Life On Sail

 W e did 20,4 NM at 4.2 knots average after 5h of engine. There was no wind today. Rainy without rainbows. It's also our last stop in Albania before arriving Greece!

  40.6 NM in 9h30 at 4.5 knots average which is not bad as we were using the engine a lot. A bit of swell on arrival. Rain and rainbow! and we are now on the Ionian sea and not the adriatic sea anymore !

 We did 39,9 NM in 7h21 min averaging a speed of 5,9 knots. It was smooth sailing. despite the rain.  But the most fortunate coincidence is that we arrived the day before Albania's national day.  Few days before, we visited Tirana and learned about the history of Albania.  Albania declared its independence from the Ottomans on 28 november 1912.  In Vlorë, where we are now.  We had the chance to visit the house where the declaration was signed, it's now the Independence museum. During the visit, the guide told us the national day would be the next day, with the President and Prime minister coming for the occasion.  We stayed to have the chance to witness the 113th anniversary of their independence. 

I have to say I am more and more lazy editing new YT episodes.  Because it takes time, we dont have much footage of ourselves and we hate taking videos of everything in a more "pro way" than just posting a short story on Instagram.  And there are also less and less people watching those videos so I am not so motivated to create anything.  However this video below was pretty fast to put together.  But after this one, I really hesitate creating that 24h in our daily life video... This would be so much work. And it would be for nothing if it's only a hundred views...  Anyway, check if you are ready for a gap year! 70% chance of failure! 

  26,3 NM for 5h40 at 4.6 knots average. Smooth despite the swell and rain.

  Long sailing day, haven't done that for a while, But it was our only window to move out of Shengjin. So we caught it. Woke up at 4 am, arrived after 4 pm. It was a 12h11 sailing day do 55.6 NM with a lot of tacking. Less swell than yesterday. We averaged 4,5 knots speed. Arrived after sunset. It is the only marina we stayed at in Albania, because there are none others or at least not many we crossed path with along the way to Greece. It was 45 euros a night. And from there, we took a cab to visit the capital, Tirana! Stayover in Tirana We had no clue of Albania's harsh history.  And it broke our hearts to find out about it in the Bunk Art Museum about the communist past of Albania, one of the most isolated Stalinist regime.  They were invaded by the Ottomans for 5 centuries, broke free of it in 1912 only, then WWII hit, and they were invaded by the Italians, then the Germans, and then the Comnunist regime from 1944 to 1992 imposed their rough dictatorship. 

  We woke up at 4 am to check out of Montenegro while having enough time to check in Albania before it was too late. Knowing we're sunday today. Everything went well except there was way too much swell and we never heeled that much. I was sick the entire trip. But still managed to witness 2 rainbows. I took us 9h08 to get to Albania, we saved 1 h although we only did 3.9 knots average to do a straight route of 35,6 NM.

This is a different type of video I uploaded on youtube.  It's 1 hour of unedited sailing. In this case, during a rainy day.  And most of all, it's interactive, as you can scroll while you watch and direct the camera wherever you please. You choose your point of view.  If you're on laptop/computer, use your mouse and drag the video the direction you want.  If you're on mobile phone, just do the same with your finger.  You can hear the wind, the waves for 1h. Put it has background sound and be transported to the Adriatic sea! 

  We reached 23,7 NM in 6h at 3,7 knots average all with the engine. There was wind but not the right one. We had the jib prepared at the port and it served to help the engine throughout the long sail. It's our last stop in Montenegro. Our stop over at Bar, a 1000 year old city

  6h26 min to reach 23.7 NM. There was no wind by the end of the sailing. Whereas the beginning had us taken a reef twice by 17 knots wind gusts close hauled steering.

  We do 10.7 NM in 2h51 at 3.8 knots average. With rain from the start and a bit of swell. At least it wasn't too cold. Tail wind that day.

 The weather was bad.  We reached 8.1 NM in 1h55 minutes at 4.2 knots average. With a mix of engine and sails. We peaked at 5 knots with a tail wind. It was raining throughout the sailing. We had to shelter from the swell at the opposite side of Herceg Novi. We haven't paid the tourist tax when arriving through Kotor because of the bank holidays and then the week end. So we finally managed to pay it in Tivat! But not so easily.

We had an awesome time in beautiful Kotor.  One of the highlight of the trip. And we get to go through the fjord one more time.  But now we are going to Tivat to shelter from the upcoming strong winds. But today there is no wind in Kotor bay so just like how we arrived, we leaving the same way, by engine. There was unfortunately no spectacular fog in the morning but the scenery was still amazing. Time went by fast, unlike other sailings. 9.3 NM in 2h20 at 4knots speed. The boat was basically gliding through the water. We also could pass by Our lady of the rocks and St. george island this time.

