Britt and I had just finished crossing from Menorca to Sardinia. We were greeted by towering cliffs and a conveniently placed, available mooring buoy. It was 7pm with plenty of light left, the sea was calm, there was zero wind, and the water was clear of obstacles. No accidental grounding today.
Britt expertly tossed the line around the buoy and secured us, and we jumped in for a swim. The area was dotted with a few stone towers that once served as fortifications, and a large hotel sat in the distance.
Castelsardo
The next morning we sailed and motored north and east to a town called Castelsardo.
It's fun looking back at the hourly log from that day. Britt was on log duty, and it's full of short, memorable notes:
13:26 GMT+2: Main sail up, motor sailing. Britt made tuna salad.
14:24 GMT+2: Main sail taken down.
15:27 GMT+2: Sails went up and then down. Lost the drone.
16:26 GMT+2: Motor sailing with both sails up.
17:26 GMT+2: Sails up! We sailing.
19:33 GMT+2: DOCKED!
Yes, at 15:27 the drone had a motor failure and dropped into the sea somewhere. Every time I flew it off the boat, I silently said goodbye to it, and every time I caught it again I was silently surprised it had made it back.
We checked into the marina at Castelsardo and walked up to the castle the town is named after. It's now a museum, mostly filled with wicker baskets, but the real draw was the view from the top, looking out over the town and the ocean.
We wandered back through town and had dinner at a restaurant Britt found that suited both our dietary needs. She had gluten free pasta with prawns, and I had veggie ravioli and some cheese for dessert.
A higher level of stress started creeping into the daily routine. It was my first time hiring someone to deliver the boat, and there were a lot of boxes to check: making sure Stani was fully equipped, all the documents printed and ready for the crew. On top of that, it felt like I'd been going nonstop since leaving Sweden, and the exhaustion was catching up.
Cannigione and La Maddalena
Part of the logistics got easier thanks to Ryan and Jess, who were meeting us at our next stop in Cannigione. They were staying at a hotel there and printed out all the documents I needed. That left two outstanding tasks: getting charts for Italy and Montenegro, and finding a courtesy flag for Montenegro. Both turned out to be harder than expected.
We arrived just before 9pm in the bay where Cannigione sits. Ryan and Jess watched us drop anchor from shore, and once we were settled we took the dinghy in to meet them for dinner. It was great to see them, and pretty wild that our paths had converged so perfectly at this one spot.
The next day, the four of us sailed over to La Maddalena for the day. Finding a spot for the boat took a bit of work, but we got it sorted, took the dinghy to town, tied up, and headed straight for gelato.
Worth mentioning here: Britt and I had decided that I'd be "sea captain" and she'd be "land captain," splitting up the responsibilities for research, planning, and logistics. It was always a relief to arrive on land and be completely in Britt's capable hands.
So of course, Britt led us to gelato, very welcome given it hit 40ºC that day, probably part of the heat wave sweeping Europe at the time.
Afterward we wandered town, bought a bag of sours at a pirate themed candy shop, had a late lunch, and made our way back to the dinghy. We watched the sunset from the boat, then motored back to Cannigione and said goodbye to Jess and Ryan.
A chart chase on a Sunday
The next morning the stress doubled when I realized it was Sunday, meaning most of the chandleries that carried charts and flags would be closed. I went into full hyperfocus stress mode trying to knock out these last two tasks.
We found a chandlery on the way to Olbia that was open until 1pm and had the charts I needed. We called the nearby marina and arranged a one hour stop from noon to 1pm. By the time we got the boat docked it was already 12:45, so I ran to the chandlery. It was locked, lights off. I messaged the person I'd been in touch with, and they kindly came back to open up. I was dripping in sweat (it was still hot), but very happy to have that task done. I let the delivery crew know the only thing missing was the courtesy flag, but that a chandlery in Olbia had confirmed they had one, and I'd leave 20 euros on the boat for them to grab it.
We were sailing away toward Olbia when I noticed the charts I'd just bought were the same ones I already had, western Mediterranean. I needed central and eastern Mediterranean. The chandlery had handed me the wrong set. Stress returned.
At that point all I could do was leave my iPad for the crew, loaded with the charts they needed, but relying on an iPad for charts isn't ideal. They overheat in the sun and can have charging issues or die from salt in the air. I wasn't happy about how I was leaving the boat set up for the delivery crew.
