18 December 2018 - The paving of the part of the promenade in Herceg Novi from the restaurant "Galeb" to the restaurant "Mimoza" is almost finished. There are still a hundred more segmental paver boards along the edge, and before that, another one will be installed afterward, said Boro Lučić, director of the Agency for Construction and Development of Herceg Novi.

"We finished the lighting. Procurement is in progress, and we have already set up decorative lighting, benches and waste bins. By the end of next week, a complete promenade will be completed. We have completed all construction work, and the rest is 150 of these boards to be procured. That is what made us happy, so we ordered it, and it should come in the next 2-3 days," said Lučić.

The contract on the installation of mobilier and electrical installations, worth 15.000 EUR was agreed between Municipality of Herceg Novi and the company Niveda DOO, whose workers have already been engaged in the pavement of this route.

Lučić said that the mobilier for the promenade would be delivered during the next week. As installation does not need more than a couple of days, the whole reconstruction of the promenade will be arranged until New Year. Herceg Novi Municipality is obliged to pay an advance payment of 20% of the agreed price to the contractor and the rest after the completion of the works.

Unless there are any unforeseen circumstances, the contractor is obliged to complete the work within 20 calendar days from the day the advance payment is made. The warranty period for works carried out is two years.

This 365 meters long part of the "Pet Danica" promenade started at the end of November. However, the reconstruction began in October 2015. Due to many administrative obstacles and projections, the works were interrupted several times, and the value of the entire project from the originally planned 360 thousand EUR reached almost 400 EUR.

The contractor was also changed, so the contract was terminated with the first, Bar Đokić group, while Niveda DOO from Herceg Novi was selected as the new performer.

Source: Radio Jadran

December 18, 2018 - From Christmas to Christmas, a traditional program organized by the NGO "Karampana" in cooperation with the Kotor Tourist Organization, under the auspices of the Kotor Municipality, begins on 23 December and lasts until January 8, 2019.

The program commences with the concert of the Mandolin Orchestra of the Croatian Civic Society at the Museum Square, scheduled for Sunday, 23 December at 11 am. The same evening is the Great New Year's Concert of the Town Music of Kotor at the Cultural Center "Nikola Đurković" at 7.30 pm.

Karampana, in cooperation with Kotor housewives, in the spirit of the centuries-old ecumenism, this year celebrates Christmas Eve by serving delicious “priganice”- traditional small donuts. On 24 December, Catholics prepare “priganice,” and friends from the Orthodox community share with their guests in front of the central city gate. On the Orthodox Christmas Eve, the roles are replaced. The Riva will smell the same on both days, since the recipes, as well as traditions, among the different confessions in Boka Bay, do not differ a lot.

The New Year's interactive children's workshop Karampana is organized on 26 and 27 December. The youngest citizens of Kotor will make New Year's decorations at the Vida Matjan Music School.

The traditional New Year's concert the "Vida Matjan" Music School will be held on 27 December at 7 pm in the Church of the Holy Spirit in the Old Town of Kotor.

Within the “From Christmas to Christmas” program, 28 December is reserved for the youngest. The New Year’s bazaar starts at 10 am in front of the main city gate. Children from kindergartens and schools will present the works they have prepared with their educators and teachers. In the case of rain, the bazaar location will be the "Kamelija" Shopping Center.

On the same day in the Church of the Holy Spirit at 20:00 the quartet "Lords of the Strings" will perform.

The New Year's Handicraft Bazaar at Riva is scheduled for 29 December at 10 am. The big New Year’s raffle is held the same day in front of the city cafe "Dojmi" at 11 am, and the organizers provided valuable prizes for all participants. The host will be SC Kamelija.

In the evenings, at the Museum Square at 20:00, visitors will be entertained by the vocal group Klapa "Kampanel." An alternative location in case of bad weather conditions will be the Cultural Center "Nikola Đurković" in the same term.

As a part of the “From Christmas to Christmas” program, the central event and the great joy for the youngest audience is undoubtedly the welcome of the Children’s New Year, which will be organized on 30 December beginning at 4 pm on the Arms Square.

