Arriving back in Montenegro felt like going home, just a different one. Tivat has few flights in winter so I flew into Dubrovnik and got a lift from there (1 hour or so) with Vedran’s dad. It was great to see all the familiar faces again and happy to see the weather wasn’t nearly as bad as the reports of December’s and early January’s constant rain and cold. I spoke too soon.

I had a big list of things to get done before setting off in late April so set about the planning and aquisitions. The list was long and time relatively short for these given that boat jobs take more than twice as long as house jobs. We lucked in with a friend of Nina, Miljan Tomic. Miljan is a superb bloke whose normal job is as an engineer on superyacht MV Gloria Teresa. He takes on shipwright work at home in Montenegro whilst in his rotated time away from the boat. He is one of the best around with a great work ethic, excellent workmanship and fantastic sense of humour.

The winds in the Med have different names depending on their direction and nationalities. France has its infamous Mistral, Italy its Tramontana, Greece the Meltemi and Croatia/ Montenegro/Albania the Bura or Bora. There are a bunch of other winds in the region known by a variety of names but the Jugo from the south also called a Sirocco, and the Bura have the most and lingering impacts. The bura is brought about by the confluence of a high pressure in the west and a low in the Adriatic through to the Aegean. It is most prevalent between October and April and can last up to 5 days. It is predictable enough in direction but less so intensity with very dangerous gusts emanating out of valleys and gullies. We had a Bura predicted for February 8th and were all reasonably prepared with a forecast 45 kts at Tivat.

Sitting quietly watching TV with the wind wailing through the rigging I was called to help out a couple of boats with various difficulties in the marina. A few of us were able to secure boats that were banging against docks and sails working loose. By this stage the wind was consistantly above 50 and 60 kts making walking and holding on tricky whilst working. The wind got up more and the marina manager called all his marineros ( dock hands ) to stop assisting and take shelter as it was too dangerous being outside with flailing ropes, flying objects and trees and structures coming down. It peaked at 74 knots on Cooinda however a superyacht measured 111 kts that night. The next day it abated to 45 knots throughout the day before building again at night. The damage of the night before was evidenced everywhere including the heavy steel marineros office building being moved a few feet downwind with a few cars as well getting that treatment apparently too. Again there were boats to be helped that night but the peak winds of the night before were not repeated with 60 the norm. It caused a docked retired naval vessel further down the bay to roll over and remain in that state to this day.Whilst it was sad to see damage to friends and others boats, it wasn’t nearly as bad as places like Rapallo in previous years.

Wintering off season is the perfect time to get things done. The heat comes off the shipwrights who are otherwise chockers with charter boats or superyachts work in the other seasons. Christmas holidays make parts acquistioin sometimes difficult so a degree of planning is needed however.

We had a long laundry list from a whole solar and lithium battery upgrade to new stove & cooktop, canvas work, parasailor and host of more minor upgrades involving multiple trades. There was also the work around warranty issues not the least of which involved removal and rebuilding of the rudders which were falling off other Elbas. Other warranty work required an FP shipwright from France to carry out important deck work was organised by a friend and fellow Elba owner, Evan Clifford.

Rather than rabbit on here about that I have a deescription on The Cat page in a post there if you are interested.

It wasn’t all work though. Sandy and I took the opportunities of having a rental car on a couple of occasions to get away for a couple of excursions. These are on a separate post here.

There were plenty of dinners on various boats and nights out with other liveabords who were all streaming back to their boats from the 4 corners in preparation for another season. These dinners became more urgent as it was realised the gang was breaking up all too soon. Thomas Wede returned too albeit to clean up his Tanna for sale. It was sad for him as us, as we really enjoyed his company whilst in MNE. The entertaining Stephan and Ana our immediate neighbours with another Elba, “Okolo”, returned from Sydney. We caught up with them a couple of times whilst home in Sydney, and like us, they were very glad to be back at home aboard their yacht. It is difficult leaving our home and our friends in Sydney but most especially the family, kids and Cody. It feels awkward however therefore to tell anyone we couldn’t wait to get back aboard. It was a dilemma we played down.

We were always grateful for the endless hospitality of John and Karon off Sea Dreamer (aforementioned “Vortex”). Their boat was like an open house with anyone passing called over for coffee but usually something stronger and for the ever present BBQ’d chicken wings. They were especially kind whilst Sandy was away with food parcels and dinner invitations regularly coming my way. It was on these dinner nights we became afficianados of the card game Five Crowns. A terrific game of strategy with the degree of difficulty inversely proportional to the level of Ouzo in the bottle.

And all too soon people started leaving however many of us were headed in the same direction so inevitably were/are destined to catch up again. Eveyone is still in touch regularly on a Whatsapp group with various subgroups as well. We have our regular Where Are You Wednesday (WAYW) with each posting their location with a suitable local photo.

A few farewell gatherings were had both in the Blue Room and aboard boats. The Sea Dreamer farewell was a beauty planned for a few hours in the afternoon extending way beyond into the evening. The blokes were well behaved but the same may not have been said for the fairer sex. Copious wines may have been contributory to NFL tackles across the saloon by a nameless friend. Reboarding of boats was challenging for a number of folk crossing their passarelles. Sandy now enjoys the name “Splash Campbell” after rebuffing help and attempting crossing alone that evening.

It was a winter of so many great memories especially the wonderful folk of PM22. There are plenty we will miss from this time including Iain playing the pipes in the early evening.