Generous Greece, Costly Croatia and Magnificent Montenegro.....

It’s been a few weeks since we last updated the blog and the main reasons for our lack of activity have been that we have been very engaged in our travels, meeting up with friends and hosting visitors; as a result we now have a lot of news and have had to edit hard to prevent it becoming tedious.

When we last posted we were feeling a bit disillusioned with attitudes in southern Italy whilst recognising its beauty in terms of interesting places to visit…. but when we arrived in Greece it was hard to know why we had lingered in Italy at all!

Restaurants in many little bays are very welcoming with their own dinghy docks for  boats on anchor

Early morning walk round the bay in Port Kioni

Greece was a revelation.  The Ionian islands are beautiful and even more delightful for their plentiful and free crystal-clear anchorages and generous rates to moor on the town quay.  How does 50 cents a metre including water and electricity sound to you?  It’s a no brainer.  We even moored up in one harbour and plugged into electricity and water for free!  Maybe Greece does need to catch on a tad to offset its debt!

Our biggest concern was that we would find the food a bit dull because last time we were here, which was about 20 years ago, we did find the food very mediocre.  So, we were delighted to discover things have improved substantially.

We spent some time in Corfu, Paxos and Ithaca. Meeting up with our friends Simon and Liz in Kefalonia and Ithica,  Graham and Anne Marie in Preveza, hosting our daughter Miranda in Corfu; meeting up and spending time with Maggie and Richard from Hejira in Paxos and again in Corfu. 

Liz and Simon in Fiskardo

Dinner in Mljet with Lesley and Ian

Dinner with Richard and Maggie in Lake

Greg and Miranda in Corfu 

All in all the start of June was very sociable, with beautiful weather and great sailing.  The watermaker was fixed and it was looking like a month to claw back on some of our previous repair bills. Greg bought himself a fishing rod and was trying to supplement our budget by catching supper when we were on anchor - he was singing a happy little song.  

Sunset over Gouvia Marina

Greg's first fish - but a bit too small for supper.......

We then went north to a place called Obrevic in Croatia, north of Dubrovnik to meet our friends Lesley and Ian who were joining us to cruise around for a week. 

We cut an amazing swathe up the middle of the Adriatic on an overnight sail whilst electrifying storms raged on either side of us. Strangely we had clear sky above us all the way whilst Italy to our west and Albania to our East were covered in thunderheads and received the wrath of God! So, we were extremely pleased to arrive safely in Dubrovnik.  

Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik was lovely

but Dubrovnik is a victim of its own success - too many tourists.....

Lots of people have warned us of the hiked costs in Croatia but having been there several times before we couldn’t quite believe it could be as bad as all that.

It was.  

It was worse!  

Charges have been increased by 400% in the past 12 months.  The average marina charge we paid was equivalent of 175 Euro.  Anchoring is half of the mooring charge in many areas.  There is a sojourn tax to even enter and sail in Croatia; for 14 days ours was equivalent of 240 Euros.  Reserving a place in a marina incurs an additional 20% charge.  If you don’t reserve a place they are full, but if you book and pay the extra 20% amazingly they aren’t!  

Some restaurants have their own free pontoons if you eat with them.  Apparently, the law will change to prevent that option shortly, which is such a pity as we had an amazing dock and dine experience on Mljet, berthed at Konoba Ankora.

The view from the castle in Hvar

Jan chilling out in Carpe Diem, Hvar

A quiet anchorage in Brna, Croatia

The reason for this massive hike is apparently because charter companies such as Sunsail have abandoned Turkey and moved to Croatia and they are worried that there are too many charter boats there now.  That may be the case, but the charter business will probably survive, whereas liveaboards and people keeping their own yachts in Croatia are now voting with their feet.  The restaurants may find that problematic particularly in the shoulder season when many of us continue to sail and visit these lovely places. 

Luckily, we were sailing with very generous friends who paid more than their share of the charges and helped us through the pain and we really enjoyed the beauty of many of the places we visited, from Hvar and its chi-chi shops and restaurants to cycling round the lakes in the national park on Mljet. 

Moored at Konoba Ankora in Mjlet National Park

Exploring the National Park with Lesley and Ian

Croatia remains beautiful.  We had a fabulous time but sadly checked out after only 8 days to the lack of surprise of the port authority, who seemed very resigned and unhappy when we said we were going to Montenegro   

To our delight, Montenegro is a magnificent country and offers such a welcoming and much more affordable experience.  The scenery is breath-taking, people are friendly, towns are interesting, and the waters are so clear.  Checking in was pretty painless and similar to checking into Greece or Croatia. 

We arrived in darkness in strong winds at Porto Montenegro and woke to stunningly huge mountains and equally stunningly huge yachts moored alongside us! Porto Montenegro is a superyacht port and has all the facilities.

Every super yacht should have one!

We are having problems with our generator so having been stood up by an engineer in both Croatia and again in Porto Montenegro (probably more gainfully employed on a superyacht) we moved round to Kotor.  What a beautiful trip that was and how fabulous the city.  

Bay of Kotor Montenegro

It was destroyed in an earthquake in 1979 and has been rebuilt.  Kevin McCloud must have been advising on maintaining the integrity of the original buildings as it is clear what is new and what was salvaged. Nevertheless, the result is amazing and really worth a visit.

From our mooring we could see the precipitous wall to the mountain fortress and so we decided to climb it, pretending to be part of the cast of Game of Thrones.

The start of the climb

Halfway up......

The view from the top!

We can highly recommend Montenegro and we may well revisit. Now we have just arrived back in Greece in preparation for some pre-booked flights back for Phil and Jules's wedding.