Santa Claus and his elves have prepared a variety of surprises, which the youngest must not miss. The students of the Vida Matjan Music School will participate in the reception for the children. They will also have the opportunity to enjoy an interactive show titled "Let's Love - This is the Year of Love."

"Like every year, the unavoidable part of the Children’s New Year's program is the distribution of New Year's packages, which Kotor’s Santa Claus will distribute for all the present children," Karampana.

For children who, due to health problems, cannot attend the reception, NGO Karampana has organized the delivery of the New Year's packages at 12 pm at the Kotor General Hospital. It is a continuation of the "Fairytale for Health" action which started in 2015 as part of the project "From Christmas to Christmas."

The Children’s New Year will be followed by a musical happening entitled "Kotor- City of Good Music." The audience will be entertained by Who See, Niggor & Jelena Kženegra.

"The beginning of the New Year will be marked on January 3, 2019, under the title “Experience the Hundred,” where we will organize a special music program and the New Year's tombola with various prizes," said Karampana.

The Christmas Concert of the Serbian Singing Society "Jedinstvo" is scheduled for the 4 January in the church of St. Nicholas at 6 pm.

"Karampana" invites citizens and guests of Kotor to join the event announced for 5 January. "A humanitarian evening is dedicated to all Kotor originals, and all the proceeds from the sale of sausages and wine will be intended for the purchase of new instruments for Kotor City Music," the organizers said.

As for the Catholic Christmas Eve, Kotor will prepare “priganice” to celebrate the Orthodox Christmas Eve, which will be served in front of the central city gates on January 6 at 10 am.

The sixth “From Christmas to Christmas" manifestation ends on January 8th with the gastronomic specialities of Kotor hosts, which will be presented within the framework of the "Papalada ala maka."

"Thanks to the support we received, without which this project could not be so successful, we owe the first place to Luštica Bay, which already traditionally helps the project “From Christmas to Christmas.” Also, thanks for the support and infrastructure assistance of the Municipality of Kotor, La Mia Casa from Podgorica and our colleagues by enthusiasm - Ocean Lava Montenegro," said Karampan with the invitation to attend the programs and the message “the New Year's Magic can begin."

December 18, 2018 - Festival UBRZAJ will continue to educate audiences about the importance of human rights, for this year's edition there is a great interest, during which in five days, 15 films will be shown. This was announced during the closing ceremony of the 9th Festival of Human Rights Film UBRZAJ, by the director of the Festival, Miloš Knežević, stressing that the films provided the public with powerful messages aimed at raising awareness about the importance of human rights.

"I hope that we have managed to show with all of these films the motto of the Festival - that is, we watched movies and that we remember something from them. We will see this when we find ourselves in the situation where our human rights have been violated or to someone close to us," said Knezevic.

He said the audience's response was excellent.

"I am glad that the Podgorica audience continues to wait, with impatience, for the Film Festival on Human Rights UBRZAJ. The situation is the same with Berane and Kotor. This year we had a projection in the Gymnasium “Panto Malisic” in Berane, where we also talked to high school students on topics related to human rights," Knezevic pointed out.

He said that the Festival would continue, in addition to presenting the films premiers to the Montenegrin audience, to retain the education function that needs to be, as he said, nurtured especially among the younger generations.

The festival UBRZAJ, which lasted from 9th to 14^th December, was closed with the screening of the movie "Groundson", directed by Aleksandar Reljić, who presented to the Montenegrin audience a story about the former detainee Eva Mozes Kor, who survived the Nazi mortal experiments of Dr. Joseph Mengele, and in 2014 symbolically adopted Rainer Hes, the grandson of Commander in Auschwitz, who is now actively fighting fascism and anti-Semitism.

The film director Aleksandar Reljić and the film's protagonist Reiner Hes, the grandson of the commander of the Auschwitz camp, were guests during the closing of the Festival UBRZAJ, and after the screening of the film, they talked with the audience in Sala Dodest, along with the moderation of the historian Miloš Vukanović.

Talking about the motives of working on this film, Reljić explained that he had previously dealt with the subject of the Holocaust and the crimes committed during the Second World War in the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

"I did a special documentary "Auschwitz - the Yugoslav Memory" and I was interested in the fact that today, after the war, the bloody decay and war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, what is the relation to this phenomenon in the context of cover-up and relativism, not only for the crimes from the nineties but also from the Second World War," Reljić said.

