Cruising The Med - Sandy and Rob's Excellent Adventure: Leaving the Bay at Montenegro for Croatia

We left the dock at Porto Montenegro for Croatia on Tuesday, July 9, 2013.

We had an appointment for fuel at 9:30. Yes, I said appointment. There are so many mega yachts here, you need an appointment.

We waited almost 2 hours and finally got in for fuel and to check out with the harbour master and policija.

The workers at the fuel dock said they had a super yacht load over 180,000 litres of fuel in one fill up. That is close to $300,000 of fuel. Wow... This yacht is one of the top 100 yachts in the world and is owned by a Russian who made his fortune in the aluminum business. He is the largest aluminum producer in the world. Google "Queen K" for a look at his yacht. He also has a large yacht named "Sputnik" that carries helicopters, jet skis, tenders, cars, and other toys for the Queen K.

We took on about $100 worth of diesel which is much better on the budget. We have our bikes in the hold and Rob's new road bike on the deck strapped to the staunchens.

Rob worked out a lifting system and now we use the spin halyard to lift the dinghy onto the foredeck for easy storage and this will significantly limit the growth on the bottom.

We finally were able to leave at around 12:15 pm and headed for Cavtat, Croatia where it is customary to check into the country and clear customs with the boat and its crew.

We motored all the way as the wind was almost nil. In fact, there is little to no wind here this time of year.

We have only been able to fly the sails once a couple of weeks ago and fortunately there was just enough wind the night we raced the Blue 26's.

We arrived in Cavtat at around 5 pm and had to do a mediterranean dock by dropping our anchor and putting the boat in reverse. It was sketchy but we did it!! Also, most boats have many crew and we are just 3!

Rob left to do customs and Mackenzie and I fended off the cement wall and neighboring boats.

We met a lovely couple from Scotland while perched here. The gal is a special ed teacher in Buckie where my grandfather is from. She was so excited we had relatives who were from Buckie.

After Rob completed all the customs papers and purchased our cruising permit for Croatia, we left the harbour and went around the peninsula to a quiet harbour called Tiha Bay where it was less crazy and a great place for a good nights rest.

It was also a short dinghy ride to shore where we could walk over to Cavtat.

We used the dinghy to go to shore and have dinner in Cavtat at Bogenvila Restaurant. Yes, they don't seem to know how to spell 'bogenvillia'.

After a lovely meal and some good beer and local wine, we headed back to our dinghy and off to The Lodge.

We watched some TV, had cappuccino's and Milka chocolate and slept like babies. We turned on the genset so we had the pleasure of air conditioning all night long. The winds were nil so it was a calm lovely evening.

The chic Puro Beach Pool - we hovered here for almost 2 hours waiting to attend the fuel dock shich was adjacent to the pool