Ships in Kotor

[Bruce Nicholls]

Sylvia and I have recently returned from our place in Kotor, Montenegro. When we bought our place there 4 years ago we had a few ships visit.
Now we sit on our terrace and watch a fairly constant stream of ships coming & going.

These are the larger vessels seen during our recent stay, plus lots of yachts (sail & motor).


THOMPSON SPIRIT   ex Niew Amsterdam   07/05/11   Thompson

MARINA   09/05/11   Oceania Cruises

SEVEN SEAS MARINER   14/5/11   Regent Seven Seas

MINERVA   14/5/11   Swan Hellenic

M.Y. NERO   15/5/11   Private Charter 400,000 euro wk approx

CELEBRITY SOLSTICE   20/5/11   Celebrity

ALBATROS ex Royal Viking Sea, Royal Odyssey, Norwegian Star, Crown   20/5/11
   
SEABOURNE SPIRIT   20/5/11   Seabourne

MSC ARMONIA   12/5/11 & 19/5/11   MSC

LA BELLE DE L’ADRIATIQUE   11/5/11 & 18/5/11   Croisimere

I have attached a few pics to demonstrate the view.

[Tyne Turbine]

I must admit to being rather envious after visiting this beautiful town on the last visit in 2010 by Thomson Spirit.

[Bruce Nicholls]

I may be biased, but agree this is a most beautiful and still mostly unknown place. Although with the number of ships now visiting it will soon be more widely known.

Thomson Spirit is a regular visitor in the summer. I was interested to note when I looked her up, that she actually belongs to Holland America Line (another Carnival Ship) and is chartered to Louis Cruise Lines and chartered by them to Thomson. Very complicated to my mind.

[Lynda Bradford]

Bruce, how fortunate you are to have a house in such a beautiful place and what a view. 

Are the locals happy for this increase in cruise ships visiting their town?  Our do they feel that it is an intrusion having so many people coming off cruise ships. 

[Bruce Nicholls]

You are correct Lynda, the view is everything. Acquiring the property was pure luck, my brother saw it on a place in the sun and we purchased it together as a joint holiday home ( we do let it via ownersdirect.co.uk ref mn213).

The economy in Montenegro is booming (they use the euro so I guess they must be fairly unique in the eurozone) and the locals appear to be glad to see every visitor. Since we have been there we have certainly noticed the improvement in facilities and general infrastructure.

[Bruce Nicholls]

The number of ships calling in Kotor is rising according to the port website and from my observations they don't list everything that calls.

For those interested the site is at http://www.portofkotor.co.me/en/

Bruce

[Bruce Nicholls]

Just looked at Port of Kotor web page and see Costa Voyager is to be the first ship of the 2012 season on 31st March.

[Bruce Nicholls]

Port of Kotor have held an oil pollution prevention exercise. the vessel used as part of this has the most amazing dazzle paint scheme.

 http://www.portofkotor.co.me/en/

[Bruce Nicholls]

This weeks list of ships in Kotor

Fri April 13th, Kristina Katerina
Mon April 16th, Artemis
Tues April17th, Seabourn Spirit
Fri April 20th, Oriana

Missing the view as we will not be going early this year as we are busy preparing Lone Gerd to set off on our long awaited cruise round England, Scotland & Wales.

[Bruce Nicholls]

In the last 13 days here in Kotor we have seen 13 different ships in the fjord just off our terrace. Some of them we have seen more than once.

On some days we have had up to 3 ships together, 1 at the quay and 2 anchored and on one day we had 4 in total as one left at lunchtime to be replaced by another. On a few days, mainly weekends there have been none.

Kotor is getting really busy now. Hard to believe that 5 years ago we had very few ships and most of those were fairly small.

Today we had the biggest I have yet seen in the new MSC Divina at 139,072 Gross Tons and 333 metres long. Quite an imposing sight anchored at the end of our terrace.

It was interesting to see that Divina was held in position all day at anchor using her thrusters and engines, to stop her swinging or moving backwards or forwards despite the stiff breeze.

[Twynkle]

In the last 13 days here in Kotor we have seen 13 different ships in the fjord just off our terrace. Some of them we have seen more than once.

On some days we have had up to 3 ships together, 1 at the quay and 2 anchored and on one day we had 4 in total as one left at lunchtime to be replaced by another. On a few days, mainly weekends there have been none.

Kotor is getting really busy now. Hard to believe that 5 years ago we had very few ships and most of those were fairly small.

Today we had the biggest I have yet seen in the new MSC Divina at 139,072 Gross Tons and 333 metres long. Quite an imposing sight anchored at the end of our terrace.

It was interesting to see that Divina was held in position all day at anchor using her thrusters and engines, to stop her swinging or moving backwards or forwards despite the stiff breeze.

Hi Bruce
It was interesting to note that in at least a couple of anchorages in the Med ports, Queen Victoria was held off the quayside by thrusters and pods alone, all done by the ever present trusty auto-pilot aka GPS! No anchoring was necessary there, or whilst we were waiting (over an hour!) to go alongside in Brooklyn in QM2. She was held in the same way - approx. 3 weeks before Sandy struck. The wind was calm, the currents fairly slow, we'd needed to get under the bridge early as the tide was due to be ultra high or low - never did find out which! Apparently, holding without anchoring is fairly normal procedure nowadays.
Enjoy the fjord!

[Bruce Nicholls]

Pleased to see Queen Elizabeth will have Kotor as a regular call in 2014. Look forward to seeing her there.

[Rod]

Do not wish to hijack the thread.
All those beautiful pics of that beautiful place....ships as ugly as sin!

[Bruce Nicholls]

True Rod, however they make the place look even better (as well as providing hours of innocent amusement when they make cock ups!).

[Bruce Nicholls]

QE & Royal Clipper as seen from our terrace this week in Kotor. Royal clipper is the largest fully rigged sailing ship currently sailing (according to Star Clippers who own her) and a regular visitor here. Sadly this was one of the three rainy days we have had in the last month which has taken the shine off the photo a bit.