decide to slow us down and pass behind Casanova, which has made no change to course or speed.

Maria is bored and wants some dolphins and so I pick up the phone to speak to them. Unfortunately they are fully booked at the moment visiting other yachts but can probably get to us in about ten minutes. Maria seems happy with that, let’s hope they can find us! Half an hour later and they still haven’t turned up but Maria seems to have forgotten about it so I keep quiet. And then she remembers and calls me useless 🙂

The approach to Badija is reasonably complex. The channel to the south of the island which you approach from is very shallow and although it is supposedly deep enough for us, there isn’t enough margin for error. We like to be safe. So we decide to approach from the islands to the south of it Planjak and Kamenjak which has a deeper approach. We can then turn north up to Badija.

We are an hour away from our destination when I notice a large yacht which, as I recall, was in our first anchorage in Dubrovnik. They seem to be heading in a similar direction to us and it will be interesting to see if we are together again.

We follow the yacht into the islands as Maria sulkily returns to her sunbathing having not seen a single dolphin and convinced that they are not here despite apparent sightings in Brindisi a few months ago.

As we turn the final corner, we can see the monastery on the far shore. There are quite a few boats anchored but I have found us a nice spot in shallow water of about 5m. It will be a bit of a squeeze but we are getting more confident of our positioning when anchoring and I am sure I will be about fifty metres from the nearest boat when we finish. I remember to attach the anchor buoy and we drop anchor and drift back on about 20 metres of chain. Our rope snubber is on and two other snubbers to protect the windlass. I know it is overkill but I am not taking any risks with my little baby.

First, we need some provisions. We are out of fresh vegetables and I have no cereal either but most importantly this was the island that produced a very nice white wine when we had fish the other night. So we get in the rib to go to korcula town, an impressive stone walled village on the sea. As we approach there is a marina just outside of it so we decide that would be a good place for us to leave the rib short term. As we get in, the marina is incredibly tight with lazy lines but no much room in the middle between the boats. I can’t imagine how we would ever get Mariadz into here. We see a workboat with two members of staff and being honest types we decide to ask them permission to leave the rib for 15 mins. They tell us where we can moor. As we tie up some English people are passing and direct us to the nearest reasonably sized supermarket.

Two shopping bags later and we are done, lots of fresh vegetables and other essentials. As we get to the till we ask about the local wine, Maria has a picture, but the girl pretty much laughs at us and shakes her head. Is there a wine shop nearby, a shrug of the shoulders. Oh well. As we come out of the supermarket there are two sign posts for wine shops! We could be back on here…. We tentatively go into the shop, maria with phone in hand, picture at the ready. The lovely girl behind the counter, smiles. Of course we have this! Wonderful. We’ll have six of them 🙂 now laden down with three big bags, we walk back to the rib. On the way to the town we had been a little into the wind and although Connie, our rib, is really good there is a little spray as we bounced off the waves. The return is smooth and quick and in no time at all, we are back to the monastery and Mariadz nestled in the blue Green Bay looking beautiful. So what better idea than to go for a little swim in these beautiful crystal clear blue green waters. Did I mention they are 19 degrees and freezing? I’m sure we will get used to it once we are in but it takes a good few minutes to get into the water and we don’t stay long.

Those who know us recognise that we aren’t the best tourists, we don’t like to be walked around tourist attractions but the monastery looks lovely and we decide to go in and take a walk around the island. There seems to be a lot of work going on with diggers and workers making lots of noise. I’m sure it will be ready for the season and they work a little late but don’t really disturb us. The monastery itself dates back to the 14th century but seems to have gone through a major renovation in this century and looks traditional but very clean. Typical for us we arrived fifteen minutes after the building itself closed but we had a nice walk around the gardens 🙂 while we do this, we find something else the island is famous for, the deer roaming the land. They seem a little wary and there are strict instructions not to feed them dotted around the land, which seem to be ignored regularly we notice,

It is a beautiful spot and we settle down for a nice quiet evening, some sundowners and eating on board, a hot stone where we cook meat on the aft deck. It’s so relaxing and we feel a thousand miles away from any stresses.

