Photo: Walkway to fortress, Kotor
We arrived at the entrance to the main harbour in Montenegro just after 13:00, raised the courtesy and quarantine flag then motored the 9nm to the Porto Montenegro Marina. The scenery was very dramatic with high hills surrounding the inlet. We radioed the marina and were informed the location of the quarantine dock and our allocated berth. The marina staff where on the dock to assist us alongside and accompanied Brian into the Customs area to complete formalities. One of the documents Brian was asked to show was a skipper competency certificate, luckily he had copies of his Boatmaster, and Yachtmaster certificates, then asked the officials what happens if you don’t have them as they are not compulsory in some countries “We reject them, they cannot enter Montenegro. It is our law and we cannot break the law”. All cleared we safely docked in our berth to be joined by Wind Pony shortly after.
We decided to go for a walk around the marina and to have a drink. We could have people watched for hours, the local shops were all the best brands and the people where very smartly and probably expensively dressed. It was then back to the boats for showers, very nice, then out to dinner at a local restaurant recommended by the guy at the Marina Office. The next day we walked around town in the morning, looked at all the super yachts and then left the marina, anchoring at Kotor.
The town of Kotor is an old fortified town that has walls and fortifications built between the 9th and 19th centuries, the original walls were completed in the 13th and 14th centuries. Behind the town is the sheer cliff formed by the Hill of St John, which gives the town a dramatic appearance. Half way up the hill is an old church and on top of the hill is the fortress, which can be reached by climbing the 1355 steps that run along the wall. Today the town wharf regularly has cruise ships alongside with one other anchored in the bay. On Tuesday morning we left the boats at 8:00am to walk up the hill before the sun rose above the high hills. What a good decision. It was 40 degrees Celsius when we arrived on Sunday and talking to the locals it has been the hottest summer they can remember, we reckoned the temperature each day was at least 40 if not higher. We made it up to the top and back down the 1355 steps again by 10:15, some of the people off the cruise ships amazed us by walking up the walls in designer dresses and high heeled shoes. The town itself is similar to the ones we visited in Croatia, stone buildings with narrow streets, possibly the narrowest we have seen, and cobblestone paths. The narrow streets do not let the sun penetrate and therefore wandering them is quite cool. Back at the boat, Brian did the engine checks, he had changed zinc blocks and cleaned the bottom of the hull in Mljet, Croatia ready for our passage to Italy on Wednesday, and we also put the jackstays on.
Later in the evening, sitting in the cockpit, Brian found a new toy. A guy on the shore was rigging up a micro-light attached to a dinghy, surely he could not be thinking of flying the dinghy. The answer came a minute or so later as he started the engine, roared along the bay and took off. It is the first time we have seen a flying dinghy, rather cool according to Brian.
The next morning we upped anchor and motored to an island just off the marina and airport in preparation for getting duty free fuel at 16:00 and clearing out. Once we had filled our fuel tanks and the paperwork had been completed, the fuel dock guys took Brian up to the Customs and Immigration buildings to clear us out of Montenegro. As when we cleared in, the guys did all the walking between the officials with the passports etc while Brian waited. Once cleared out we had to leave Montenegro immediately, apparently they used to allow boats up to 12 hours in an allocated area of the marina before leaving but this has been stopped this year. This caused us to re-evaluate our entry point to Italy, which initially was going to be Crotone 30hrs away but meant we had to leave Montenegro very early morning to arrive in daylight. With the fuel dock only open 8am – 8pm we decided on the shorter crossing to Brindisi, a trip of 17hrs. We left the fuel dock at 17:30 and headed out of the harbour bound for Brindisi, Italy.
We have only spent a couple of days in Montenegro, there is not much of a coast line, but it did meet the VAT “Exit Europe” requirements for the boat and the scenery has been spectacular.