Olbia and the handoff
We arrived in Olbia with a final list of things to do before flying out the next morning: clean the boat, strip the sheets, toss any food the delivery crew wouldn't use, make sure the documents were all in place, pack our bags, and if time allowed, walk into town for dinner.
Britt was probably on her third or fourth Scopolamine patch by then. She changed them every three days, and they worked well, with one notable side effect: extreme drowsiness a couple hours after applying a fresh one.
She got knocked out almost as soon as we arrived in Olbia. I suspect the stress I'd been quietly hoarding for both of us didn't help either. I think she was fast asleep by 5pm.
I sat in the cockpit going over the delivery requirements, stressing about things that were now completely out of my hands, and ate some cheese while the sun went down over the city.
It was 30ºC inside the boat when I finally went to lie down beside Britt.
The next morning Britt called an Uber to the marina, and we were at the airport in under ten minutes. We flew to Vienna, had a coffee at the airport, then flew on to Istanbul. I was now out of the EU and no longer burning days on my Schengen visa. It would take a few days for the stress to fully dissipate, but I was glad that chapter of visa worries was closing.
Side note: all of this stress was 100% self imposed. Someone else in my position could probably have handled the whole thing without breaking a sweat.
Istanbul
We had a couple of chill days in Istanbul before Britt flew home. We picked up a bunch of Turkish delight, ate well, wandered the neighbourhoods near our Airbnb, Britt went to a hammam, and we watched movies and mostly vegged out. I was so worn down from traveling since March that I barely wanted to do anything.
The morning Britt left for the airport, I think I stayed in bed until the afternoon. I ate the rest of the Turkish delight, finished off some leftovers, and watched Netflix. The only sign of time passing was the call to prayer echoing across the city five times a day. I missed Britt immediately.
That's roughly how the next four days in Istanbul went. I'd venture out once a day for snacks or a meal, but otherwise stayed pretty isolated. One day I left the Airbnb for groceries and found the entire neighbourhood shut down: police at every intersection, barricades everywhere. I had no trouble getting through on the way there, but on the way back an officer stopped me and I had to explain that I was staying nearby. Apparently there'd been talk of protests online, so the government had shut the whole neighbourhood down. Wild. Good thing I was very happy to be couch bound that week.
Back to Montenegro
I shook off the cobwebs on the 29th, checked out of the Airbnb, and headed to the airport. Next stop: Tivat, Montenegro, where I'd reunite with Stani. I arrived two days before the handover, which gave me some time to try to return to being a functional human being. I found a restaurant serving Georgian food that absolutely made my day, visited a chandlery and managed to get the right charts sent over from a nearby town, soaked up some hotel air conditioning, and got plenty of steps in. Humanity was returning.
The next step was figuring out how to break the pattern that had gotten me so stressed in the first place. This trip was supposed to be a fun adventure of exploration, not an endless list of tasks and logistics. And the month ahead looked like more of the same: transit Montenegro, sort out clearance into Albania, pick up Meg and Andrew, sail down to Corfu in Greece, drop them off, clear back into the EU with only six days left on my visa, transit to Athens, pick up Mark, Amber, Ollie, and Penny, transit to Turkey, sort out more clearance procedures, stay in Turkey until mid September, then rush from the eastern Mediterranean all the way to the Canary Islands for the Atlantic crossing in November. Who planned this trip?
So I made the hard call to skip Turkey. I decided to stay in Montenegro and Albania until I could re enter the EU. It would save me miles and days and make the passage to the Canaries a little less rushed. That decision didn't just affect me, though. It also affected at least five other groups who'd already made plans and booked flights to meet me in Turkey. June 30th was a day of FaceTimes, texts, and hunting for alternate flights. But the moment everyone had been told, a huge weight lifted. Humanity was restored.
On July 1st (happy Canada Day), I met Captain Brian and the crew who'd delivered Stani safely to Montenegro. There'd been zero wind for their entire passage, so they motored the whole way. Time to schedule the 400 hour engine service.
It was so nice to be back on the boat, even if it meant saying goodbye to air conditioning. Haha.
It's now July 2nd. I spent the morning picking up supplies, paying my tourist tax, checking out from the marina, and filling the fuel tanks.
I unfurled the sails, killed the engine, and let the wind take me away from land, to where? Honestly, it doesn't matter anymore. Montenegro is home for the next while, and with a coastline about the size of the Southern Gulf Islands, I couldn't be happier about it.
Special thanks to Britt who helped me realize how stressed I was, and opened my eyes to making changes ❤️.
