Photo: A "repurposed" concrete bunker, now a piece of play equipment at a playground in Albania.

As soon as we bought "Sherpa," we had to leave her because we had previously agreed to sail with our friend Wendy aboard her boat "Selinaris" for another three weeks up the Adriatic coast. From Didim, Turkey, we took three buses and two ferries (over two days) to meet up with her in Messolonghi, about three hours west of Athens. If there were still demonstrations going on in Athens, we didn't see them as we took the subway and a taxi from the ferry port to the inter-city bus depot.

Once back aboard "Selinaris," we stopped overnight at two Greek islands, Lefkas and Paxos, then had a wonderful cruise along the mountainous coast of Albania and Montenegro to Dubrovnik, Croatia. We relied on the well-regarded pilot book for this body of water titled 777 Harbours and Anchorages--Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro.

Albania
Lonely Planet named Albania the #1 travel destination for 2011, perhaps a bit prematurely in our view. The architecture is appalling (all Communist-era, ugly gray cement block structures). There is rubble everywhere, and deep holes in the streets that look like cars could actually fall into them. Although the repressive Stalinist-style dictatorship collapsed following Hoxha's death in 1985, the country is still not quite normalized. The hillsides along the coast are dotted with cement igloo-like bunkers.

Despite having a 200-mile-long mountainous coastline, there's only one marina in all of Albania, and Albanians still aren't allowed to own pleasure boats. We learned that the Albanian coast is under constant surveillance by Italian naval craft to keep Albanians from absconding across the Adriatic Sea to Italy. The Pilot warned that private yachts were likely to be approached and boarded by a patrol boat upon entering Albanian waters, but to our relief we didn't encounter this.

Our first port of call in Albania was Saranda, where we were required to hire an agent to get our visas and boat papers in order. It's a rather bleak harbor town with a long sandy beach and seaside promenade crowded with families. A highlight of our time there was a visit to the ancient town of Butrint, a UNESCO World Heritage site that, according to classical mythology, was founded by exiles fleeing from the fall of Troy. Today it's an extensive archaeological site with unearthed Roman temples, fountains, baths, and theatre dating back to the 4th century BC. Butrint is right on the coast, and looking out from the shore one can see the Greek island of Corfu, only a couple of miles away. Just beyond the archaeological site, the road comes to a river, which vehicles and pedestrians cross aboard a cable-drawn ferry.

On the bus ride to and from Butrint, we saw a number of concrete structures that appeared to have collapsed while still under construction. We wondered whether they'd been damaged in an earthquake or were the work of a very incompetent contractor. When we asked our agent, he laughed and then explained that hundreds of houses being built in the area without the proper permits had simply been bulldozed by the government.

Our next port of call in Albania was in the Gulf of Palermo, where we docked in a picturesque bay alongside a cement quay used by local fishing boats. There's quite a pretty restaurant overlooking the bay, where we had a delicious fish dinner that night. We also saw drying sheds piled to the rafters with sage, which appears to grow wild here on the hillsides. On a promontory across the bay is the Ali Pasha fortress, which for a small donation to the caretaker, you can wander through and atop. Ali Pasha was the ferocious Ottoman Turk who controlled the area in the late 1800's. We went swimming here, then dinghied around the headland to another bay with a pretty white pebble beach with sunchairs and a bar serving cold drinks and ice cream!

Our next stop was Orikum, where we moored at the only marina in Albania (it's run by Italians, not Albanians). The only other cruisers there were three Dutch couples who were traveling together, each on their own boats. Unable to find either a sailmaker or even a sewing machine, we spent many hours with needle and thread and sailtape repairing a 20-foot long tear in Selinaris's mainsail. Although we were able to borrow an extra sail palm from one of the Dutch boats (a leather tool that acts as an oversized thimble to drive the needle through the canvas), Art was quite unhappy that Wendy didn't have an awl in her sail repair kit, which would have made the job far easier.

The little town of Orikum has a few small groceries, one Internet cafe, a pizza joint, and a couple of small restaurants where we had delicious meals for very little money. The tab for the three of us for dinner one night, including drinks and dessert, was 2000 leke, or about $20. Another day we stopped at a small bakery, and our order of five fancy pastries (all delicious!) and coffees all around came to less than $5.

Our last port of call in Albania was Durres, the country's only commercial port, where we docked near two other cruising boats amongst many cargo ships being loaded and unloaded. We watched giant chutes being used to disgorge tons of wheat from Ukrainian ships into dump trucks, which when full drove a few dozen feet and dumped the mountains of golden grain in nearby warehouses. Here again, we had to hire an agent -- this time to handle our exit formalities.

