Two celebrations and a wake

The day after my arrival back in Montenegro we had to leave the Lazure Marina as our contract had come to an end and each additional day involved a hefty charge.

We departed at mid morning and thankfully our port side engine which had been intermittently not starting straight away, sprung to life at first try (note: this problem has been fixed now!)

Lazure Marina had been an excellent place to winter over – the staff were all very helpful and really pleasant, the winter rates were much less expensive than for other marinas and our boats received excellent care. We even received a weekly report throughout the winter with accompanying photos to show how Sunday was doing.

So it was sad to be saying goodbye – especially as we are intending to sell Sunday this year and probably won’t be back at Lazure again.

We were glad to be out on the water once more even though it was a little chilly! Soon we arrived at a lovely little anchorage in the shelter of a small island called Sveti Marko (also known as Stradioti) near Tivat where Sue and John were already anchored.

It was great to be reunited with Sue and John again. That evening we had a delicious celebratory dinner aboard Catabella and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

There was bombshell news however. We knew Sue and John had also decided to sell and that they had Catabella in the hands of an agent but to all of our surprise they had received offer within days of their advertisement going up!

We had all thought we would have several weeks and possibly months before a sale was made which would have given us time to adjust, but that was not to be! So our evening was part celebration and part wake.

The following day Jonathan and I went for a lovely walk around the tiny island called Prevlaka Island (the Island of Flowers) just next door to Sveti Marko where we were anchored.

We had tried to walk around the perimeter of Sveti Marko first but the track was very overgrown and the seawalls were crumbling and badly broken in places.

Tiny Prevlaka Island is only 300 metres long and 200 metres wide and is connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus.

It has a population of approximately 100 people, including a number of monks who belong to the monastery which is dedicated to Archangel Michael and dates back to the early 13th century. You can still see the remains of the original monastery.

As we made our way to the little Church belonging to the monastery we discovered the ”peal” of a dozen bells that hung on a large structure by the car park.

A few days later we were to find out just how loud these bells were on The Orthodox Church’s Easter Sunday (some weeks after Easter is celebrated in other churches). What an incredible sound!

It was John’s birthday while we were anchored off Sveti Marko and to celebrate his special day we went for a lovely dinner at Vino Santo, a restaurant on the water’s edge almost straight over from where we were anchored.

The views were spectacular (we could see Sunday and Catabella which made them extra special) and the food was really delicious.

So the season started strangely, two celebrations (start of the season and John’s birthday) and a kind of wake (due to the unexpectedly quick sale of Catabella)!