BartW
Well-known member
Didn’t have time to post much on here recently but this trip was (for us) a challenging event, and some might be interested in a report.
After 3 seasons with Blue Angel in SOF we decided to go back to our old holiday destination in south Croatia, and booked a berth for one season in Porto Montenegro near Tivat (30nm south of Dubrovnic)
First leg from Marseille to Rome was done half May, did the trip with a boating friend, just the two of us, trip went without any issues. We went straight from Porquerolles during the night to Cap Corse, then along Elba, Giglio to porte di Roma in Ostia. This is the building place of my boat (Cantiery NAvale Di Ostia). We had some minor works to do in Ostia, ao re-inspecting the fire extinguishing system.
The next part of the trip was scheduled in week starting 25 May. First had to finalise some works there, and as our planning was not at all fixed, we didn’t invite any other forum mates, except our favourite Itallian boating mates, but they couldn’t make it on these dates.
So finally E an me started this epic trip (for us at least) on Wednesday 28 may, first fueling from the truck, in a yard on the Tiber river in Fiumicino, here we had a unfortunate damage to the hull, due to a strong swell coming in the river from the sea, the boat moored alongside, was pulled very heavily on one rope, and the stern corner hawshole was moved 10cm from its position, leaving a big opening in the wooden gunwale. Our mate Alfonso had tears in his eyes, as he did such a good job, in giving us the best possible assistance there in Rome with the works and all that, (not forgetting the food)
The repairing of this is postponed until later, and we headed south east towards the bottom of Italy.
The first day the weather was good, so our only time target was to pass along the Amalfi coast (Ischia, Capri, Positano, … ) in daylight. Therefor about 4 hours were sailed at paning speed (20kn). From there we slowed down for the night cruising at 10kn, at far enough distance from the coast. (avoiding lobsterpots etc..)
Plan was to arrive In the morning in Vibo Valentia, where Alfonso made a advance reservation for refueling. We got there around 6AM, so we both could do some “deep” sleep until 8h30 on the fuel dock our first real stop. (Our normal routine is to sleep / helm each for 2 or 3 hours)
After refueling we had a short breakfast and then we continued our voyage towards Messina street. Also this part we liked to do during day time.
The next time target was passing the Taranto bay before the forecasted bad weather arrived towards the evening, so also here, we navigated the best part of the day at 20kn. The passage of the first smaller bay, south east of Catanzaro was unexpectedly rough from a strong NW coming over land (with almost no mountains ) in that area. Our stabilisers had to work hard in a F5.
Passing The Taranto bay, went quite smooth, we were right ahead the very bad weather. Around 9pm we were at 20nm from S.Maria di Leuca, at sun set we slowed donw to 10kn, now we could see the strong thunderstorm behind us over the Taranto bay which we just missed.
Now we had two options, during the night continue our voyage along the Albanese coats, the shortest track to Montenegro, but there was a strong NW wind over the Adriatic, and we were limited on fuel, even doing that strip at 10kn. I didn’t fancy a fuelstop in Albania, nor in a unknown marina in Montenegro,
so we decided to follow the Italian coast NW, towards Brindisi.
During this night trip about 5 to 10nm from the coast, we were sheltered from the NW wind. Only the last stretch, at sunrise, we faced the predicted strong NW, but with the daylight and the stabs we managed quite well.
At about 8am we arrived In Brindisi were we had made another ‘optional’ reservation for refueling. As the weather in the Adriatic sea was too bad at this moment we were stucked there on the fuel dock.
We could only see a period of “acceptable weather” that afternoon,
the next 2 – 3 day’s the Adriatic weather (at that spot) was permanently bad,
So with a little bit of fear, we started our crossing at around 2pm.
The first 40nm were hard, up to 2m waves, on the SB quarter, but with the help of the stabs, we could almost permanently keep planing 20kn speed.
When somewhere in the middle of the Adriatic, (50nm) the sea state became gradually better, and instead of the straight crossing for the shortest distance, we gradually headed more north, in order to have a shorter track to Montenegro, and by the time that we saw land, the sea was almosty flat.
In this part we were surrounded by dolphins for at least half an hour, apparently they liked our bow waves, and keep on jumping over them. …very nice.
We have had 3 other encounters with Dolphins during the trip, but these were all much shorter, just a few minutes…
During this crossing we made the observation that we would arrive 3 nights ahead of our booked return tickets to home from Tivat Montengro, so instead of going to PM, we went straight to Cavtat the most southern village from Croatia, and our longtime favorite holiday destination.
In the past we were there for 10 years, with our growing kids and all kinds of trail-able boats.
