Crossing the Adriatic Sea: check

Now it's done! The crossing we were a bit worried about - the Adriatic Sea!

After Durres in Albania we had a long day on the sea along the Albanian Cost with no possibilites for shelter anywhere. An early start around 6 am and we were out on the sea - no wind but "old sea" with 1 m waves. This makes the journey very rocky since we could not sail. But after some hours, the wind came and gave us a more stable cruise. We had to clear custom and police formalities (as in every harbour in Albania) in Vlore harbour before we could continue to the only commercial marina in Albania, Orikum Marina. We arrived about 5 pm so it had been a long day.

In Orikum Marina we met some boats we had met before. It was the Italian boat "One" with the friendly Italian guy who still was thinking what to do about our boat name :-) We had met him in Kotor, Budva, Durres and now here. He was still talking about the beatiful Montenegro girls we all have spotted in Budva...A couple of hours after us "Nonna Ida" moored. "Nonna Ida" means "Granny Ida" a was a Hallberg-Rassy 40, a Swedish sailing boat make known for it's very high quality...and price. I had first met it's Italian owners, the couple Augusto and Ida, at the customs in Bar, Montenegro when we were waiting for the slow progress. And we met them also in every Albanian harbour we visited. They kindly invited us for a real Italian pasta meal onboard their homey boat. We got a very tasty spagetthi meal, Italian red wine and a fruit desert. Augusto and Ida are in their 70-ties and one must admire their courage and stamina to sail such long distances in sometime choppy seas.

The day after did not offer good sailing winds for heading towards Italy so we took a day off and decided to visit a National Park on 1200m altitude where they claim one could spot the greek island Corfu if the weather was clear. We took a taxi, or whatever it was, an old really run down Mercedes from 1974. I'd estimate that 50% of the cars in Albania are Mercedes cars. The old banger took us actually without starting boiling up all the 1200m from the sealevel in about 30 minutes.

The view was really breathtaking. Although the sky was not totally clear we could defenetly spot the contour of Corfu in the distance.

The weather forecast promised no sea and light favourable winds for the crossing the day after. We started early again, around 5.30 am and went by motor a couple of hours out from the Orikum/Vlore bay and passed Cape Linguetta and headed for Italy. We had not decided in advance wheather to go for Brindisi or Otranto, but out in the Adriatic we soon chose to go for the closer Otranto. The forecast was not totally correct. We had old sea again and Sally started to sense sea sickness. This time we tried a new cure. Sally went down with a matress on the saloon floor - just on top of the keel where the movements are less. It worked! After some hours half sleep there the wind came and we could sail and the movements on the boat gets much more steady.

Dolphins!! This made Sally promptly jump up from the saloon and the seasickness was gone :-) About 10-15 dolphins were circulating around, under, and in front of the boat for some minutes. A true nature experience! Really fun!

A couple of hours later we moored at Otranto Lega Navale harbour. A bit earlier than expected. And we had crossed the Adriatic!

Otranto is as a very nice Italian coastal town, and here they have other idols than in Albania as you might understand from looking at the statues ;-) We had reached Italy with one days margin to Sally's home journey. Sally left early this morning after 6 amazing sailing weeks together in Croatia, Montenegro, Albania and Italy. Unfortunately all fun things has an end and she starts working again on Monday. But I will continue another week. In half an hour my brother Bosse and our friends Staffan and Magnus will join me for the continuos sailing now heading for Greece!