So the first part of the journey is done. Most British yachts have to do some kind of VAT shuffle every eighteen months to ensure they aren’t importing their boat into the EU and hence have to pay VAT. We don’t think this is a problem for us since our VAT was paid in Malta, part of the EU but we will keep records just in case. But we wanted to go to Montenegro anyway and we had to meet up with friends so lots of good reasons to go.

We have had a nice few days in Montenegro and vow to return to see more of the country. For now though, we have to go back down the river and turn North towards Dubrovnik. We have checked out by noon, which is basically the reverse of the order we checked in but it is 35 miles to Dubrovnik and the wind will not be helping us much. We want to check in and then go on to anchor somewhere rather than go into a marina and daylight may be an issue so we need to get moving.

With the lack of wind we will be motor sailing and with this lack of wind, it means the apparent wind will be quite close to the bow since we are generating most of it by using the engine to power us through the water.

As we head out of the river we have Croatia on the northern bank and Montenegro to the south. We turn to the north protected by the old batteries that used to protect this coast and we are on our way. The wind is westerly so it does help us a little and with a full main and close hauled stay sail, we are making good progress at over six knots as we fly by a catamaran struggling along at 3 knots, they won’t get to Dubrovnik until the early hours at that rate.

We have heard stories of the Croatian authorities fining boats for entering their waters before checking in. Our first available port of entry would be Dubrovnik but we are staying a little way off shore and definitely not travelling between some of the islands and the shore, which apparently really gets their goat and can only be forgiven by a €200 donation. The coast here is becoming a familiar but still spectacular view with huge tree-covered mountains and hills plunging into the water. It seems a million miles away from a flat east anglia that has been home for so long.

The trip up is a single tack and with very little company after we pass the catamaran. At one stage a police motor launch goes past us, hopefully we are far enough off shore and already flying our Q flag to demonstrate we are on our way to a port of entry which should placate them.

As we approach Dubrovnik, maria mentions that it is 17 years since we last visited when we were on a cruise ship touring the Adriatic. At the time we had dreamed of doing these kind of tours and finally we have got there, if only for short trips at the moment. However, this is a completely different approach and for the life of us we don’t recognise anything.

As you approach Dubrovnik you are directed to the port at Cruz where the Croats have helpfully put a huge yellow “Q” on the building so you know where you are going and the harbourmaster, immigration police and customs are all there. Once again, Maria gets to sunbathe while I check us in to Croatia. As you approach, you can see that this is still set up as a commercial dock with bollards every twenty metres for you to tie onto. We normally like to get a mid line on first so that clearly isn’t possible. There are also big black rubber bumpers that stick out half a metre, I guess you don’t want to touch those or you get a big black mark on your hull. Maria gets mariadz nice and close to the dock but it is still very difficult to lasso the bollard and I miss, twice! I am going to need to develop a better technique for this… fortunately the police have come to greet us and one kindly takes a line and passes it back to me and the stern is tied on. That means that maria can use that line to bring the boat in tight to the dock and I can get the bow line on.

Once settled, I can get to the harbour masters office to start the check in process. Maria has already booked and paid for the tourist tax on line so I have the vignette, or cruising licence to pay. To check in I need the ships registration, proof of insurance and the crew list – which helpfully is documented on the Montenegro vignette since the only copy I had was electronic. Once these formalities are complete, I can go to the police and get our passports stamped as returning to the EU. This is easy and he also needs the ships registration, the new Croatian vignette and the crew list. The final stage of this is the temporary resident forms since we are in Croatia for more than two days. While these are being completed I can pop over to the customs office who, like Montenegro, are not too bothered and just want to see the crew list and vignette. We are then all done, really efficient and friendly. Although they seemed to be more friendly to Maria, waving to her as we left. So the moral of the story is clearly to take a pretty girl with you.

