Northern Adriatic

Jack Tar is now in Trieste, having sailed the beautiful coast of the Istrian peninsula through northern Croatia and Slovenia. At Pula, an industrial city set on a beautiful harbour, John & Cari joined and we had a wonderful time visiting nearby Rovinj and adjacent anchorages before they departed again from Pula. Then we sailed north, indeed with some favourable breezes for a change, and cleared from Croatia at Umag. On to the short coastline of Slovenia, berthing in the old harbour at Piran, an attractive old town. Slovenia impressed, with the countryside being very fertile and covered in lush, green almost tropical trees and growing everthing imaginable; citrus, stone fruit, wonderful vegies etc. And the standard of living and infrastructure equal to any in Europe. But, thunderstorms every evening and now in trieste, the rain has set in. So we await the weather forecast before planning the next phase of our journey along the Italian coast to Venice.

The Roman collossium at Pula adjacent to the marina

Pula`s harbour surrounded by derelict communist era buildings.

Rovinj

Rovinj

Rovinj

Rovinj

Umag

Piran, Slovenia

Piran

Piran

Approaching Trieste

The grand canal, Trieste, all of 500 m long

Trieste

Sundowners by the grand canal

Croatia

Have tried almost succesfully, to publish a more logical presentation by posting photos first. However you will have to view them from the bottom up again. And if you click on the pictures they will appear half screen and by clicking again more than full screen which does give an impression of " being there". Well, we are in the north of the Croatian islands at Mali Losinj, having sailed or rather motored for most of the way for want of wind or for having what little wind there was right on the nose. Jack Tar might as well be a motor yacht! We cleared in at Cavtat, south of Dubrovnic where we were unable to remain at the quay because it was booked out by large stinkboats, sorry, motor yachts. So at the adjacent anchorage that night we were subject to the "bora", a strong wind off the land. 40 kts and poor holding in weed forced us to move to a more suitable location. Then on to Dubrovnic past derelict resort hotel complexes still showing the the damage from shellfire during the war of 15 years past. We berthed in Gruz at the dusty but convenient town quay and a short bus ride to the old town. On then to a great anchorage near Korcula and then Hvar, our first port visited out of Split on the charter all those years ago. Great place, but we are here at high season and the number of yachts looking for space to anchor is amazing. Fortunately, we found the last available mooring buoy and were able to put lines ashore. In the anchorage the yachts were anchored literally feet apart and when the wind changed, chaos. Since then we have sailed north via lovely anchorages and ports and will soon meet John & Cari at Pula on the Istrian coast.


Mali Losinj

Mali Losinj

Typical anchorage

Lunar landscape Kornati Is

Primosten

Primosten

Hvar

Hvar

Hvar

Secured line ashore at Hvar

Korcula

Near Korcula

Dubrovnic approach to Gruz

Town quay Gruz

Dubrovnic old town walls

Approaching Dubrovnic

Cavtat

Cavtat

Albania & Montenegro

Looking over the fiord

Kotor

Kotor old town

Kotor

Cruise ship Sea Cloud last seen in the Aegean

Along the fiord

Herceg Novi, Montenegro

Montenegro

Do NOT take any photos here; see the arresting hand at right

Downtown Tirana

Durres

Durres port

" Mushroom " bunkers literally along the whole coast

Porto Palermo

Porto Palermo below Ali Pasha`s fortress

Folkdancing, Saranda

Saranda

Saranda waterfront, Albania

Albania was an experience; a lovely, poor country with great potential, struggling to overcome its communist past, and yet it is hard to imagine how that can be easily achieved. Wherever we went we found the waterfront and nearby streets to be attractive but a few blocks back things were quite different. We visited Saranda, a resort town not far from Corfu, and then sailed north along an interesting coastline to a new Italian owned marina at Orikum which was very small and in the middle of nowhere. Enroute we overnighted at a small pier in a remote harbour below Ali Pasha`s fortress. Interestingly, the whole coastline is littered with small mushroom shaped concrete bunkers, 700,000 of which were built during the communist era to defend the nation. Paranoia? Then on to Durres, a small city and a busy commercial port which left the yacht filthy with soot and dust. A short bus journey inland to the capital Tirana, where we barely escaped arrest for photographing the guards at an important building, before exit clearance and passage to Montenegro.
The coastline of Montenegro has some spectacular scenery and most of all in the fiord leading to the old town of Kotor perched below a sheer cliff just begging to be climbed. So, we are now recovering some strength before moving on to Croatia.