The day began as one of those perfect Mediterranean sailing days.
With sunshine overhead and Albania’s dramatic cliffs rising straight from the sea, KORA glided south along the coast, sails full, before settling into what appeared to be our own private sanctuary for the night. We were completely alone in a beautiful bay, spending the afternoon swimming, paddle boarding, and enjoying chicken fajitas in the cockpit as the sun slowly slipped toward the horizon.
Well… almost alone.
At one point a party boat arrived and, despite having an entire bay to choose from, decided to anchor about 30 ft behind us. Music blasted. People danced. Backflips were performed off the boat. Why they selected our corner of paradise remains a mystery. Still, they eventually departed, leaving us once again in peaceful solitude.
Or so we thought.
As darkness settled in, the sky put on an incredible show. Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury were all clearly visible, shining brightly above the bay. With a glass of wine in hand, we settled back to wait for the stars to emerge.
Then a small boat appeared. It came speeding toward us through the darkness, slowing to run alongside us before pulling up just 20 ft behind KORA. Two men aboard. No obvious explanation. No reason we could determine for stopping where they did.
Suddenly our peaceful evening felt a little less peaceful.
While Albania enjoys a relatively low crime rate and serious incidents involving pirates are very rare, several online sailing blogs mention opportunistic theft in the middle of the night. As the minutes ticked by, our imaginations began filling in the blanks.
Binoculars came out. The hatches and deck lockers were secured. Cockpit lights stayed on. Doug moved his sleeping arrangements to the salon for the night while Buzz joined him here and there on unofficial security duty.
Their weapons of choice? A paddleboard paddle and a boat hook. Not exactly Navy SEAL equipment, but enough to allow Kate and Karen to feel protected enough to get some sleep below.
As it turned out, the mystery was solved at first light. The men were fishermen. They spent the early morning working their lines, completely uninterested in KORA, before packing up and heading on their way.
The knights could lower their weapons. The princesses slept peacefully through the night. And what had briefly threatened to become a tale of pirates, peril, and maritime mischief turned out to be nothing more than a couple of local fishermen pursuing a good meal.
Still, after a night of imagining every possible scenario, we may choose a slightly less secluded anchorage next time.