After releasing the lines, we come off the dock in our standard sideways motion and then Maria can turn us around and we head out the couple of miles to the anchorage we have chosen for the night, U. batala near Zaton. This is not far from Dubrovnik but seems another world.

There are a few boats anchored but lots of room and we decide to anchor in the middle of the horseshoe bay near to the village. Even here it is over 10 metres deep and although we are not expecting any bad weather I still put out a fair amount of chain so we can be safe. Normally I put out a buoy attached to the anchor, this helps us to understand the position of the anchor and hopefully informs others thinking of anchoring too. After our unfortunate experience at Portimao last year, where someone picked it up, the buoy is now clearly marked as mariadz anchor. Anyway when we anchored in Montenegro I had forgotten to put it on, but I remember this time. However, as the buoy goes in the water there is a knot in the line and it sits directly above the anchor but just below the surface of the water – typical.

U. batala is surrounded by a horseshoe of tree lined hills/mountains and has a nice restaurant on the sea front. So we decide to drop the rib and eat there this evening. We are offered a menu but then told that there is fresh fish: Bream and Bass. It looks wonderful and is cooked with some vegetables and filleted at the table, wonderful with a lovely drop of white wine from one of the local islands. We will need to visit that island and stock up.

We get back to the boat and have a chill in the cockpit before going to bed. When we awake in the morning, there has been rain overnight. The climate seems a bit strange because of the high mountains, it can be pouring down with rain one minute and then the next it is bright sunshine. Still we weren’t ready for it and the cushions and covers are soaked. Oh well, they will dry during the day.

Our first proper trip out in Mariadz of 2023 was the start of our holiday to Montenegro and southern Croatia. A quick two week trip around this part of the Adriatic. A month before we had removed the hula hula skirt around mariadz by going out into the bay, anchoring and then scraping it off by hand. The difference in handling on the way to the anchorage and the way back was night and day. She was now ready for a summer of nice trips. We have also been removing non essentials from the boat, including the passerelle, we have a wooden plank with wheels and space is at a premium, but more of that later.

We had decided, both having new permanent jobs, that we would maximise our holiday by including the May bank holiday. So on the Friday, we go off to the port police to check out for the boat and to get our passport stamped. At the office the friendly policeman who is dealing with us asks if we are going to Montenegro to reset our VAT clock. This relates to the eighteen months that a British boat has in Europe before it is classed as imported and you are required to pay the local Tax. We were both very keen to point out that the VAT for the boat was paid in Malta so it is European VAT paid already. In two weeks, when we return we will be able to test this with the customs team who have been singularly uninterested in us so far. So after some time, our passports and boat papers have been stamped and we are ready to go.

We are back to the boat and doing final preparations whilst we finish work. By 6pm, we are ready to go for our overnight trip to Montenegro, a distance of about 120 miles. We have checked several forecasts including our beloved Meteo and they are all predicting a very nice 14 knots right on the beam, the best place for it. We should have a lovely sail over. We drop our lines and gently leave our berth, go past the castle at the entrance of Brindisi and parallel to the long sea wall. It’s exciting, our first proper holiday in the med on our own boat and we both need the rest and reset from work life. As we exit the entrance of the outer harbour, the wind isn’t where we expect it. Instead of blowing a north westerly onto our beam it is blowing northerly, possible with a bit of east in it! We also notice that despite having cleaned up the log, that tells our speed through the water, we do not have speed showing on our instruments which also means that the wind speed is the wind going across the deck so we need to adjust it to consider our speed and direction.

This has torpedoed our chances of a nice sail across to Montenegro. With the wind in that position, we are beating into it with seas crashing against the hull, slowing us down. It’s going to be a bit crashy and a bit slow since we don’t want to double the distance by tacking across the Adriatic. There is a reason that gentlemen don’t go to windward!

We start under sail but the wind is pretty much coming from our destination so I have to aim a bit more east trying to balance speed with direction. At this stage we have most of the main out, the staysail and about half of the headsail. The wind across the deck is about 20knots meaning the actual wind is probably 15 knots, pretty much in our faces with a corresponding sea slowing us down with waves crashing against the hull. Normally we would expect to knock out 120 miles in about 17 hours but this is clearly going to be slower.