A warm welcome from many old friends over there made us feel back home immediately.
The first night (arrival after 9pm) we anchored in the nearby Tiha bay, which we know quite well, and the 2 following nights we were in Cavtat on the main village quay.
Now we were on the other side from where we have been wondering and looking at superyachts moored there during the years we were there on holiday.
After 2 day’s drinking and eating and recollecting nice memory’s with old friends, we left Cavtat on Monday morning towards Porte Montenegro.
There is quite some paperwork / police / harbourmaster check’s involved when entering “Croatia’, departing from Croatia and entering Montenegro. When arriving from Italy, we had to raise the yellow Q- flag, and then moor on the customs quay, then get the paperwork done, guests list, vignette, at harbourmaster and police = customs, and then you can moor 50m further on the same quay, but you’ve entered Croatia then,
At departure when leaving Croatia it’s the other way round,
Croatia is part of the EU, so not yet schengen, so until then….
When entering Montengro, it’s the same story again, but that can be done IN PM, and from your home berth, you don’t need to go to the customs quay. Montengro is no part of the EU (but they do have the Euro, the only NON European country that has the Euro ! but that’s another story)
Shortly after midday, we arrived at our new home berth in Porte Montengro. This was our first real stay in PM (we visited the place only ones in winter by plane).
This marine is completely new, and very nice. The marine staff is Very friendly, and very helpful, they bring you with a electric golf car to the harbour and customs office, they bring you any service you like, and try to make your stay as pleasant as possible. The workers are young people from the area, and are still very happy with a beer or a chocolate, they don’t yet “insist” on tips ;-) So first impression is very good !
We stayed there until the next morning , then we got a taxi for 3,5 euro to the nearby airport from Tivat. This used to be a very small local airport, but this is gradually becoming a busy holiday destination, they have daily direct flights from London, and Moscow (!) iirc, and 2 flights a week from Belgium in summer season.
The airport accommodation is still very basic. For pulling the luggage trolly’s to the airplane, they use the good old fashion red Massey Ferguson tractors probably recovered from the local farmers
Some data on the trip:
Total sailed distance from Marseille to Tivat 1100 nm (gps)
Total engine hours for the trip 82 hrs
Total fuel consumption 12800l
Average fuel consumption a D speed (10kn): 7l/nm, and at P speed (20kn) 15,3l/nm
Did I mention that the stabilisers were very helpful, and without these, we probably would not have been able to finish the trip in our available time frame.
Also the boat and the MAN engines behaved very well, oil and water levels topped up and checked regularly, they didn’t miss a beat. The engines have now +2900hrs on them !!!
The new tender saga
Somewhere in Marsh we ordered a new Novurania Tender in Florida, and at that time Renée promised a delivery time of 2 weeks.
But when I checked for the delivery after 3 weeks, it took them another week to find out and tell me that there were stock problems, and it would take them at least 3 more weeks.
After these 3 weeks, again, they postponed the delivery, made new promises that were never kept, etc…. I was close to cancelling the order, and asking for my deposit.
My original plan was to take the tender with me with the car on a trailer from Antwerp harbour (where she was shipped to) to SOF Marseille,
But when she was’nt delivered on time, the next plan was to have here transported by a friend to Rome.
The final arrival date in Antwerp of the tender was 27 may, ( its my birthday), so my friend was ready with the car and trailer to pick her up and bring her to the south of Italy somewhere depending on the progress of my boat delivery trip to Croatia.
But due to a bank holiday on 29/5 and a customs inspection on this container in Antwerp, my friend could only leave on Friday late PM, so he drove straight to south Croatia towards Montengro , a 1900km one way trip !
He arrived in Cavtat on Sunday afternoon, (when we were moored there), plan was to swap the old for the new tender, in Porte Montenegro, (much more room for side mooring, etc…)
But my local friend anticipated that we might get in to trouble passing the border, and leaving “Europe” with a new tender by road.
So on the spot we decided to swap the tenders in Cavtat, but here is nowhere near a side mooring, where a car can parc along the boat, and its not possible to use a slipway, trailer is not suited for submerging in salt water, So we called a truck with a crane driver, who came the following morning 6h30 pm with his truck, and for 150 euro , put the new tender in the water, and the old one on the trailer ! The old tender crane on the boat is right on the edge of being strong enough to lift the new tender.
Finally all good on that front, new tender on top of the reinforced FB overhang on Blue Angel, and Old tender is now in Belgium, for sale as a starters boat (still have to do a add somewhere..)