He recalled that in the past ten years there has been an attempt to rehabilitate war criminals in Serbia, reducing their significance.

"I came across the story of Rainer and Eva, after which I decided to continue to deal with this topic," said Reljić, and speaking of the two realities that were going on in Auschwitz concluded: "The banality of the crime can be seen in the photos shown in the film, on which the Nazis lead a carefree life."

He pointed out that the biggest violation of human rights recorded in our history did not remain behind us, and that the features of that time, as he noted, can still be seen in the modern media.

"You can still see a swastika in everyday life, it's not a secret or something that should be concealed. My task is, just like the grandson of one of the greatest criminals, to try to make things like that never happen again," Hes said.

He said that such a crime can happen anywhere in the world and that the worrying fact is the growth of retrograde movements, such as the fact of the region, that “Ustaha get a legitimacy” and that in many EU countries the right-wing politicians are stronger, saying that the governments are the liable ones for preventing similar events.

He was also interested in the audience's questions about the relationship with other members of the Hes family in which he sees himself as a "waste", and in which his grandfather Rudolf Hes was the right one, and how he even learned about the depth of his family's involvement into crimes, which resulted in his interruption in communication with them. He also spoke about his educational initiatives that are being implemented around the world, as well as the threats he receives from the new Nazis and security measures that he is often subjected.

Text by PR Center, on December 15th 2018, read more at CdM

December 17, 2018 - The documentary play "Kotor About Kotor” (“KoTo(R) o Kotoru”) directed by Petar Pejaković and produced by the NGO Expeditio from Kotor, will be shown on Saturday, 22 December in Zadar within the festival “Artakt.”

On this occasion, we spoke with Marjan Santic, one of the creators and performers of the play, which has attracted the audience in Montenegro and the region for the last two years. Why this documentary play still lives on, and lives internationally, since it is about the town of Kotor?

The play, acted and authored by the citizens of Kotor, already had 15 performances in the hometown, Podgorica, Cetinje, Belgrade, Kolašin, Tivat, Herceg Novi, Dubrovnik and Budva. Now the crew travels to Zadar.

Wherever it was performed the play attracted considerable interest and produced entirely positive reactions of the audience and professional public, whose numerous comments and reactions have been collected within a unique evaluation of the project carried out by NGO Expeditio, followed by multiple invitations to perform the play in countries of the region and Europe. The community theatre which promotes the idea of theatre as a means for research and creative expression of each individual or a group for personal development and social engagement has proved to be a potent tool in establishing a dialogue of the participants with the audience, i.e. with a broader and closer community. 

"The play shows the situation of the state and the problems of citizens who are naively trying to solve them. Unfortunately, the competent municipal bodies cannot and do not want to solve the problems in their backyard, so the citizens are forced to leave. And what are the problems? Noise from hospitality facilities, corruption, spamming, thievery, inability to function, counterfeit diploma of employees in public enterprises, political key recruitment, arthropods, ecological problems, sea and air pollution from cruise ships, apathy of institutions responsible for the protection of natural and cultural heritage - these are the problems that lie with today's society," explains one of the creators and protagonists of the performance, Kotor’s hiker and heritage protection activist, Marjan Šantić.

Why does this theatre play attract interest in the region? Why are invitations coming from many European countries?

"Kotor About Kotor is interesting because it brings the truth about our city, our country, and our environment. We all face situations where people in power and individuals who are in the account of that power are becoming richer and richer, leaving behind the interests and the welfare of the people living in the space they manage. For this reason, the audience of our play, wherever we perform, accepts it with enthusiasm, because we have expressed through the theatre play what they think. In our culture, there still survives a saying that silence is golden. We have shown exactly the opposite by this performance - it is necessary to talk about the problems, and something useful can result from it. How useful it is, we will see in the future."

In “Kotor About Kotor” uses 15 amateur actors. Even though most of the participants did not have previous experience in theatre, it was not difficult for them to present this play, to be persuasive. The reason for this is that the project participants were chosen by the love that they share about the city.

