After a day sailing, when we head for our destination for the night, a slight inner anxiety spreads: What will the conditions in the harbour or bay actually be like? Of course, we have checked the harbour guide, Navionics and Navily beforehand, but still: how much space will there be, will a sudden strong wind make it difficult for us to moor, will someone be standing at the pier to take our ropes? Will our anchor hold on the first try? This inner anxiety is immediately forgotten, when we are well moored and even more so, when we receive a friendly welcome in a harbour. That has always been the case so far.
We don't have to set off again the very next day. After all, we have time to get to know the places we have travelled to a little. Our experience: it's often worth staying. Some of the places we visited were so beautiful, that as soon as we arrived, we said ‘We won't stay here just one night’ (e.g. in Port Palermo, Albania). But even if a place doesn't seem very inviting to us at first glance, we can usually win something over to it bit by bit. This often happens through our experience with the people we meet: our ‘agent’ Jelja for clearing in in Saranda, who said goodbye to us with a handshake after two nights. It wasn't just a formal gesture, it came from the heart. Or the people we meet by chance, working on a building site, who we simply greet or ask for directions. Their faces always become friendly, they greet us back or if we have a question, they want to help us. Or the Albanian woman in the shop with the yellow dress and straw hat, who worked in Switzerland for 50 years and has now returned to her home country in her retirement. We buy a loaf of bread, she stands next to us and says ‘There's also bread made from cornflour. That's very good.’ No question, we buy the bread.
At some point we want or have to leave again. After all, Aglaya is not a holiday bungalow. So we say goodbye. And hopefully we have a nice sail with the right wind to our next destination. Then comes the good feeling of travelling again.
