Full Circle

We made it to the northern city of Durrës for a night, successfully checked out of Albania after a great three weeks, and had agreeable conditions such that we could make it all the way up to Bar, Montenegro the next day. 

Remember, we had not even planned to visit Albania, let alone Montenegro, this summer, so it was a bit ironic and nostalgic that we checked back into Montenegro literally a year after we had sailed out. It felt a little bit like coming ‘home.’ 🙂 We had never visited the southern Montenegrin coast, though, so we had some new locations to explore. First was the lovely town of Bar, which interestingly proved to be an Italian tourist destination. This came complete with many Italians and Italian restaurants. I really liked Bar. It is beautiful, lively, has real shops and a variety of restaurants. It has a string of nice beaches for swimming and a very long promenade that really comes alive at night. The promenade is sprinkled with restaurants, various food stands (ice cream, candy, grilled corn, etc., etc.), carnival games, tourist shops, bike/scooter/bumper car rentals, and more, making it perfect for lots of young families. Live music stages held competing bands. Very fun atmosphere. Not to mention the stunning backdrop of mountains. While swimming in Montenegro, I always wish I had a camera available to take those stunning photos looking back to land!

After a couple of nights at the Bar marina, we continued heading north and landed in lovely Lûstica Bay. We spent two nights at anchor at the Plavi Horizonti Beach, which was busy with holiday-goers. We even had a couple of young German lads swim by and ask if they could climb aboard and jump off the boat. Conor indulged them. 😉 By night, though, the small protected bay was deserted, so we enjoyed the starry nights to ourselves.

Given some upcoming strong winds, we took our remaining weather window to move up to the area of Tivat where we would be getting Sabática hauled out for some maintenance work. We found a peaceful anchorage in the large Boka Bay to avoid some big winds and were treated to several dolphins fishing for their breakfast in the morning. 🙂

Then came Haul Out Day. We didn’t know quite what to expect, but the staff at the NAVAR Yacht Service shipyard was great. It was a bit wild to see Sabática lifted out of the water. Their first course of action was to power wash her and let her dry. We climbed up to get our packed bags out and proceeded to check into an AirBnB for a few days while all the work was being done. Most exciting, the water maker should finally become functional. 

Also super exciting is that we get to experience a respite from the recent crazy heat by staying in an air conditioned apartment. Best birthday present possible! WAY better than last year’s birthday. 😉 (You can read about that one here: Surprise!) So, we are currently enjoying revisiting our home port of Porto Montenegro within Tivat – our old stomping ground, restaurants, and such. Wild that we are back where it all began!

There is so much of Montenegro we haven’t seen yet. Our daughter, Laura, arrives in a week’s time, and we can’t wait to explore it with her!