Porto Palmero to Orikum Marina

We sailed from Sarande up the Albanian coast to a small bay called Porto Palmero. The wind was  blowing around Force 5 so we wondered about our mooring option. Albania has few anchoring and docking options, and the only possibility was a commercial trawler dock. Unfortunately, the sides of the dock were higher than Pav's gunwales, so we elected to come alongside a fishing trawler, a new experience for us.

View from Pavlov's stern

Egress from the boat was by climbing through a porthole on the trawler.

View from the trawler deck

Not a cruising yacht facility!

Dock from the mainland.

We caused a bit of excitement in the small village, as tourists are pretty rare here. We had a great lunch of squid, octopus, salad and chips; very reasonable prices. On the headland in the middle of the  bay is a castle/fort built by Ali Pasha (who you might remember from our visit to the mountainous region of Ioannina, where Pasha had a castle. Ali Pasha was an Albanian despot that managed to keep  his region, running from Epirus in northern Greece to southern Albania independent from the Ottomans by cunning and ruthless strategies. This fort consolidated the northern-most reaches of his kingdom.

Local taverna in Porto Palmero

View from the local taverna

Only in Albania, artillery shells as garden ornaments

The local beach 

Ali Pasha's fortress

Entrance

Light and airy interior!

Artillery emplacements

Pavlov through the castle's gun port

Small garden terrace on the side of the fort.

Ali Pasha reportedly put his builder and architect inside the fort and then shelled it to test the fortifications. We had a good night in Porto Palmero and decided to sail north the next day to a small  bay, Bristani. It seemed an ideal anchorage, although the pillbox gun emplacements lining the bay gave it a surreal look. Enva Hoxha built 700,000 of these gun boxes, designed to take a single machine gunner. They just litter the coast of Albania. I'm curious how he thought he'd man them. The total population of Albania is under 5 million!!

Albanian gun emplacements

However, the wind changed direction and our lovely calm anchorage quickly became untenable. We upped anchor and battled 30 knot winds dead on the nose to get up the coast and into the only marina in Albania at Orikum. It was a battle getting docked, as we were being blown down onto the dock, and Pavlov does not reverse in these situation. We finally got her docked on the other side of the pier. It was a very narrow fairway, and still blowing 25 knots; one of those single chance do-or-die moments. We made it. So a planned leisurely sail of 20 nautical miles turned into a 50 mile slog.

Such is the cruising life!

The marina at Orikum

Nice buildings, but deserted.

The marina is a small facility run by some Italians. The 'hotel' is unfinished and quite deserted. Nothing worked, like hot water, wifi or toilet seats,  but it was a secure place to leave the boat. Our first trip was by car to Orikum town. We stocked up on fuel and food, driven in by the friendly local marinaro. Next day was a bus trip into Vlore, a major Albanian city.

Local mosque

Street sign

Ugly Vlore apartments.

Local mosque again

Florid antiquities shop

Vlore market

We enjoyed the dynamic and frantic energy of Vlore. Albania has been right royally screwed by a couple of Balkan wars, with everyone wanting a piece of their flesh, and by a crazy dictator Hoxha who built more pillboxes than were people to man them. However, they seem determined to rebuild themselves and finally achieve real independence. Automobiles are a real status symbol here, judging by the number of car-wash joints on the street sides, and most of them are Mercedes. The young are also upwardly mobile, judging by their ability to flaunt mobile phones and to buy new jeans that are already worn out. We need to explore more deeply, so we have decided to take a bus trip to the capital, Tirana. Next blog from there.