We have decided on this trip that we will take it in turns to get some rest, up to a couple of hours at a time each. Hopefully it means we won’t be too tired when we arrive and, despite a late night and a poor sleep before leaving, we should be fine to stay awake.

The sailing is mostly uneventful for the first few hours and Maria is resting. I can see a fishing boat on AIS going slowly and towards us. We are also on AIS so they will be able to see us. At night we are sporting a tricolour light at the top of the mast because we are under sail. For some reason, the fisherman doesn’t seem to like this as they check out where we are with a large spotlight shining on our sails. They go harmlessly along our port side as we keep beating into the wind.

We settle down for a long sail. Sunset is lovely and the stars come out and it is spectacular. Our daughter Rachel has informed us that Rowan John Park, our first grandson, has had a star named after him. If only we knew which one!

However, we are going slowly. Mariadz normally likes a minimum of 45 degrees off the wind to sail nicely and there is no way we can go off in completely the wrong direction so I am trying to pinch the wind as much as possible, making us go slower but closer to our destination. When Maria awakes we discuss it, we are going too slowly so we agree to start the engine and motor sail. We will need to bring in the headsail so we can go closer to the wind but we should make better time. Our speed increases to about 6.5 knots which is closer to the seven knots we normally plan on when we have good weather.

It is getting close to dinner time and Maria has decided to stay Italian for our meal this evening. She has made an orecchiette and cime di rapa dish. Quite simple but really tasty and just what we need as we prepare for a long nights sail.

As Mariadz ploughs her way through the Adriatic, we take it in turns to get our rest but the trip is uneventful with hardly any ships getting near us. Before long it is sunrise but we are barely half way to our destination. Interestingly, it is not long after this that Maria looks at the horizon and says she can see land. That can’t be right, we are fifty miles from our destination and at least forty miles from land. However, it is exactly right since the spectacular mountains of Montenegro rise high and fast from the water line giving a spectacular view.

For the next few hours we are watching the land getting slowly bigger and bigger. It seems to take ages til we are entering the mouth of the river which leads to Porto Montenegro, our destination for the night. As we do a British registered Grand Banks motor cruiser nudges a little ahead of us but it gives us someone to follow.

The scenery is breathtaking with tree covered mountains on all sides. These seem to have villages and purpose built developments dotted around and you can’t seem to see how they access these since they are surrounded by trees with no obvious roads.

We call in to the marina who direct us to the customs dock. One of the problems we have when coming to unfamiliar marinas is knowing how high the pontoon that you will moor to will be. Sometimes they are inches above the water with quite a step down, or they could be dock level. In this case they towered three feet above the deck with strategically placed ladders which whilst useful for climbing the gap, struck as perfect things to scratch the hull of the boat since they sit very proud. We decide to stop about half way along the dock, noting that the motor boat we saw is right at the front. A policewoman came up to us and tells us we have to move right up to behind the motor boat. There doesn’t seem much room between their stern and the next ladder, which I don’t want to go near but Maria steers Mariadz expertly a few metres parallel to the dock until she is closing on the expected berth. A member of Porto Montenegro comes out to help us by taking our lines and then we are sat there and ready to check in.

I grab our papers and am escorted to the group of offices where all of the officials wait for us. First stop the police for a passport and boat papers check. We have our stamps so it is over to the harbour masters office to get our vignette to allow us to travel around Montenegro, we are only expecting to be there a few days so I have to take the week long option. The tourist office allows me to pay the tourist tax before finally speaking to customs to tell them we don’t have much money and little alcohol. It takes a little time, especially as the port staff prepares some papers for us to submit but it is very efficient and costs us a little but nothing for the marina where we are staying the night.

As we are about to leave, I ask the port staff whether we can stop at the fuel berth and fill up our fuel. We didn’t want to do this at Brindisi where it is €2.20 per litre, or €1.65 if we take our cans to the petrol station – several times! In Montenegro, the price is €1.34, much more palatable and the cheapest fuel we have had since Gibraltar last year.