"The performance has succeeded thanks to the fact that we are all in love with our Boka, our cities and our nature. In all other issues, there are no common points among us. We are distinguished by professional qualifications, by professions, by political persuasions, by social status. In our frameworks, given the prevailing mentality, it could have been expected that we would produce a fight rather than a theatre play. However, love has overcome and overwhelmed us with all of our diversity, and that's why the performance succeeded," Marjan said proudly. Tolerance, according to him, is what we are missing in the Balkans in the family, in cities, in our societies in general, and it is a prerequisite for better days ahead. 

Asked whether the international audience showed interest in the play, Marjan explains that the Expeditio team has managed to provide a translation of the text into English, enabling the viewers who do not understand our language to enjoy the play.

"Foreigners are delighted with the play. As there is a translation, they can familiarize themselves with the subject before coming to the theatre, as well as follow the text during the play. They are very interested in the topic and often after the show they share their impressions with us. Many of them intend to talk about the problems faced by their cities, their countries. It seems it could play in any country, in any language, because the problems we are talking about is not just ours. Destroying the legacy for short-term profit, pollution of the environment, corruption and the separation of the rulers from the interests of the people who entrusted them their legitimacy are the global problems of today."

"The biggest problem is silence. Silence is approval. So you do not mean the future of your children and the future of your country. If you keep silent, it means you do not want it to be better. People are invaluable in different ways and are silent. Silence is the atomic bomb of the future," says Marjan Santic.

NGO Expeditio produced Kotor About Kotor within the frameworks of two large projects, the European Artizen Initiative (funded through the EU Creative Europe program) and ACT4CITY (funded by BAC - Balkan Arts and Culture Fund). The project has also resulted in a printed and digital book "KoTo (R) o Kotoru", containing, along with the script of the play, a description of the process of play creation and several reviews and expert comments. Thanks to the help of volunteers, the play script has been translated into English.

The Kotor Tourist Organization supported Kotor About Kotor's performance at the Zadar festival. Asked when the Montenegrin audience would agai enjoy the play, Marjan couldn’t answer. He says that the show team is still playing and willing to continue with the performance, so we hope that this opportunity will be announced soon.

December 16, 2018 - In the organization of the National Tourism Organization of Montenegro on Saturday, December 15^th, the tourist season on Zabljak was officially opened.

The ski opening attracted hundreds of satisfied visitors who enjoyed the excellent entertainment program, discounts and free offers. The National Tourist Organization of Montenegro organized free bus transfers for a large number of interested persons from Podgorica to Zabljak who enjoyed the snow and various free amenities (animators, sledges, ski pass, ski instructors, adventure park, snowshoeing etc.) on the ski resort Savin Kuk.

On the ski trails, guests were entertained by DJ Mr Jolls and the majorettes, with free drinks and the tasting and preparation of “kacamak”. The party continued in the evening, when the famous band “Senkina Djeca” held a concert with free food and drinks, a Christmas tree lighting and fireworks. Also, the local tourist organizations of Kotor, Budva, and Bar supported the organization of the "Ski Opening" to Zabljak and back from the mentioned cities.

The event that animated a large number of people on Saturday is part of the "Ski Opening" weekend and continued on Sunday, December 16th. Visitors expected reduced prices on a one-day ski-pas of 50 percent. Sunday also boasted a free bus transfer for the citizens from Podgorica. On Friday, December 14^th, the director of the National Touristic Organization held a working dinner with representatives of the local media and on that occasion presented them with the offer for the upcoming winter season.

"In Zabljak, fewer traffic jams are expected this season on Savin Kuk ski resort, because there is a new road infrastructure at its foothill. A new access road has been built, as well as parking. All the necessary works on the renovation and arrangement of ski fields have been completed to ensure the safe and secure operation of the ski resort. NP Durmitor offers a new national restaurant offering traditional local specialties of Durmitor region, and the novelty on Zabljak is a Nordic skiing trail located in the very center of the city, which means it is easily accessible to the guests. A novelty which will certainly mark this winter season in the north is the expected opening of Kolašin tourist resort 1600. In addition to the ski slopes, cable cars, and restaurants, the road from the Kolašin 1450 ski resort to Kolašin ski resort 1600 has also been built. Skiers on that part of Bjelasica will have about 4,6 kilometers of ski slopes and six-seat ski lifts, as well as a restaurant with a capacity of around 400 seats, "said Radak Kukavicic.

