Plan ‘A’ to visit Tunisia was changed as it was closed due to a large spike in Covid cases. So Plan ‘B’ – Albania was put into play. From Siracusa we did an overnight passage to Rocella just up the coast of the toe of the Italian boot. We had good wind to start and the usual dodging of cargo ships along the way. Did not get much sleep as it was too hot. Little did we know that very hot days and nights were to be the norm. The wind died shortly before dawn and the sails came down. Fortunate as about 0500 the wind unexpectedly picked up reaching 38 kn as we approached Rocella. The tired crew waited for a break in the wind before entering the marina. The marina was well protected. Much to our surprise the marinara was a Toronto Maple Leafs fan!
From there we made a dash across the bottom of the Italian boot in two long hot days stopping at Crotone and Santa Maria di Leuca. Nothing special about these marinas but all pleasant. We had brief periods of good wind but in general a lot of motoring. Along the way we enjoyed good pizza, the Italy/Spain semi final match, dinner in a lovely courtyard in Santa Maria (Hosteria del Pardo), and we even worked in a few boat chores including servicing 2 winches.
Overnight passage – Mt. Etna at sunset 
On a calm day in Ionian Sea 
High winds arriving at Rocella 
Leaving Rocella, Italy 
Dodging the freighters along the way
We finalized details with the Albania agent at Sarande Summer Tours. Albania was doing well with Covid so no quarantine or testing was required.
On the morning of July 10 we left Santa Maria, Italy at 0530 for a 12 hour sail to Albania. It was a great sail with 15-18 kn of wind most of the way.
July 10. Santa Maria, Italy to Sirande, Albania 
Arrival at Sirande, Albania 
Crossing to Sarande, Albania. A great sail!
We arrived in Sarande at 1730 and made way to the Customs dock on the west side of the large city harbour. We were able to dock alongside the concrete customs dock where we met our agent. Our checkin process went smoothly (only 30 minutes) and our agent arranged for a fuel truck to arrive the next morning as well as a Covid test for getting back into Italy. Very impressed with Jelja’s service! We were able to moor at the Customs dock for our 2 night stay. This was much more secure than anchoring in the harbour bay and we could not be any safer than being in the secured customs dock. We were only there a couple of days but the custom guards got to know us.
We were busy with fueling, Covid tests and getting supplies so we didn’t venture too far into Sarande but enjoyed the Albanian food at CACI (lamb with yogurt, squid). It was a busy place and many families out strolling the seawall at night. No particular interesting architecture as most of the buildings were in the post war Soviet style. It was a good visit.
Moored at the Customs Dock in Sirande 
Customs office in Sarande
Our exit papers were prepared for the morning of July 12. We decided to break up the trip back to Italy by stopping at an anchorage we saw on our way over – the Greek island Othonoi. There were a few boats in the bay when we arrived but they all left by nightfall and we had the bay to ourselves. Beautiful! Charlie thought he heard the Sirens calling during the night but he did not succumb.