The fueling on the Tiber river was right opposite the Canados Yard:
Capri
Amalfi Coast
Positano
Messina street
Dolfins
Cavtat
New tender
Porte montenegro
After 3 seasons with Blue Angel in SOF we decided to go back to our old holiday destination in south Croatia, and booked a berth for one season in Porto Montenegro near Tivat (30nm south of Dubrovnic)
First leg from Marseille to Rome was done half May, did the trip with a boating friend, just the two of us, trip went without any issues. We went straight from Porquerolles during the night to Cap Corse, then along Elba, Giglio to porte di Roma in Ostia. This is the building place of my boat (Cantiery NAvale Di Ostia). We had some minor works to do in Ostia, ao re-inspecting the fire extinguishing system.
The next part of the trip was scheduled in week starting 25 May. First had to finalise some works there, and as our planning was not at all fixed, we didn’t invite any other forum mates, except our favourite Itallian boating mates, but they couldn’t make it on these dates.
So finally E an me started this epic trip (for us at least) on Wednesday 28 may, first fueling from the truck, in a yard on the Tiber river in Fiumicino, here we had a unfortunate damage to the hull, due to a strong swell coming in the river from the sea, the boat moored alongside, was pulled very heavily on one rope, and the stern corner hawshole was moved 10cm from its position, leaving a big opening in the wooden gunwale. Our mate Alfonso had tears in his eyes, as he did such a good job, in giving us the best possible assistance there in Rome with the works and all that, (not forgetting the food)
The repairing of this is postponed until later, and we headed south east towards the bottom of Italy.
The first day the weather was good, so our only time target was to pass along the Amalfi coast (Ischia, Capri, Positano, … ) in daylight. Therefor about 4 hours were sailed at paning speed (20kn). From there we slowed down for the night cruising at 10kn, at far enough distance from the coast. (avoiding lobsterpots etc..)
Plan was to arrive In the morning in Vibo Valentia, where Alfonso made a advance reservation for refueling. We got there around 6AM, so we both could do some “deep” sleep until 8h30 on the fuel dock our first real stop. (Our normal routine is to sleep / helm each for 2 or 3 hours)
After refueling we had a short breakfast and then we continued our voyage towards Messina street. Also this part we liked to do during day time.
The next time target was passing the Taranto bay before the forecasted bad weather arrived towards the evening, so also here, we navigated the best part of the day at 20kn. The passage of the first smaller bay, south east of Catanzaro was unexpectedly rough from a strong NW coming over land (with almost no mountains ) in that area. Our stabilisers had to work hard in a F5.
Passing The Taranto bay, went quite smooth, we were right ahead the very bad weather. Around 9pm we were at 20nm from S.Maria di Leuca, at sun set we slowed donw to 10kn, now we could see the strong thunderstorm behind us over the Taranto bay which we just missed.
Now we had two options, during the night continue our voyage along the Albanese coats, the shortest track to Montenegro, but there was a strong NW wind over the Adriatic, and we were limited on fuel, even doing that strip at 10kn. I didn’t fancy a fuelstop in Albania, nor in a unknown marina in Montenegro,
so we decided to follow the Italian coast NW, towards Brindisi.
During this night trip about 5 to 10nm from the coast, we were sheltered from the NW wind. Only the last stretch, at sunrise, we faced the predicted strong NW, but with the daylight and the stabs we managed quite well.
At about 8am we arrived In Brindisi were we had made another ‘optional’ reservation for refueling. As the weather in the Adriatic sea was too bad at this moment we were stucked there on the fuel dock.
We could only see a period of “acceptable weather” that afternoon,
the next 2 – 3 day’s the Adriatic weather (at that spot) was permanently bad,
So with a little bit of fear, we started our crossing at around 2pm.
The first 40nm were hard, up to 2m waves, on the SB quarter, but with the help of the stabs, we could almost permanently keep planing 20kn speed.
When somewhere in the middle of the Adriatic, (50nm) the sea state became gradually better, and instead of the straight crossing for the shortest distance, we gradually headed more north, in order to have a shorter track to Montenegro, and by the time that we saw land, the sea was almosty flat.
In this part we were surrounded by dolphins for at least half an hour, apparently they liked our bow waves, and keep on jumping over them. …very nice.
We have had 3 other encounters with Dolphins during the trip, but these were all much shorter, just a few minutes…
During this crossing we made the observation that we would arrive 3 nights ahead of our booked return tickets to home from Tivat Montengro, so instead of going to PM, we went straight to Cavtat the most southern village from Croatia, and our longtime favorite holiday destination.
In the past we were there for 10 years, with our growing kids and all kinds of trail-able boats.
A warm welcome from many old friends over there made us feel back home immediately.