After Žabljak, the National Tourism Organization of Montenegro will organize a similar event in Kolašin.

Text by CdM, on December 15th, 2018, read more at CdM

December 16, 2018 - The proposal for the preparation of the winter tourist season 2018/2019 in Herceg Novi is based on the activities that are foreseen primarily in the promotional and marketing activities, public infrastructure and other segments of the offer. It is based on data obtained from the holders of these activities and submitted to the Government for discussion.

"The goal is to follow up and timely respond to all possible difficulties and problems in the implementation of the winter tourist season," the document says.

TO Herceg Novi

The Local Tourist Organization will continue promoting and organizing events that are recognized as events of particular importance for the promotion of the city's tourist offer. The preparation of the winter tourist season is directed through support in the financing of the organization of events in coordination with JUK Herceg Fest, the competent authorities of the Municipality and the local communities.

Basically, the focus is on the organization of the New Year's Eve (31.12 and 13.01), the preparation and the celebration of the 50th Feast of Mimosa and the 24th HAPS.

The New Year's program is accompanied by very well-organized marketing. The central promotional activity was the press conference in Belgrade in mid-October, accompanied by numerous announcements for digital and print media.

As stated, the promotional activities are focused on preparing the existing and redesigned propaganda and other informative material, creating a new website of TO HN, android and iOS application and the participation at the fairs in the season 2018/19. The promotional campaign is based on the hosting of study groups, comprised of journalists, bloggers/travel influencers, and tour operators.

After completing the first phase of the tourist signalization setting, the public call for the second phase is also planned. It will encompass part of Herceg Novi Riviera and the hinterland.

At the beginning of September, the Herceg Novi Card test project was successfully launched, which includes a unified services package that tourists buy at a single price. In this way, the 5 and 10 euros card provide the guests' visits to the main attractions, with discounts at the restaurants that have joined the project. Cooperation with the local economy and tourist guides to activate the offer of city tours.

TO HN signed a cooperation agreement with the Tourism Organization of St. Petersburg in late November. Some initiatives have been planned. The winter season will also be used to embellish the city center, through landscape projects and setting up decorative elements.

City Museum and Gallery

According to this Plan, JU "City Museum Mirko Komnenović and Gallery Josip Bepo Benković" will undertake a series of activities to create the best possible conditions for their artistic and archeological collections to be presented to the visitors in a better way. Traditionally, the 52nd Herceg Novi Winter Salon will be organized in early February. In addition to the realized, it is planned the organization of several exhibitions for Women's Day in March and an international exhibition of 3 Hungarian artists in May, in cooperation with Hunguest Sun Resort.

Exhibitions of photographs, archaeological exhibitions, a series of solo exhibitions, presentations of a permanent exhibition from the gallery and museum collections and organization of group visits are ongoing activities that this institution will perform during the upcoming winter tourist season, the document says.

JUK Herceg Festival

"JUK "Herceg Fest" has always, and especially in the last few years, realized dynamic international contacts in the field of culture, with institutions and artists, realizing some interesting program actions and projects. JUK Herceg Fest, with the financial support of the Tourism Organization and Herceg Novi Municipality during the winter tourist season, will organize the jubilee 50th "Mimosa Feast" and 24th HAPS," reads the document submitted to the Government.

Agency for Development and Protection of Orjen

The organization of various events through which the natural and cultural attractions of this area are represented is carried out by the Agency for Development and Protection of Orjen. This is an essential segment for encouraging tourists to visit Herceg Novi hinterland. The Agency organizes its business in cooperation with the Municipality of Herceg Novi, the Tourist Organization as well as many civil society organizations from our city but also Dubrovnik.

It is planned to place three points within the park with toll ramps and the offer of the Park - hiking tours, photo tours with transport to the viewpoint, organized camps and arrangements with other protected areas in the surroundings (National Park Sutjeska and Nature Park Piva), one-day and multi-day. Within the offer there will be group visits, organized arrivals for schools, kindergartens as well as arrivals through agencies from other cities and from the region.

