Pershendetje and greetings from Sarande Port, Albania

First, and most importantly, Go Flames Go!!!! Regular season starts tomorrow. Woot woot! We’ll be cheering for our favourite team from afar - thank goodness for Starlink.

Two weeks ago I shared that we were abandoning our plan to sail casually along the coast to Tunisia and instead we were embarking on a 10 day straight-sail passage to Albania, joined by Marco (who turned out to be Jose) - the crew we found to help. Two weeks ago I was still using the word ‘plan’.

Good news, no need for warnings or disclaimers for this post.

Does that mean it was smooth sailing the whole way? Absolutely not - day 2/3 of this trip was worse than the first terrible day 2 - anyone else noticing a pattern? But just like the first time, we survived - with varied degrees of grace and composure.

Maelstrom handled it like a rock star.

Ron handled it like a champ and went into full ‘we’ve got this’ mode.

Me, not so much. I had a full and complete meltdown. Sitting legs crossed on the floor of the galley, in tears (I never cry) with both dogs on my lap, a crumpled mess, regretting EVERYTHING. The hours of relentless, violent pounding headfirst into the wind and wave during another huge and unexpected thunderstorm storm was too much, too soon.

Again, this was not in the forecast. This was not supposed to happen. This was not the plan. As far as plans go, we weren’t even supposed to be doing any multi-day straight sailing passages until the Atlantic crossing in November 2025.

While we learned lots from the first terrible day 2, the lesson I had not yet learned was that my 47 years of believing I can control anything is a complete and utter fantasy.

I cannot control people’s feelings.

I cannot control people’s actions.

And I most definitely cannot control what the Universe/Mother Nature has in store.

Does that mean I don’t still want specific things to happen, for people to feel a certain way, for people to do specific things, for Mother Nature to afford us favourable conditions? Nope. I still want all that (a girl can only transform so much in such a short period of time).

But the white flag is up now. I surrender.

No more ‘plans’. No more ‘should’. Rather, take what life brings and make the best possible choices given the data and circumstances. It’s not about lowering expectations. It’s about realizing expectations don’t really ever affect the outcome.

Come what may.

Ok, enough psycho mumbo jumbo - onto the good stuff.

We left Portosole on Tuesday last week. Sailed ~810 nm (including the extra 50 nm for our unplanned stop over in Porto Vecchio) using a 3-hour on/6-hour off watch schedule to get through the 24-hour clock at sea - including the dreaded dog shift where you can’t really sleep before or after.

Want to go to really strange places in your brain? Give 3 hours in absolute darkness, alone, surrounded by miles and miles of ocean a try. I mean, those unwelcome sharks can’t somehow climb on board when I can’t see them, right???? To manage I sing along to musical soundtracks - La La Land, Moana (when I need to muster some extra courage), Hamilton and Encanto being on most frequent rotation. If “We don’t talk about Bruno” is now in your head, sorry - not sorry.

We saw beautiful sunrises. Beautiful sunsets. Dolphins. Pilot whales. Flying fish (my favourite). So many stars and meteors. An actual active volcano with spewing lava and everything. Crazy!!!

Ron caught a black fin tuna while underway. The resulting sushi/sashimi was divine.

Sirens Scylla and Charybdis - sailor’s mythical explanation for the deadly whirlpools and cross-curent in the Messina channel - allowed us through the passage between Sicily and Italy without incident. That’s because we showed up on time - safe passage window starts at 9 am sharp! Come on seamen of yore - the ladies just needed you to follow their schedule - they’ve got shit to do.

We went through the full gamut of wind conditions. We got to sail our big, beautiful, royal blue Code Zero. Shout out to Precision Sails https://www.precisionsailloft.com/ and to Voilerie UNIVERSAILS https://lesvoilesdesaint-mandrier.fr/

We arrived, 1 day early - albeit after yet another unforecasted storm. Safe. Sound. A little tired. Desperate for some exercise (Cody Rigsby, I miss you) and a regular sleep schedule. But also a little smarter, a little more experienced, and a little more prepared for the next time (huge shout out to Jose for your expertise and support).

We are out of the EU (Schengen) just in time, and need to stay that way for 90 days.

With the pressure of an externally imposed time schedule no longer part of the narrative, we are going to hunker down for the next while in Orikum and explore all the wonders of Albania. No idea what they are, but we are soon to find out. Then we might venture north to Montenegro, then maybe Croatia? Notice - no mention of a plan :)

We’ll see what happens.

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

Charity xo

Some pics from the last 2 weeks:

A quick paddleboard around all the boats in the Portosole marina. My kids gave this to me for Mother's Day. Thank you Daniel and Jacob xo

We got gussied up for one more Sanremo dinner. 2 delicious pizzas, 1 liter of red wine, 2 lemocellos and 1 panna cotta = 36 euros. Why exactly are we leaving????

A top up with fuel at the Portosole diesel dock before beginning the passage to Albania.

The 'view' during a nightwatch.

Very beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

Chilly morning after our unplanned stop at Porto Vecchio.

Zooey and Tucker needed a blanket too.

He is so happy! His first fish caught while underway. A black fin tuna.

Still embracing this no make up thing.

Terrible photo, but that is the active Stromboli volcano - we sailed right past it. I really need to get my Nikon out if I am going to get any decent shots at night. Apologies to my friends who have received the shitty night time pics - I will do better.

Messina, IT - just passing through. Thank you Scylla and Charybdis for granting us safe passage.

Going around the bottom of 'the boot'.

Some days sailing is hard :)

The gorgeous royal blue code zero got some time to shine. 

Hello again everyone, it’s your favourite sailing dog Zooey

Despite the tremendous outpouring of support (thank you Leigh and Nadia) I am sad to report we still have had no gelato.

And also, can I just ask - what the AF is going on?

First they take us from our house where we had a yard, our own run. We came and went as we pleased.

Then they moved us to this concrete land where we had to be on leads for scheduled walks. No more yard. (Although concrete land did provide lots of tasty street treats for me to eat when no one was looking - especially on Saturday mornings).

Now, we are on this weird white thing that moves all the damn time. And I’m sorry, I may be a dog, but that tiny green plastic postage stamp you expect us to do our business on is not grass.

I am not sure what crime we committed, and I most certainly don’t remember a fair trial. If this is not just cause for some delicious gelato, I don’t know what is?

Your support is appreciated.

Zooey and Tucker