Durres is an ancient town founded in the 7th century BC by Greek colonists from Corinth and inhabited continuously since then. Today it has an extensive beach scene with a carnival-like atmosphere (small rides and purveyors of junk food). One evening we caught the end of a classical dance recital by local youths on a seaside stage. Later Wendy and I almost broke the bank when we ordered lobster on spaghetti at a waterfront restaurant that had been recommended to us, but it was well worth it!

I was determined to find an Internet cafe (no wifi here) because my book group in Washington was meeting and we had arranged to meet up via Skype. Art and I finally a found a place that was still open at midnight (5 pm in the States), and despite the noise and cigarette smoke, had a nice chat with my bibliophile friends.

From Durres, we took a bus to Tirana, the capital, about 20 miles inland. Very little English is spoken and, on a Sunday afternoon, we couldn't find a tourism office or anywhere to obtain a city map (we'd been told that maps were forbidden under the dictatorship). It turns out that most of the main tourist attractions are centered around Skanderbeg Square. We did a quick tour of the National History Museum (it was closing in the early afternoon), but were disappointed because the exhibits ended with World War II, so we were unable to learn more about the "disappearances" of the Hoxha dictatorship and the post-Communist era. We then visited the famous Clock Tower, the lovely Orthodox Church of the Holy Evangelist, and some pretty urban parks. We were perplexed by a step-pyramid-shaped monstrosity of a building that wasn't open but which one could climb on. It turns out to have been constructed as a monument to Hoxha (designed by his daughter). We then happened upon a booth that was part of a bike-sharing program where we rented beat-up bikes and spent the rest of the afternoon pedaling happily around the city and a large artificial lake.

Despite its drawbacks, we were quite intrigued by Albania and would love to return and see more of the country beyond the coast.

Montenegro
The Montenegro coast is beautfiul, with steep, tree-clad mountains right to the shoreline, with little villages tucked in here and there whereever there's a cove with a bit of flat land. We were surprised to find that the official currency is the euro although Montenegro isn't yet a member of the EU.

Our first port of call was Bar, the only port city in Montenegro. After we'd checked in with the immigration authorities, we made our way to the marina but by this time it was dark and we couldn't raise anybody on the VHF. Unsure how to proceed, Wendy called the harbormaster who kindly met us at the marina and, by flashlight, guided us to a slip.

By day it was immediately apparent that Montenegro is far more modern and upscale than Albania. We had breakfast at a restaurant with wifi, overlooking the long sandy beach. That evening we happened upon a rollicking standing-room-only rock concert taking place at a seaside auditorium, where local young people were clapping and shouting in response to American favorites.

A favorite cruising area in Montenegro is the 20-mile-long Bay of Kotor. Near the entrance are two islets: Our Lady of the Rocks and St. George. The former has dockage for only one boat at a time, so we felt fortunate to arrive just as another boat was leaving. The islet is just big enough to hold a small church with a museum full of mementos donated by ships crew who were thankful to God for being brought home safely after storms. Also on display is a piece of incredibly intricate stitchery sewn by a woman over a period of many years while she waited in vain for the return of her sea-captain husband who had apparently been lost at sea.

Risan, one of several little towns dotting this bay, is famous for its mosaics. Open for viewing are the remains of a Roman patrician's villa with beautiful mosaic floors. Our young tour guide said that when she was growing up, the kids used to play soccer here. Only in quite recent years have the locals come to treasure and protect this evidence of their ancient heritage.

At the far end of this fjord-like bay is Kotor, a well-preserved medieval walled town (and another UNESCO world heritage site). We hiked along the ancient wall that winds its tortuous way to the fortress at the top of the mountain, overlooking the picturesque town and the harbor dotted with fishing boats, sailboats and motor yachts flying flags of many nations, and a couple of oversized cruise ships (ugh!).

Croatia
Our last stop on this mini-cruise of the Adratic was Dubrovnik, another charming walled city (and yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site) that was swarming with tourists. Following Croatia's declaration of independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, Dubrovnik was attacked by Serbian-Montenegrin troops and shelled for seven months, during which more than half of the buildings in the Old City were damaged. The Croatians' ongoing resentment is clearly evident, as each of the entrances to the walled city has a large chart showing all the artillery hits during the siege.

This was our last port of call with Wendy. We took our leave after meeting her daughter Kim and Kim's boyfriend, who would be sailing up the Croatian coast with her. Art and I flew back to Turkey, with our appetites whetted to explore more of Croatia, a cruising paradise with more than a thousand islands dotting the coastline.