Adventure park, hotels, communal order

Until further notice, the management of the Adventure Park is carried out by the Agency for construction of Herceg Novi. Infrastructural preparations also relate to the ongoing maintenance and cleaning of public areas and maintenance of public lighting and road infrastructure, water supply and sewage networks and other activities.

Hotel companies plan to carry out a number of activities according to their possibilities for preparation for the winter tourist season 2018/2019. years.

At the end of this Plan for a better winter offer in Herceg Novi, it is stated that the dynamics of the preparation of the season will be monitored at regular meetings with the liable ones.

Text by Radio Jadran, on December 14th, 2018, read more at CdM

15 December 2018 - Prime Minister Duško Marković presented the 2018 "Petar Lubarda" state award to Milka Delibašić for her work "Static Within the Transit of Time."

Speaking at the ceremony at the Montenegrin Art Gallery "Miodrag Dado Đurić" in Cetinje, PM Marković said that when such a recognition is earned at the beginning of someone's creative opus, then it is natural that "two feelings intertwine within you - satisfaction in artistic achievement, but also creative anxiety ahead of future challenges."

"I believe that Delibašić is thinking this way too - the seventh winner of the "Petar Lubarda" state award, the first woman to receive the award, the youngest prize winner and the first prize awarded outside the classical forms of fine arts for the artwork in the field of video installations," the Prime Minister underscored.

In Delibašić's work and the courageous decision of the jury to award her the prize, the Prime Minister sees the recognition of a new Montenegro - brave and eager to find its place in the contemporary world, "of Montenegro without complexes and stereotypes; very aware of its cultural and spiritual heritage, tradition and identity, but determined to take a step forward in modern times and be their inseparable part - of Montenegro that is firmly future-oriented." The Prime Minister added that he is hopeful that this year's Petar Lubarda Art Salon will encourage precisely the Montenegro that is looking into the future.

The award-winning artist Milka Delibašić thanked the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Culture, saying that it is her special honour that the award was given to her by a jury whose members she strongly appreciates. She noted she is also honored by the fact that she is the first woman to receive the award and that she taught about the freedom of art expression.from the works of Montenegro's numerous artists,

"I would like to call on young artists to do more research work in art and to turn more to some new and different approaches so that our scene becomes more diverse and richer," said Milka Delibašić. She emphasised the need for further support of the State and institutions for artists.

December 15, 2018 - The first Regent Charity Ball was held on Friday, 14 December at the Regent's full banquet hall. The donors collected €15,665 to be donated to the General Hospital of Kotor for the purchase of necessary medical equipment - two defibrillators.

December 14, 2018 - Stefani Racic from Tivat, with two other people, crossed the Atlantic on a catamaran. The 24-year-old Stefani describes this unique accomplishment in a letter sent to Radio Tivat:

November 17^th, 2018 - Palma de Mallorca Saturday night, around 7 p.m..

It's raining and Pedro and I decided to go for a ride to the island to break the boredom. (A few days back, we got a job together with a couple from Israel on a 23-meter-long catamaran. The plan was to fly together to Antigua and to board the ship there, and the management paid the other crew for the delivery of the ship.)

At some point, we got a call to join the boat as soon as possible because the crew in charge of crossing was unable to do it for unknown reasons.

At first, the idea did not appeal to us, neither the captain and his wife, but in the end we agreed to fly to Las Palmas, where the ship was anchored after crossing from Mallorca.

Various thoughts passed through our heads, bad and good. None of us had ever seen that ship, let alone been on it. You are thinking why the crew abandoned the crossing - maybe something is wrong with the boat, maybe a storm was announced on TV, you see news from Tenerife where the waves are so big that it breaks the terraces of a hotel at the beach. The hardest thing for me was telling my parents I was crossing the Atlantic the following day, and I do not know when I will be able to contact them. Of course, all this sounds awful, but it still pushes you to do it, you feel the adrenaline, you think, however, it's the Atlantic crossing which some people dream of doing, it's a new and unpredictable path.

Days in silence, the only sound is the noise of the waves and the "banging" of the sails and cables. OK, we went, flew to Las Palmas and arrived there on Monday around 10 p.m., the captain waited for us on the docks and drove us to a ship that is anchored in front of the port. We meet his wife and friend whom they called with us, because he is the only one who crossed the Atlantic earlier.

