Boat Trip!


One of the most lush adventures I had this summer was a boat trip I took with Emil, Youlia, Martin, Ivan, and a host of other Russian hedonists. The beautiful Montenegrin coast, the jubilant company, and a spectacular sunset made this excursion a definite summertime highlight.

Of course, like all good things, the trip did not start off very well. Originally, we set sail on Martin's catamaran sailboat. A very cool ship, piloted by a very cool guy. Unfortunately, the trip didn't last long. After about an hour we had to stop, as one of the propellers had spun off! A little impromptu scuba diving turned up nothing, so we had to turn around and putter back to port. Bummer.


The boat that did not sail


The view from Martin's boat, just before the propeller flew off.

we spent that night at Ivan's apartment. Now, at this point, I was ready to give up and turn tail and go home, because Ivan lives - and I kid you not - in perhaps the dirtiest hovel of a home I have ever experienced. Pictures cannot do justice to the reek. We tried to cook dinner, but found we were lacking in basics like knives, salt, oil, etc. (I had to use an overturned utensil drawer as a cutting board.) Well, nothing a little well-deserved wine couldn't fix. After a night "sleeping" on the floor, my towel draped about me, we set off to rent a boat the following morning.




I took a little swim while Emil looked for a boat, to check out the view! ;)

It took a little doing, but Emil finally located a very nice boat with a nice crew to take us out around the coast until sunset. (Thank you Emil!) At first I was feeling a bit shy as everyone was speaking Russian. But, as the alcohol began to flow and the spirits were raised high, we were all laughing and swimming and acting like a bunch of goofballs together.


The boat!









We may have been partying a bit too heavily. One girl started behaving very risque. She would always stumble before my camera and pose for my pics!

Eventually, the captain of the baot got in on the action too :p


One girl had to get off the boat, she was feeling so ill. That caused a bit of chaos as we sailed to the jetty in Petrovac, a big tourist center where people were fishing and dining and swimming.



Once the craziness had subsided (or at least became steady) we were able to enjoy the climax of our trip: a spectacular sunset. Again, pictures cannot do justice to the vision of that gorgeous orange bloom sinking gently into the azure sea and the boat's own frothing wake.







As dusk shadowed the sky we returned to port, exhilerated and exhausted from our wonderful boat trip.