We’ve been day sailing so far, making between 30 and 60 miles a day, but sooner or later we were going to have to do some longer legs. I’ve sailed at night before, but this would be a first for Jennifer and the boys.

We had heard conflicting reports about Albania, and were still a little behind our schedule thanks to the arch and a few other repairs we had made, so decided to skip Albania and sail all day and night from Bar, Montenegro to Corfu. The boys had been to Corfu last year and have been eager to get there since we started this trip, so they were all for the overnighter.

We left AD Marina in Bar, and headed around the breakwater into the commercial harbour and to the customs quay. Clearing out of Montenegro was a lot quicker than clearing in, but it still took a little while to find the harbour master’s office and then wait for the policeman to finish his cigarette and switch between PCs a few times before appearing to give up and retrieve a large ledger to write our details in. This was all done with good nature and we had found all officials very friendly and easy to deal with in Montenegro.

We turned left out of Bar Harbour, set a way point a ways off the SW edge of Albania, and headed off, almost due South.

There was a bit of swell coming from the West which gave the boat an unpleasant corkscrew motion, but once the sails were up the motion eased and we had a pleasant sail off the Albanian coast. I managed to get a few calls and emails in before losing mobile signal, then settled down to the day. Jennifer and I kept a relaxed 2 hour watch through the day, catching a couple of short naps when off watch. I cooked, something I had been neglecting on board, and the result worked reasonably well. The boys went to bed early, and we got ready for our longer 4 hour watches through the night.

As the sun went down we checked over our route again…

The wind died with the light, and as the roll from the swell took over the sails started to flog so we dropped them and started the engine. The corkscrew motion was back and stayed with us most of the night, but a full moon rose and otherwise it was quite a nice night out. Visibility was good and the various fishing boats, ferries and cruise ships never came too close.

We arrived in Gouvia Marina around 12am, 26 hours after leaving Bar, to find the marina full. Given we’d been looking forward to good showers, laundry and more importantly the pool, this was a bit of a disappointment. We managed to find a nice spot anyway and dinghy-ed in to Gouvia and the pool.