Montenegro - Kotor

We travelled south down the coast towards Montenegro. There were some nice places still left to see in Croatia, but we were not allowed to stop there as we had already cleared customs. They have a radar station keeping track of everyone to make sure you don't deviate from your course.

Eventually we crossed the border between Croatia and Montenegro. The border is a peninsula which we rounded and proceeded to the first customs port which was Zelenika. We pulled up to the customs dock, the wind had picked up a bit, so we had to round up into the wind and dock port side. The dock was quite obviously designed for cruise liners with its huge rubber fenders. But we found a nice spot nestled between them. I jumped off the boat to see customs who directed me to see the harbormaster.

After checking the ships documents we were issued with a 7 day cruising license (vignette). I then went back to the customs office. The customs office had both the port police and customs officials there. They were very friendly and started talking to me about New Zealand wine. He was speaking in a mix of english and Montenegrin (similar to Croatian), so I couldn't understand much. But I got the idea that we liked drinking lol! I bet he was angling for a free bottle of NZ wine.

He asked me where we were planning on going, and suggested that we visit Kotor.

After we cleared customs we decided to take his advice and visit Kotor.

Kotor is a town nestled on the eastern side of the main Montenegro harbor. As you progress through huge mountains appear on all sides. Houses litter the coastline but are close to the water. The height of the mountains are incredible, and dwarf the settlements below.

Kotor itself is built around a castle and it's fortifications continue up the mountain sides.

When we arrived we though we could anchor but we were directed to moor at the pier. The price was only 45 euros a night which was quite cheap compared to what we were used to. And for the first time since Rimini, we had shore power and water!!

The following day Marie and I walked up the mountain fortifications. We did it in the middle of the day which was blisteringly hot!

We ended up staying a couple of nights in Kotor, just relaxing and enjoying the scenary.

Darren left the boat to continue his adventures by land. Thanks dude, it was a blast!

The girls and I decided to take the opportunity and clean the boat before continuing.

I also mounted our EPIRB and fixed the floor boards in Darren's room.

We left Kotor and motored around to a neighbouring bay called Morinj, where we had our first swim in Montenegro.