Bad experience in Montenegro - how to recover?

[Toffe]

Warning: venting ahead!

I moved to Montenegro specifically to practise sailing in bay of Kotor, including all the yacht maintenance that entails. I picked up an old GRP 28-footer at a good price, well aware that it needed a bit of work, mostly cosmetic (rigging, sails, and engine were fine when I bought her). Unfortunately, because of my girlfriend/first mate's schedule, there was some delay in actually getting out on the water. Despite doing maintenance work every weekend since December, it feels like the problems started cascading and piling up. A water pump leak meant I had to rebuild the pump, poor fuel injection meant rebuilding the injectors, and so on, every repair taking weeks due to having to wait for parts since nothing was available locally. After some final tweaks this week, the boat should be ready to sail safely, but in the meantime, two problems have cropped up:

This town seems to have taken a deep dislike to me. I don't know how I've caused offence, I keep to myself apart from doing charity work for the sailing club where the boat is moored (and paid up until New Years'). The reason I've been keeping to myself lately is because at the end of winter some of my local buddies took me out to a bar, where a guy was promptly beaten up for the crime of being black (Jamaican - drunk, chatty, inoffensive). Since then I didn't really feel like mixing with the locals much, after seeing and hearing too much racism - which they share with me since they figure as a white guy, I must agree, not realising that my girlfriend is afro-Brazilian and I grew up in Africa. From spring onwards, whenever I leave my gangway on the dock, it ends up on the seabed. My boat's been rammed in a way that's hard to see as an accident, plus scratched when someone moved it for no discernable reason. So now I want to sell the boat and leave ASAP (planning on going to Cabo Verde, too far to go with this boat because of my job), but I'm having no luck locally (e.g. local brokers aren't returning my messages - only brokers in Croatia), and I don't want to leave the boat on the dock with no caretaker! Ideas?

Second issue, by now I think pretty much everything on the boat is fixed apart from the headliner in the head, though it could use a haulout&paint. But, because of the cascading issues, I've taken a big blow to my confidence - I'm worried that if I actually go out sailing again, something new will break and I'll be stuck, perhaps in danger, with no local support. It's weird because when sailing other boats I've felt calm and confident that I could avoid or resolve risks - though I've never been without a local support network. I also used to feel totally confident mechanically - I ride a motorcycle I built out of parts, which runs great and passed inspection on the first go. How have you gotten past blows to confidence like this in the past?

[chris14679]

You clearly got on the radar of some nasty people in a small town, they clearly detected that you were uncomfortable with their actions. You went into the wrong bar and met the wrong people. You can't undo that. Your only option is to move.

Continuous maintenance is normal on any boat. You have a working engine and sails. If one fails, use the other. If they both fail you have an anchor and a radio (I hope). Wait for a favourable forecast and head for Croatia or Greece find a happy place with friendly people and don't overstay your welcome. You're a cruiser not a local so keep moving on. These places are geared up for a small number of visiting boats and don't appreciate it if you stay too long in a berth that could be used by tourists who spend more money.

Like most places in the world, the locals expect immigrants to assimilate with local culture and even if they do there are racist people who will persecute them. You've been there long enough that they started to see you not as a tourist but as an immigrant just like that poor Jamaican guy.

This place has nothing for you and could be getting dangerous for your safety. The beauty of living on a boat is you can just move on when things go wrong. DO THAT WITH THE FIRST STABLE WEATHER FORECAST!

Ideally, wait for the next passing cruiser, explain your situation and sail off in company with them in case something goes wrong.

Everything will feel better once you are away from this place. Why not see if the Jamaican guy wants to crew for you? Sounds like he needs a boost too.

[Dockhead]

The above is good advice.


Small communities like that are intense little interconnected worlds. Such communities don't typically accept people living in their midst and "keeping to themselves", as you might easily do in a big city. Such communities often see others as either in or out, one of them, or an intruder.



So this one is sending you a loud signal of rejection. You have only two choices -- redeem yourself, or move. Redeeming yourself in such a situation can require a huge effort. And if they are nasty brutal racists, what would even be required, for you to redeem yourself. So if you don't like them, and don't want to be accepted as one of them, then what's the point? So leave.


As to your boat problems -- they are absolutely par for the course, not your fault, and nothing to get worked up about. We call cruising "boat repair in exotic places". You just have to work through the problems diligently. Once you start solving them faster than new ones appear -- oh, happy day -- then life will start to look better.



You got good advice above. Concentrate on getting the condition of the boat up until you get a good weather window. Then scoot.


As to your confidence -- as long as the boat is really watertight, and as long as you stay out of really bad weather, and have a VHF and PLB, then you don't have that much to worry about. What's the worst that can happen? And remember every system you fix is one more system you now know intimately and can fix again in 1/4 the time the next time it breaks. Think through your tool and spare part inventory, and make sure you have spare materials of different kinds on board. Keep at it, and you'll be fine. Selling a boat is not like selling a car, and in most cases you will take a bath. If you don't have some other reason to get rid of the boat (like, you just don't like it), then it's better to keep sailing, than try to sell.


Good luck, and let us know how you get on!