The good, the bad, and the ugly

The Good

We made it! It felt a small miracle to have arrived this whole way with all of our gear without incident. We enjoyed several great days in Ireland visiting family and friends, then flew to Dubrovnik, Croatia where we and our entourage of luggage were gratefully met by Alex #3. We stuffed everything into his car, and he took us on our 1 ½ hour drive across the border into Montenegro, reaching the small town of Tivat. Our boat is still here and in great shape. She’s beautiful and comfortable. Home, sweet home! And, what a place to begin our adventure – Porto Montenegro is a luxury marina that is gorgeous, with fabulous restaurants and facilities, and very helpful staff. We just happen to be here because this is where the boat was when we found her. More on Porto later. 

The Bad

The heat. It was my One Greatest Fear. And yep, it’s a thing. We moved from Texas to northern California over 16 years ago. If you take a girl out of Texas, she acclimatizes to cooler weather! So, we’re learning to live with it. By 8am, it’s already 80 degrees F, and for most of the day it’s in the 90s. We have fans in the boat (which mercifully makes sleeping comfortable enough), but you just have to get used to sweating from about 8am-8pm. (At least I do.) The reward at the end of each day is a fabulous swim in the sea and/or a cool shower. The evenings are quite nice, though that brings out…

The Ugly

Mosquitos. Again, we forgot all about mosquitos when we moved to California. So while you want to sit out to enjoy the evening and dinner, you want to be well equipped with repellant spray, citronella candles, and various other mechanisms we’ve found here. Oh, and then don’t forget the Benadryl cream.

On to more good…