Hello friends and continued greetings from Orikum, Albania.

Sadly, we said goodbye to our friends Mark and Hailey who left for Corfu but we were very happy to welcome our new neighbours Adam and Bozena who occupied the slip adjacent to us here at Marina Orikum.

We are taking advantage of our Schengen sentence (we must stay out of the EU for 90 days - 37 days down, 53 days to go) by giving Maelstrom a rest, enjoying the spectacular Albanian weather (calm water, no rain, +20 degree temps for 3 weeks now), working on a bunch of little projects, and touring around.

As temporary Albanian residents we laugh every single day about how much of what we try to communicate, and in turn try to understand, is completely lost in translation.

The first time I remember really laughing at a travel translation oopsie daisy was at our favourite resort in the Mayan Riviera about 15 years ago. El Dorado Maroma is a 5-star luxury resort that greets its guests with a huge foyer, a very grand front desk, welcome champagne, and a marble sign that reads “THIRFTY Car Rental”. It made me laugh because the mistake was literally carved in stone. Having been there as recently as last year, the sign was still unchanged, and I always wanted to ask if they knew it was supposed to be Thrifty or, considering the marble, just couldn’t be bothered to change it?

Anyways, living here in Albania is no different. The translation is just a little bit off, and highly entertaining.

Some pretty funny ones we’ve seen so far:

Chucking and Drinking Bar and Lounge (I respect their honesty)

First Date Clothing (I mean, a girl has to make a good first impression)

Easy Date Boutique (I was sad for the lack of lace in this store, I suppose easy doesn't necessarily mean desparate)

Very Fun Bar (curious if the fun is guaranteed?)

… and my favourite…

Food Restorant (although, it makes me worried about what I might have been eating in the other restaurants we have visited)

The theme of ‘lost in translation’ continues as we attempt to socialize with Adam and Bozena. They speak only Polish. We speak zero Polish. So, our evening get togethers over a glass of wine means each of us taking turns speaking into our phones so that Google Translate can repeat the sentence in the opposite language. The conversations are a bit slow, but hilarious - especially when one of us says something funny (obviously me mostly), the person who understands laughs, and the other two wait patiently for Google to share the joke. Assuming what made the line funny didn’t get lost in translation?

Because, speaking of Google Translate, we have discovered, well, it sucks.

One of the projects we want to get done while at the marina is have an enclosure built to weatherproof our helm station. The Bimini is great as a roof but does nothing to stop wind or rain, and if we are going to make this whole sailing thing work long term, I need to be way less wet, and way less cold while underway during inclement weather.

So, I typed out what we were looking for, trusted Google Translate, and sent dozens of emails looking for the desired service. We were super frustrated that we weren’t getting any responses only to find out that Google’s English >> Albanian interpretation of ‘Bimini enclosure for our boat’ somehow got turned into ‘plant shutdown’??? No wonder no one responded.

We learned that when you are trying to translate something a bit nuanced and you have zero understanding of the target language, you need to reverse-translate to see that it was translated correctly. Who knew? Do you think the Star Trek Universal Translator had similar issues?

Now that I think about it, I may need to double check a few things with Adam and Bozena.

Anyway, problem solved. We learned something new, and dude starts the enclosure project next week - yay!

All part of the adventure.

And while all kinds of things are changing in the world (like US Presidents and the Flames standing in their division), we have a fun update to share as well.

We got accepted to participate in the 2025 ARC + (cruising, not racing) which means we will be leaving this side of the world and headed across the Atlantic at the beginning of November next year.

The rally will begin in the Canary Islands, make a stop at Cape Verde, and then head to Grenada. The prospect of sailing in even better (hotter) weather, without the Schengen complications, closer to friends and family has me beyond excited and in a much better head space to really enjoy the next year of Greece, Turkey, Crete, Italy, Spain, and Gibraltar to the fullest.

Turns out, to be happy, I do need a plan - a fact in any language.

Until the next time, may you have fair winds and following seas.

Charity (waiting patiently for public transit) xo

Shameless plug: Episode 3 on our You Tube channel will drop in a week and will feature the Albanian sights we have experienced so far. Please check it out and know it means the world to us to have so many friends continue to take an interest in our story.

Some pics from the last 2 weeks:

The Ooni Oven was one of the items that we shipped from Calgary. Makes delicious wood burning oven pizza, even on a boat. Have I mentioned how much I love pizza?

Beach day in November...yes please.

Cute little spot to stop for beers while out on the e-bikes.

Keeping some of the Canadian traditions alive. Ron says my knife skills are terrifying and swiftly took over. Not sure what he means????

Hello, this is special correspondent Tucker standing in for Zooey.

Zooey went and ate something really bad at the beach and got quite sick. A vet visit, some medicine, and a bland diet have her on the mend, but I said I would handle this update for her while she recovers.

I love my sister, but she really does need to be a bit more discerning with what she categorizes as “food”.

Boat life is amazing. My people are around way more often than when we lived in the city. Charity’s lap is available pretty much all the time. I spend my day sun tanning and napping and lounging and watching these crazy fish leap from the water. I’ve been to the beach, swam in the ocean, and don’t miss the snow or cold one bit.

I do like it better when the boat is not moving but my short little legs make me the most stable crew member on board.

I am living my best life. As a testament of my gratitude, I secretly enrolled in on-line self-help night classes to help with my attitude (eg. barking and biting). Seems to be working.

Love Tucker (no longer ‘bitey’) xo

Disclaimer: My update has been translated by Google Translate. Being a rescue dog from Arizona, I don’t speak English. I take no responsibility for the accuracy of the translation.