But first we have to get off the customs dock. Coming in was easy, just drive into the cul de sac and park up on the right. Going out would take a bit more though. You can’t just turn the stern off the quay because the bow would slam into the dock. If there is any wind holding you onto the dock then you will need to spring off, once off it is east since it opens up to allow you to turn around in front of the audience of the public swimming pool before heading back out of the marina. There is little wind but we have perfected our little sideways exit and have to do this in astern. So maria turns the wheel hard over to port to take the stern off and then uses the bow thruster to stop the bow going near the dock. Once mariadz is far enough off the dock, she can start to turn to perform the 180 turn to head towards the fuel dock. Performed perfectly. The audience at the pool don’t get to see a disaster and Maria refrains from taking a bow to rapturous applause. Of course now I have about fifteen seconds to change the boat around, moving fenders to the other side and making sure they are touching the water for this very low pontoon. Last is the three lines, bow, mid and stern ready to hold Mariadz in place. The two guys on the fuel deck are very helpful taking lines and making sure we are fine but of course maria has brought her in nice and slowly so there is no drama. 477 litres of fuel later and Mariadz is full up and ready for more fun.

I have now told Maria that we are expected to go into the middle of the marina and take berth C06, quite a long way in. This is of course the first time we have been out, apart from taking her to get her bottom wiped clean (Mariadz not Maria) so it is almost a year since the big voyage from the UK to Italy and confidence is obviously a little low. Maria is now apprehensive about squeezing Mariadz into this berth but we set off. The trick in these situations is to be just fast enough to have total control as going too slow can cause it’s own problems as does hammering around at full throttle! Maria is very comfortable with her boat and starts to bring her in. We are constantly talking in these situations. Staying to the left on approach before swinging Mariadz around to the other side, going into astern and starting to bring her into the double width berth we have been given. maria is doing it brilliantly and it is isn’t long before we are a few metres from the dock with the marina staff waiting patiently. I throw the line, hopelessly, it falls well short of the dock. Gather it up and throw again – same story. The wind is starting to get Mariadz as does going very slowly at this stage so Maria needs to do some corrections to keep Mariadz in the gap and away from the boats on either side. As she brings Mariadz back in, we go with the other line which this time reaches its destination and is looped around and returned to me. I can finally, at the third attempt get the other line ashore and we are now sitting with both stern lines on. I ask for maria to go forward to get the stern steady and then use the bow thruster to control the bow whilst I get the lazy lines for the bow. Our helpful marina staff hand me the lazy lines, which are remarkably clean and I tie them off at a reasonable tension. This is something we have now learnt. Initially have the boat quite a way from the dock, tie on the lazy lines and then use the stern lines to bring her towards the dock providing tension on the lazy lines and making sure she doesn’t move. I go aft to tighten up the stern lines and we are good.

When we don’t have the passarelle, we lower the swim platform and put the plank on it. This works fine although it can be a bit awkward if the rib is up in the davits. You are on your hands and knees. We are quite a good distance from the dock and the plank only just reaches. If only we had a brilliant passarelle that plugs into the stern and gives you a safe route down to the dock, now where is that……. Brindisi!

In the end I have to loosen the lazy lines on the bow so that we can get Mariadz closer to the dock after we have lowered the rib and tied her to the side. It takes time but all is done and we are able to see the marina and all its facilities. Whilst at the fuel dock we had asked the locals for somewhere to eat that wasn’t too commercial and touristy. They had given a recommendation and when we went to the marina office to check in with them, they also recommended the same place.

So we set off for a reasonably early dinner, remember we have had relatively little sleep so an early is night is in order. The restaurant of choice was Big Ben, funny name for a Montenegrin restaurant but apparently inspired from the owners time in London when studying and coming up with the idea of the restaurant. There is a wide selection of food from burgers to pasta and pizza but we are keen to have something local and have some great starters and traditional meet mains. Far too much food as usual but washed down with some local wine and not ridiculously expensive, probably half of what we would have spent around the marina for something less authentic. Finally the view across the bay was awesome, a perfect end to a hard day travelling.