The first night (arrival after 9pm) we anchored in the nearby Tiha bay, which we know quite well, and the 2 following nights we were in Cavtat on the main village quay.
Now we were on the other side from where we have been wondering and looking at superyachts moored there during the years we were there on holiday.
After 2 day’s drinking and eating and recollecting nice memory’s with old friends, we left Cavtat on Monday morning towards Porte Montenegro.
There is quite some paperwork / police / harbourmaster check’s involved when entering “Croatia’, departing from Croatia and entering Montenegro. When arriving from Italy, we had to raise the yellow Q- flag, and then moor on the customs quay, then get the paperwork done, guests list, vignette, at harbourmaster and police = customs, and then you can moor 50m further on the same quay, but you’ve entered Croatia then,
At departure when leaving Croatia it’s the other way round,
Croatia is part of the EU, so not yet schengen, so until then….
When entering Montengro, it’s the same story again, but that can be done IN PM, and from your home berth, you don’t need to go to the customs quay. Montengro is no part of the EU (but they do have the Euro, the only NON European country that has the Euro ! but that’s another story)
Shortly after midday, we arrived at our new home berth in Porte Montengro. This was our first real stay in PM (we visited the place only ones in winter by plane).
This marine is completely new, and very nice. The marine staff is Very friendly, and very helpful, they bring you with a electric golf car to the harbour and customs office, they bring you any service you like, and try to make your stay as pleasant as possible. The workers are young people from the area, and are still very happy with a beer or a chocolate, they don’t yet “insist” on tips ;-) So first impression is very good !
We stayed there until the next morning , then we got a taxi for 3,5 euro to the nearby airport from Tivat. This used to be a very small local airport, but this is gradually becoming a busy holiday destination, they have daily direct flights from London, and Moscow (!) iirc, and 2 flights a week from Belgium in summer season.
The airport accommodation is still very basic. For pulling the luggage trolly’s to the airplane, they use the good old fashion red Massey Ferguson tractors probably recovered from the local farmers
Some data on the trip:
Total sailed distance from Marseille to Tivat 1100 nm (gps)
Total engine hours for the trip 82 hrs
Total fuel consumption 12800l
Average fuel consumption a D speed (10kn): 7l/nm, and at P speed (20kn) 15,3l/nm
Did I mention that the stabilisers were very helpful, and without these, we probably would not have been able to finish the trip in our available time frame.
Also the boat and the MAN engines behaved very well, oil and water levels topped up and checked regularly, they didn’t miss a beat. The engines have now +2900hrs on them !!!
The new tender saga
Somewhere in Marsh we ordered a new Novurania Tender in Florida, and at that time Renée promised a delivery time of 2 weeks.
But when I checked for the delivery after 3 weeks, it took them another week to find out and tell me that there were stock problems, and it would take them at least 3 more weeks.
After these 3 weeks, again, they postponed the delivery, made new promises that were never kept, etc…. I was close to cancelling the order, and asking for my deposit.
My original plan was to take the tender with me with the car on a trailer from Antwerp harbour (where she was shipped to) to SOF Marseille,
But when she was’nt delivered on time, the next plan was to have here transported by a friend to Rome.
The final arrival date in Antwerp of the tender was 27 may, ( its my birthday), so my friend was ready with the car and trailer to pick her up and bring her to the south of Italy somewhere depending on the progress of my boat delivery trip to Croatia.
But due to a bank holiday on 29/5 and a customs inspection on this container in Antwerp, my friend could only leave on Friday late PM, so he drove straight to south Croatia towards Montengro , a 1900km one way trip !
He arrived in Cavtat on Sunday afternoon, (when we were moored there), plan was to swap the old for the new tender, in Porte Montenegro, (much more room for side mooring, etc…)
But my local friend anticipated that we might get in to trouble passing the border, and leaving “Europe” with a new tender by road.
So on the spot we decided to swap the tenders in Cavtat, but here is nowhere near a side mooring, where a car can parc along the boat, and its not possible to use a slipway, trailer is not suited for submerging in salt water, So we called a truck with a crane driver, who came the following morning 6h30 pm with his truck, and for 150 euro , put the new tender in the water, and the old one on the trailer ! The old tender crane on the boat is right on the edge of being strong enough to lift the new tender.
Finally all good on that front, new tender on top of the reinforced FB overhang on Blue Angel, and Old tender is now in Belgium, for sale as a starters boat (still have to do a add somewhere..)
The fueling on the Tiber river was right opposite the Canados Yard:
Capri
Amalfi Coast
Positano
Messina street
Dolfins
Cavtat
New tender
Porte montenegro
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