Orikum – Albanien

Refuel, clear customs and cast off. In Montenegro everything really worked out great and nice people everywhere. Like the last 60 nautical miles in Croatia, we now have to sail the next 200 nautical miles without the protection of offshore islands. This means a bit more wind and waves, but the boat runs great, dances over the waves, so we can increase the speed a bit to over 20 knots. This means more diesel consumption but also faster progress.

For a while we even hoped to get as far as Corfu in Greece, but shortly before Vlore in Albania there was a minor defect, the bilge pumps no longer wanted to work and we had too much water in the bilge. We spooned it out with buckets and then slowly sailed the last 20 nautical miles to Vlore into a huge bay. In the fishing harbour, no mooring option, and in the big harbour neither. This is where the customs office is supposed to be. Nothing to be found. In the meantime it was stockefinster, so the decision was made to sail into a marina about 15 nautical miles away in Vlore Bay. Around midnight we were there and moored at a breakwater. Not 5 minutes later police. Problem explained, faces brightened and then something I would not have expected in this country: entry, passport control and customs at a wall, we were allocated a pitch in the marina, electricity and water. Good night, the rest tomorrow, when you have solved your problem. We did the next day, after taking a dolmush taxi to Vlore and buying a submersible pump. Pumping and then: no petrol station in the whole bay. But the people there were all super nice: we asked for a tanker and refuelled. And as if by magic, both bilge pumps worked again. So all in all: 1 day stop in Albania, in the evening a thunderstorm like rarely experienced, a completely different opinion about this country and then we clarified that we can do customs formalities at the pier in Vlore Harbor before 7:00 the next morning.

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