Cruising From Barcelona To Croatia

[Invictus69]

Originally Posted by monte

couple of pics, Yeah Barra, funny place. My memory is of the MArina guy that yelled "SLOW DOWN" in the chf as I was entering, haha, I thought I was ok but he nearly made me crash he scared the crap outa me!, then he tells me over VHF, please leave your dog inside, I am VERY SCARED! haha, nice guy though, apparently bitten by a german shepard on the ass when he was a kid so maybe some emotional scarring as well as physical ...( I didnt ask to see)

Thanks for the pics! According to the current flow, does ti mean that it may be 'easier' if one goes north to get to Corfu and then north along the coast of Albania to Montenegro. Any experiences in Albania? Are there any facilities?

[Barra]

Came back south from dubrovnik to corfu past albanian coast. Beautiful sail under spinnaker but wouldnt have wanted to be going the other way even with help from a current. Ie the prevailing wind makes that option difficult. Current also quite a bit weaker going north, maybe 1 knot at its peak.

Try and avoid the albanian side of the straight in the dark too - ALOT of shipping action.

Otranto is in our top 5 harbours so far and shouldnt be missed. My advice would be break it up in Roccella then overnight to otranto or maria de lucca. Day sail to Brindisi and then decent daysail to montenegro or dubrovnik. Avoids the shipping, tackles the bad sea leg in daylight and gives you 2 great stops and one ok one ( brindisi)

[monte]

yeah I'd do it like Barra suggests. Its not really that bad, just the sail from maria de leuca was the slowest 20 miles I've done in a while ! but its fine. Anchor outside Maria de Luca if you want to save 100 bucks! oh and good yellow free mooring buoys just before Crotone (off cabo collone)

[Barra]

I thought those yellow buoys were to mark the edge of the protected zone!

We anchored about 2 miles west of maria de luecca. Not in the guides but look for the local boats. Good shelter from north and west.

[Katiusha]

Originally Posted by Barra

Came back south from dubrovnik to corfu past albanian coast. Beautiful sail under spinnaker but wouldnt have wanted to be going the other way even with help from a current. Ie the prevailing wind makes that option difficult. Current also quite a bit weaker going north, maybe 1 knot at its peak.

Try and avoid the albanian side of the straight in the dark too - ALOT of shipping action.

...

With all due respect, I have to disagree on your last statement. In our experience all traffic was near the Italian coast. We left the bay beside Otranto in the evening and reached Brindisi traffic separation zone just after dark - not an experience I'd like to repeat even with having radar and AIS onboard! We crossed to Albanian side and saw only one other boat (a fishing trawler) until we reached Bar in Montenegro.

Albanian coast still has areas marked on the charts that have unexploded ordinance. I would think that big metal ships try to steer clear of that coast except for marked access channels.

Our passage north was uneventful - we chose to go through the night as the wind dies down. We motored most of the way and the seas were flat. Didn't find the northsetting current.

If you're just passing through Montenegro, you can get duty free diesel there at 0.75 EUR/l + about 100 EUR agent fees. You need to contact the petrol station about 2 hours ahead so that the agent could get there with all necessary paperwork.

P.S. Watch out for Superfast ferries near the Italian coast - 30 kn is fast!

[Barra]

Its ok we are both right - in the otranto straight ( which is much further south than brindisi) the ships hug the albanian coast. They do stay just outside the 12 mile limit where the old mine fields are. We avoided them by sailing 1 mile inside that but in the dark its a little unnerving even in a grp boat!

Further north off brindisi you are right the ships are then close to italian side.

[Invictus69]

Thanks for all advice. I am off to my adventure and will report when I am back!

[AngeW]

Probably too late, but we just came up from Corfu through Albania and Montenegro to Croatia in the last couple of weeks. We got one or two knots from the current by sticking quite close to the Albanian coast - the locals say the charts are outdated and there are no mines - you have to make your own decisions on that one. We did have unpleasant chop and long hard days. We stopped in Sarande (great trip to Butrint and Blue eye springs) and can recommend Agim as an agent there, contacts if you want them. We also stopped in Orikum marina (saving the life of an Italian way out to sea on a pink lilo) and then Durres, both just okay. Durres you are stuck in the main harbour alongside big ships.
Felt sorry for Albania, its suffered through a series of fascist, dictatorship, and communist regimes and really shows.
cheers
Ange

[Invictus69]

Originally Posted by Invictus69

Thanks for all advice. I am off to my adventure and will report when I am back!

Ok, I am back and as promised here is my summary report - It was a great trip under an ambitious schedule but we made it.

I joined the crew and the boat at Marina di Ragusa at the southern tip of Sicily. Flew to Catania airport (2 hrs drive). Here are our overnight spots in order.
Italy:
Marina di Ragusa
Siracusa
Roccella Ionica
Crotone
Santa Maria di Leuca
Brindisi
Trani

Croatia:
Lastovo
Primosten
Zadar
Mali Losinj
Pula

We had northerly or northwesterly winds through out the trip which means sailing close-hauled 95% of the time. Winds were better and more consistent as we sailed north. The worst leg wind-wise were along the Italian Adriatic coast (Otranto to Trani) as it was mostly NW wind in the nose with some tacking and lots of motoring.

We crossed Adriatic (Trani to Lastovo) in 11 hours on a perfect day with NW winds and had the same great sailing crossing Gulf of Taranto (Crotone to St. Maria di Leuca, 10 hrs). We had 10-25 kts winds on both crossings.

On the Italian side, Siracusa and Trani were the nicest places we visited. We didn't have an issue getting into Roccella (I followed the advice from this forum) although the guy in the marina pointed to two anchored boats to be used as reference. I can imagine the entry can be very tricky on a bad weather.

On Croatian side, every place was unique in its own way. I liked Primosten and Mali Losinj maybe because it is my first time visiting those two places.

All in all, worth doing it again. Now back to the rats race!