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| Leaving Gouvia, Corfu (Don't forget to click on the photos!) |
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| Don't know what this was all about, but thought you might like it. Camouflage? |
We set off for Tivat, Montenegro, in calm weather and with a great forecast for the trip. Flat seas all the way! Yippee! We love that.
It was wrong! Within a few hours the wind got up and we had 12 to 18 knots all the way. On the beam! We don’t like that.
But…we had another, truly great chilli in the evening – cooked by me, of course, but it seems I had forgotten to buy any kidney beans. I did, however, find a strange tin of stuff, at the back of the cupboard, that I thought I might be able to put in, to add a bit of flavour. ‘Not sure what it was but I think there may be a letter missing on the tin. See if you guess what it was!
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| Another truly astonishingly brilliant chilli (cooked by me) |
We decided to take turns on watch – three hours on, six hours off – so Russell took the first watch at 10.00pm and me & Martin went off to our cabins. I was up again an hour later ‘cos, as usual, I couldn’t bloody sleep. So Russell went off for some kip!
We never heard from Martin again until 3.00 am when there was a sort of loud ‘graunch’ and boat started shaking and shuddering. I checked the instruments and all looked fine except that the fuel consumption on the starboard engine had almost doubled. I jumped up and down a bit until Martin suddenly appeared and declared ‘I think we’ve got some rope or something wrapped round the propeller’. He also said that the noise and vibration had woken him up but I didn’t believe that. Nothing wakes him up!
So we stopped the boat and put the engines in reverse, to see if we could shake it off – but we couldn’t. This actually woke Russell up as well. Amazing!
We shut down the starboard engine (Kylie) and ran on with just the port engine - Dannii. She didn’t complain.
It was pitch black, the sea was rough, but we limped on and although by now I was really tired, I still couldn’t sleep, so Russ and I stayed up on watch. Not surprisingly, Martin went back to bed.
I tried to sleep again at 5.00am, couldn’t, so got up again at 6.00am to relieve Russ. And guess what I found?
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| Sleeping Bloody Beauty! |
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| You 'ave to smile though! |
So I sent Russell back to bed (without a story, ‘cos he’d been naughty!) and stayed on watch myself. Awake!
When it was light we stopped the boat and Mr V went over the side to look at the propeller. Guess what? Rope. Lots of it! It was all round the propeller and shaft and it was massive stuff, about three inches in diameter. By now it was really rough with 3 to 4 metre waves – and still on the beam- so we crept on ever nearer to Tivat.
Tivat’s a brand new marina on a huge inland sea (check it out on Google Maps – go on – do it now) and it really is a brilliant place. Apparently, the Montenegrens are trying to make it the ‘new Monaco’ with tax breaks, duty-free fuel, etc., and they’re doing a good job! The country is stunning, the people friendly and the girls – well - what can I say?
A young girl came to the boat, on a golf cart, and took us off to the Harbour Authority, the Port Police and the Customs office. She’d pre-arranged our arrival with them, filled in all the forms for us and the whole thing took about 20 minutes. (Come on you Greeks, learn the lesson!). They called us ‘Guests’ as well. Which was nice.
We went back to the boat to see if we could get the rope off the propeller but there was no chance so I went to the Marina Office to see if I could find a diver. “Yes” they said, “no problem, he’ll be with you in 15 minutes”. On a Sunday. Just like that! (Come on you Greeks, learn the lesson!) Half an hour later it was all off.
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| Gotcha!! |
We absolutely love this place and the thing that makes it are the staff. Smartly dressed, helpful, polite, organised, efficient – and really pretty!
I must mention the meal we had last night before I go. My ‘prawn cocktail’ came with three dishes of sauce, each with a different flavour. One had whiskey in it, one had brandy in it and the other…. bloody Baileys! It didn’t really work….
It looks more like fruit cocktail than prawn cocktail, but I am glad you are keeping up your strength for diving if not driving. You have to wonder what was originally tied to the other end of that rope. How is the Montenegran beer? I can see why you will want to spend time there. Love Ros
ReplyDeleteLooks a great place but cannot accept that the girls are any good without photographic evidence!!!!
ReplyDeleteBlimey! I was slightly concerned about the 3 gay musketeers on board - especially after seeing those dodgey shots as you were leaving Corfu - but now - Em asking to see girly photos?
ReplyDeleteWhat have you all been eating? Ahhh - must be those beans?
I've managed to sneak upstairs whilst we are re-fueling leaving Hinge & Brackett bickering elsewhere. There has been a lot of bickering recently, subjects have included; is making a G&T comparable in effort to doing the washing up? Should we rinse the soap suds off the plates before drying up? It's been really exciting!
ReplyDeleteI think that it is also worth mentioning that, in these days of accurate journalistic reporting, the pictures of me apparetnly sleeping on watch are in fact posed. I was by this stage wide awake again!
One last thing, we think that Martin V has narcolepsy!
It looks as though your boat is short of a dishwasher - bloody heel Martin - I thought it was well equipped. Still you could always hang them over the side in a basket as you are tearing along (at 8 knots!). That should shift any baked on food.
ReplyDeleteSome rope you picked up! Looks like it came off the QE2. Hope Kylie's made a good recovery. Two lots of surgery is a bit unlucky.