We get back to the boat for a quick night cap prior to the sleep we have been imagining that will set us up for the holiday. Early the next morning someone has gone on the catamaran behind us and closest to our heads in the bedroom and started using power tools to bring out parts of the hull. It means we don’t get the restful lie in we were hoping for. It also makes up our minds, we are not normally ones who want to go into marinas, when in England and going out on the boat we much preferred to go and find a nice quiet anchorage.

We also need to catch up with our new Brindisi friends, Mike and Mio, who asked us to bring a new carburettor for their outboard which they had delivered to Brindisi. They have been around Montenegro for about three weeks trying out different anchorages. We have decided to go into the northern bay and anchor in somewhere called morinjsk saliva. A lovely little anchorage which apparently has a lovely fish restaurant which is a short rib ride down a river. We are eating a Barbecue in the evening, however a light fish lunch may be just perfect.

I have explained to the marina why we are leaving earlier than expected which was due to the noise and not the €130 cost for mooring. We are ready to go. Dropping the lazy lines while maria powers forward gently. I then remove the stern line adjacent to the boat we moored next to – there may have been two spaces but we didn’t “park” in the middle of them! That brings mariadz towards the middle of the two berths and gives her some room to manoeuvre. Maria confidently takes Mariadz out of her berth, pulling her rib Connie along behind. It is a short six mile journey to the anchorage in a calm inland waterway at a gentle pace so there was no risk pulling Connie along in the water. There is a channel that separates these two bays which is quite busy with ferries going across regularly so it is a bit like frogger avoiding these but that is the only complexity apart from finding exactly where you want to anchor when you arrive. With huge mountains rising around the water, it is clearly very deep but we have enough chain to choose our own spot and find something that is front of a beach bar. Maybe somewhere for later.

We are anchored and will be meeting Mike and Mio later so decide to get straight off and find this amazing fish restaurant. As mentioned it is up a short river from where we are and there is a little bridge by the side of the beach bar so we head towards that. We are able to get under this with only a little ducking but this does seem quite shallow, then there is a gentle scraping of river bed against Connie’s fibreglass hull. Stopped we have to reverse back out with half of the outboard out of the water to make sure it doesn’t contact the bottom, a much bigger problem. We spin around slowly and sheepishly return under the bridge, maybe we should walk. As we reappear from under the bridge, there is a man standing there. “Restaurant”, “yes” – the river entrance is a hundred metres away tucked around a little outcrop and hence why we didn’t see it. This river is much nicer, it has abridge but with headroom and is much deeper. As we appear from under the bridge there is a fantastic motorhome and caravan site right on the waters edge with people setting up in their own private waterfront gardens. As keep going, it is very picturesque and we can see two more bridges and the beautiful restaurant in front of us.

We haven’t really dressed up so we are not surprised to be put into a quiet corner away from other guests, actually that is pretty much what we wanted. Maria is the food expert but the food was wonderful and whilst not cheap, it was excellent quality with really good service. On our return we quickly catch up with Mike and Mio, who have now arrived, before getting a little rest and doing some boat chores before the evening.

A wonderful evening with our new friends as we barbecued using our lotus grill which hadn’t been used for a while so took some coaxing. It wasn’t too late a night although apparently Mio has a set time she likes to get to bed but she hasn’t met a rule breaker like Maria before!

After a great nights sleep, having tidied up the boat before we went to bed, we get ready to check out from Montenegro to head to Dubrovnik in Croatia. leaving the anchorage, we wave so long to our friends, and head to the offices to check out. It is the same but opposite of the check in procedure and we are again ably assisted by the Porto Montenegro staff, it is worth staying there just for the convenience their help provides. Maria does the same as she had done a few days before and we are in and out quite quickly,

We have now left montenegro to start the rest of our holiday touring the southern islands of Croatia between Dubrovnik and Split.