In the morning we checked out, got fuel (stuffed into containers of 6L and large barrels of 150-200L), are all well secured on both sides of the ship and we departed.

Everything is OK on the first day. The next day, we noticed that the batteries are not being charged through the engine, which means that we have to use the generator to charge them, which additionally consumes the fuel. All right, what to do, not everything can be great.

A day or two after that, we begin to feel a very unpleasant smell on the boat, the black tank pump does not work, and the air from the pipe comes out between the two cabins, and we were troubled with that all the way to the Caribbean. We tried to repair, clean, wash, but it did not help.

The next thing that happened to us, there were 4 bottles of gas on the boat, because of the poor compressor we remained with only one bottle and so we had to save gas all the way and we cooked once or twice a day.

In all frenzy, not so big but enough to make you think, we enjoyed the beautiful nights of the full moon and the noise of the waves. Our night shift was from 11 pm to 4 am, but already around midnight the sky above the ocean began to be cloudy and the stars were less visible, very often at that time it rained a little bit.

After several days of not so good wind, we decided to use Code 0, although the sail was not in the best condition. We used it for perhaps 3 days until one afternoon, before sunset, when we started to pull down the sail its top broke where the lifter was passing through. The sail fell into the water, went under the ship together with all the scots and began to sink from the weight. We were going in circles for about 40 minutes with waves of perhaps 2m, somehow, we managed to get the sail out (thanks to Pedro who is strong enough to carry us all on his shoulders).

We all calmed down and decided to inspect each part of the ship to make sure something was not damaged by chance. When we turned on the engines, we noticed that water entered through the left shaft, we all panicked there, the shaft was shifted due to the pressure of the scot that the sail pulled behind before we cut it off. We were some 400 NM away from the Cape Verde Islands and decided to turn and move in that direction to take out the ship on the land, repair the shaft and take more fuel. However, when we started, the wind hit us right in the prow, and it can be very uncomfortable on the catamaran. I thought the ship would break into pieces, I was pale as snow and thought how I would survive for another 3 days in that weather.

After half an hour of sailing, no one liked how the boat was behaving and we decided not to go to Cape Verde, but we proceeded to the Caribbean.

Days passed slowly and without wind, so we managed to temporarily fix the shaft, if anything to stop the leaking of the water.

These days we saw the first whale pilots, it seemed amazing to see so great animals in the never-land. Dolphins surfed daily along the prow, dozens of dolphins. It happened that we see a bird or at least a "flying fish" that we thought was a bird.

We caught the first tuna in those days, and after a while we captured mahi-mahi fish. We would only fish if we ate the previous catch.

Somewhere in the middle of the road we opened the spinnaker, we were all under great tension and we did not want any more problems, but we had no choice, the spinnaker had to go up. The first day went well. The next day we noticed that something was wrong with the lifter, the guys climbed to the top of the mast (with 3m waves) to check what was wrong. The block through which the lifter was passing was damaged, which meant we could not use the spinnaker. The next day, we decided to use the spinnaker anyhow, but with a sail lifter code 0. It worked for a short time until the ropes began to be damaged by the excessive pressure and we had to shorten them each time after using the spinnaker.

The last 3-4 days of sailing the sky was clear, I never saw so many stars in my life, we would lie on the stern and watch. The same as the plankton that illuminated the path behind us. MAGICAL!!!

We saved some fuel on the road, so we have been using the engine for the last three days, and finally, after 18 days, we arrived in the beautiful Antigua, where after a long crossing we enjoyed the sandy beaches and all the magic of this tropical island before we started with further preparations for the job .

If this was the case over the Atlantic, I can only imagine how it was for sailors at the Volvo Ocean Race and how often they wondered "why do I need this in my life?" 

This is a wonderful ending of 2018 and even more beautiful start of the new one. Now a new wish list needs to be written because the previous one is fulfilled. This year I fulfilled more wishes than I expected, and for some as passing through Suez I did not hope much, but they did happen anyway. Suez, Corinth, Gibraltar, Atlantic. What's next?!

Text by Radio Tivat, on December 13th 2018, read more at CdM