We hope all is well and good with you and
yours. It has been a while since we had reason to post to our blog, but friends
have been emailing us asking – where are you? Still in Canada?
Well, we are writing this in Orikum
Marina, Albania.
The one and only marina in Albania.
We started our tenth season mid – April,
back in Alanya, Turkey, where we spent about three weeks getting Two Moons out of moth
balls. Since then we have covered about 1200 nm retracing our steps through Turkey,
the Greek Isles, up into the Adriatic and most of that has been under motor. (hence the name “The
Motorteranean”). The winds have been all or nothing, and all means on the nose.
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| Add caption |
Turkey exit:
Getting out of Turkey
proved to be a bit of a challenge for us. We waited for four days at one of the
ports of entry, whose office was closed “temporarily”, only to learn the day
before we thought we would be leaving, that it would be two more weeks before
they would reopen……….maybe. So it was on
to the next official port of entry/exit.
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| Our waiting place |
A practice has arisen where agents have
inserted themselves between the port officials and the cruiser, charging a
hefty fee for what is easy to do yourself. We feel the port officials are
supporting this because the agent is doing some of their work and possibly
receive a little extra as well. We had done our best to avoid these agents, but
were finally forced into it at our second check-out point. After waiting the
suggested time period we met with our now very irate agent. “Big problem……big
problem” was his opening remark. It seemed that despite our having all the
requisite documentation in hand, none of it had ever been entered into the
Turkish tracking system. For all intents and purposes, we were not in Turkey.
So big problem?,No big problem. Thank you and goodbye – we just left.
Greece – Peloponnese:
Heading west, rather than go back through
the Corinth Canal, we went south around the Peloponnese, which has the
reputation of a Cape Finistere or other windy headlands. Non-plussed, in fact
rather relieved, we motored past in dead calm. But we were now into new
territory, which was all the more enjoyable because the excitement of new
territory was back and there were very few other boats, unlike in the Greek
islands.
Regrettably this solidarity was short lived
because as we approached sailing centers of Prevesa, Lefskada and Corfu, the
charter boats appear by the hundreds. You need sharp elbows to guard your spot
in the anchorage and be very diligent when a flotilla of charter boats appears.
They are folks with little to no sailing experience chasing after the mother
ship.
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| One flotilla nestled onto dock head |
We found Corfu to be a wonderful sailing
area with many anchorages and crystal clear waters. This was our last Greek
destination, because from here we checked out (no problem) and crossed the 15
nm to Sarandes, Albania.
Albania:
We have discovered that things work a
little differently in Albania. Greece is quite easy going bureaucratically. Turkey
a bit more restrictive. Albania still doesn’t know how to work with
recreational vessels in that they treat us in the same manner as they do a
commercial tanker.
Unavoideably we engaged an agent to clear
customs and also to clear in and out of port. Port police are present during
these occasions. Even though we have now cleared customs, the next port
requires us to have an agent to pay our 15 euro harbour fee. The agent’s fee to
present the harbour fee – 40 euro.
There are only five harbours in Albania
and all are full-fledged commercial operations, which offer nothing for the
cruising yachtsman. Some cases the pier has been too high to get off the boat,
save scrambling up a massive truck tire onto the pier.
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| Just thankful the tides are minimal |
Unfortunately there are not many natural
anchorages along the Albanian coast and few offer protection from the powerful
winds screaming in from the south or north. The large sheltered bay in which
the only Albanian marina resides does not allow any anchoring because it was
all a former mine field and has yet to be officially cleared. Hmmmm………a good marketing job by some unnamed local
marina?
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| Gramma Bay - probably the best anchorage in Albania |
From what little we have seen of Albania,
there still exists the communistic mindset of dominance on the part of those
with some authority- in daily
enterprise, individual freedom and official presence. People are not well off,
but it is the odd car which is not a Mercedes. We were told that under the
communistic period they were not even allowed to own bicycles, so now car
ownership is highly prized – but a Mercedes? One article stated that the roads
are very poor and it is only a Mercedes that will stand up. It has also been
said that many are hot from around Europe – which goes with the Tourist
Bureau’s ad campaign – Come vacation in Albania…….your car is already here!
We have not encountered many tourist
attractions, but sailing the coast it is hard to miss the thousands and
thousands of bunkers. These two man cement domes were erected by Albania’s past
oppressive regime in response to a perceived coastal attack. Statistics
indicate there are 500,000 of these crumbling structures all along the coast.
But not to seem overly negative, everyone
we have encountered has been warm, friendly and eager to practice their
english. Although we have had a few awkward moments when we forget that their
head gestures are opposite to ours –
shaking the head side to side means yes.
Tomorrow we head to our last Albanian port,
where we will undertake exit procedures (with our agent) and then into Montenegro. Weather permitting we plan to sail through Croatia until we reach
our wintering port of Monfalcone, Italy, sometime at the end of September.
AIS:
By the way, apart from posting our position
onto the Winlink2000 web site, it is possible to go on-line and see our
real-time position through something called Live Ships AIS. If this interests
you drop us an email and we will provide the steps.
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| AIS screen print depicting cargo vessels surrounding us - we are the red dot |
Well, we hope your summer unfolds as
planned and you stay happy and healthy,
Cheers………..Mike and Grace
