22 September 2025 - Durres, Albania

 It doesn’t feel as if we need the alarm clock at the moment, either we are still on Greek time (an hour ahead of the Central European Time) or we are keyed up for progressing. It certainly wasn’t daylight that woke us, as it was well before dawn.  We wanted to be away early as there were miles to be covered, and hopefully, some administration to be done when we arrived. 

We set off not knowing if we had a berth booked for the night, but during the day the boatyard contacted us to say that there was a space for us as another boat was delayed by 1 day. 

It was the flattest calm conditions that I can remember in years.  The sea was like glass, definitely a case of “the ocean is a desert with it’s life underground, and the perfect disguise above……..it felt good to be out of the rain.” We spent hours not seeing any other vessels, certainly a big change from the Ionian, where we could often see 40 or 50 other boats. The land was flat and featureless, and as it was probably swampy, we anticipated that it would be a breading ground for insects, which it proved to be.

"leave nothing behind but a few bubbles"

Durres is primarily a commercial port and is used by ferries. It has a long, narrow entrance channel through the surrounding shallows, which have some wrecks that we have to avoid.  Next to the port is an area where anchoring is forbidden, which was formerly a (literal) minefield.  It is not certain that all of the mines have been removed from it so we are glad we don’t need to anchor!

Our berth is in a boatyard which seems to be a stopover for motor yachts between sets of passengers. Our slot is between 2 large motor yachts (32 metres) and we are a bit dwarfed among them.  We can also here the announcements on the nearby ferry, as it prepares for its overnight trip to Italy.



The folks at the yard have been super helpful and cleared our paperwork so that we can depart Albania as soon as we are ready tomorrow morning,  next stop, Montenegro.

Distance today -         59 miles

Distance this year - 1365 miles 

Steve (and Tricia) 

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