Days 5-10

June 8-13 2019 Greece – Montenegro

Since we made the decision to go on this trip, we’ve been open minded about where we want to travel to. Some people Matt met during his week training in Greece said that trying to fit in the Med and Caribbean in one year would be too rushed so we thought we’d get here and see how we felt. Having only been away for 10days, it feels like a lot longer so (at the moment!) we’re going to crack on and try and make the crossing in early December.

This meant we’d need to leave Greece and head on up to Montenegro so we left our beautiful secluded bay on Sunday morning (after a beach bonfire and more skinny dipping….or chunky dunking as we like to call it) and started our sail to Erikoussa, most northern island in Greece.

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t entirely in our favour and decided to throw some gale force winds at us, testing us and the kids but as it was only for a few hours, it wasn’t too bad at all. The kids weren’t particularly happy and felt a bit sick at times but overall coped well and just got on with it.

The following day we thought the kids needed a pick me up and as the weather had completely changed we headed to the beach for the day. The water was the clearest we’d seen yet, warm, calm, the beach was quiet and everything was perfect…….until Matt and I realised we’d made a rookie mistake and forgotten to buy a Montenegro curtesy flag or whether we needed to check out of Greece! Doh! Couldn’t believe we’d totally overlooked it so there were panic stations whilst we tried to figure out what to do, where to go and get one etc (this was a tiny island with not much going on). Some countries will send you back to the last place you’d been to if you hadn’t checked out properly so we didn’t want to make the 2 day journey and have to turn around! Matt spoke to the port authority in Erikoussa who was as helpful as a chocolate teapot (apparently they make it up as they go along) so I called ahead to Porto Montenegro who were the complete opposite. Thank goodness! They made a note of our situation and were totally cool with it so we could relax and enjoy the rest of our time in Greece.

That evening we had our last meal on the island and had an early night in preparation for leaving at the crack of dawn on Tuesday.

The passage to Montenegro was very uneventful which is exactly how we wanted it to be. There was little wind so we had to motor a lot of the way but we did manage to get the sails up a few times and enjoy the peace and quiet. We saw a pod of dolphins hunting tuna which was really exciting and Matt saw some swimming off the bow when he was on night watch. Who doesn’t love seeing dolphins!! Just magical.

Matt and I took turns keeping watch at night. Matt kept going until 2.45am and I took over until dawn. I was at a really juice bit in my trashy detective novel and was looking forward to getting stuck into it but suddenly there were 8 boats on the horizon. Damn it. No peace for the wicked. Once I was sure they weren’t heading in our direction, I settled into my book whilst keeping an eye out every 10mins.

So how do you keep kids entertained during a 2 day sail? Travel games, card games, kindles, tablets, Lego, audio books, drawing and snoozing. They did really well actually, choosing to sleep in the cockpit under the stars which was very sweet.

Clearing immigration took a while when we arrived in Montenegro and by then the kids had obviously reached their limit with spending time together!

Porto Montenegro is seriously swanky, being voted Superyacht Marina of the year for several years running. I’m loving the people watching and window shopping. It’s the complete reverse of Greece, so much development going on and money being spent. It’s good to see a country thriving although I can only speak for Tivat. We’re hiring a car and heading off to the mountains tomorrow morning for a day of white water rafting. Can’t wait!