When arriving Montenegro, we have to check in the boat.    After taking care of the vignette purchase (73 euros) at the harbourmaster's and the checking in with the cross border policce actually stamping our documents this time, The Zelenika port told us to go pay our tourist tax for the boat (and its crew) at the next marina. We sailed to Kotor directly as we only have 3 days of good weather until the storm hits and the weather stays rainy and grey for a full week. Only engine on Kotor bay and it was so beautiful we couldn't believe our eyes. It looks like a fjord! See below It was a 12.8 NM sailing in 2h20 at 3.9 knots average. But once again things didn't go as planned. We arrived on a bank holiday (Friday) so the tax office in the Kotor old city was closed. We are supposed to pay that tax within 24hours... The next saturday, we went back again and it was also closed. Sunday closed of course. And monday, we arrived Tivat... without any proper tourist tax paid! S...

  We were to cross the border to Montenegro today but got stopped by the police few miles before. It's forbidden to fish in Croatia without a permit. And it was the only time we fished ever since we lost our "good" bait. And that's the day we get caught. We thought they came to check our paperwork. Which they did. But the main point is that you cannot fish in Croatia without a permit. This is for environmental protection. We had no clue. They also saw we were not checked out of Croatia. Nico had to get on their boat and pay a hefty fine of 173 euros. And had to explain why we weren't registered as out of the Croatia since there was no one at the cross border Croatian police station. Because of that, they told us to wait till night to cross the border as the Croatian police didn't stamp our checkout papers. At least there is no photo proof we crossed the country from Croatia. We did 28.5 NM in 7h28 min with 2 h wait in a mooring till sunset. 3.8 knot aver...

  We did 8.1 NM in 2h10, there was wind at first then none by the time we arrived Dubrovnik. Smooth sailing. Mooring in front of the city is supposed not to be free, 3 euros per meter but let's see. We're the only ones! Finally when we came back end of the day, no one came to collect money. Here is a sneak peek of our visit in beautiful Dubrovnik. It's easily one of our top 3 visit so far, along with Matera, Bonifacio and Rome. But it was so much fun as we tried to re-enact scenes from Game of Thrones that were shot there.   We left our mooring in frong of Dubrovni because there was too much swell. It was after sunset so it got dark quickly. 5 NM in 1 h We went to Cavtat, which is our last stop before crossing the border. Which means, a lot of paperwork to be done. And it didn't go as planned. When leaving Croatia, we have to check-out of the country by getting the Boat and crew list paperwork issued then stamped by the cross border police. However, in our case, the c...

  We went from too much wind to none today. We had 22 knots of wind, peak speeding at 7.2 knots. We reached 29.6 NM in 6h28. At least it was a beautiful day today, no rain. But we used the engine a lot. At least the batteries are charged!

  we went from no wind to 25 knots wind gusts. Had to take reefs and then finally hoist the jib. It was raining to help it all... We arrived all wet. We reached 15.7 NM in 3h18 at 4.8 knots average. We peaked at 7.5 knots.

  We were supposed to go to Korcula city but with the rain pouring we decided to just shelter. We had good wind at the end of the sailing trip. Total of 15.8 NM in 3h35 mn at 4.4 knots average.

  Few minutes after leaving, something stuck onto our propellers. Nico had to dive and remove the plastic sheet. We used the Insta360 camera to check what was happening under the boat first. Luckily it took no time to retrieve the plastic debris and we could continue our course. Plus the wind picked up right after that incident so we didn't have to use the propellers anymore. We peaked at 7.5 knots today. It rained a bit as well. We reached 25.1 NM in 5h10 at 4.8 knots average, which is not bad considering we didn't pause the navigation when we were stuck for 30 minutes with the propeller issue.

  7h30 at 4 knots average for 30,4 NM. It was a long day. Between wind and engine. A bit colder today. So no sunbathing at all. Did my first sailing ASMR video during this trip. There was no where to berth the boat or moor. So I went to visit the city on my own. It was a bit desertic. Quick 15 mn tour and I was done.

  8,3 NM in 2h17 at 3.6 knots average. We thought there wouldn't be wind but we were proven wrong. Peaceful ride again, sheltered by the many islands around. So no swell.

  We only reached 23.9 NM in 7h20 at 3.1 knots average. We saw dolphins when we left and when we arrived.

We only reached 9.8 NM today in 3h10 at 3.1 knots average. There was no wind. It was pretty relaxed.   We moored next to the Great wall of Grebastica.    

  It was raining, then sunny, wind no wind... We reached 23 NM in 5 h at 4,4 knots average. We peaked at 7.5 knots speed today. Nico is happy, we saw dolphins as we approached Sibenik and we anchored close to shore thanks to 2 lines attached to trees! Our visit of Sibenik

36.4 NM in 7h23 minute at 4.9 knots average. We didnt reach our original destination but at least arrived somewhere sheltered