Rats!

M..At last an uncomplicated day sailing with no dramas. A fair wind scooted us to Rhodes but of course pepped up as we approached the Marina.

We have been here before and found it a rather concrete soulless place. It seemed half built with an enormous sea wall but not a great number of yachts berthed. Nothing had changed, but we were keen to be here to get the paperwork sorted out and the well known ' Roditis' agents had told us they would support our rather complex application for returned goods status and indefinite transit. It seemed worth the visit here for this, and in fact the charge for the marina was modest at 35 euros per night. The facilities remain unfinished. There is a large outdoor gym.. [ just what we need ] but the toilet blocks are fairly minimal and the shop closed. Swinging wine bars and lot of charter activity.

Castle of St John, Rhodes.

We were met, not by Mr Roditis as we thought, but one of his young and rather glamorous assistants, who requested some documents. She showed no interest in the ones needed for the big administrative challenges and asked us no questions....''it will be sorted soon and we'll bring the documents later'

We duly waited in anticipation. Was it really going to be so simple? A couple of hours later a young fellow arrived with the bill ..Eeek they had charged us for the eTepia tax which we had already paid! He looked a bit disgruntled, phonecalls and torrents of Greek.. no one else pays it in advance apparently, as you are supposed to. Transaction of the rest of the sizeable bill complete he handed us the transit log. ' Where is the returned goods certificate ?' we ask in querulous tones... Suddenly language skills failed and a shrug was the response. The office is now shut till Monday.. it will be sorted then' Hmmmmmmm.... really ?

So what now.. do we hang about in this godforsaken marina till Monday? we really have had enough of awaiting fruitless outcomes. So we spent the following day walking about the old town of Rhodes. It is very beautiful and we loved the quietness of the back streets before being thrust into the full tourist experience. Beer in a wellie boot at 10e each was a new experience. One not to be repeated.

20 Euros to look a chump

So, waiting for Monday and a march into the customs office became untenable. we decided to take our papers and set off to beautiful Symi, from where we could proceed to the laborious process of checking out and back to Turkey. Confused? yes it's all a rather futile performance to keep us in legal rectitude with Turkey and the EU. What madness.

Panormitis monastery, beautiful spot.

A short sail to Symi took us to the beautiful bay of Panormitis. we had not been there before and were stunned, on entering the bay, to see the amazing site of the Monastery. The bay is otherwise completely undeveloped. beautiful clear water, a pervading smell of juniper and oregano. Perfect. Just the motion of swinging on an anchor is such a wonderful change from the confines of a berth in a marina or harbour, and lets hope the spirituality over the years sends us good fortune.

Streets of Symi

The following morning we finished the circumnavigation of Symi by sailing round to the bay of Pedhi. We had been told that it had been developed with a new marina, but were pleased to find that little had changed since our last visit. A harbour wall has been rebuilt and electric supply points installed and named a ' marina', but the rest of the bay remains unspoilt, with only a few more pretty pastel houses around the bay than before. Another lovely night at anchor. This is what we came for.

Symi houses

Tempted as we were to stay another night, we had to continue with our paperwork challenges the following day. As strong winds were forecast we could not leave Summertime at anchor unsupervised, so dribbled our way round into the harbour early in the morning.

Throughout our stay we have met many yachties who have been round these harbours for years. They love to tell their horror stories and of course advise on every point of everything. News on the street was that Symi harbour had become impossible with a new fangled berthing process. No anchors allowed. Instead, someone in a tender comes out to meet you. You then give them a long line from the bow, which they attach to a mooring buoy. You then reverse back into the allocated slot on the harbour and berth with stern lines, taking up slack on the bow line. Sounds fine until windage and prop walk come into play with a crowd of spectators just waiting for disaster to ensue.

Mosque in Bozburun sunset. 

We girded ourselves for the challenge. In the end, for some inexplicable reason we were shepherded in as usual to a berth with lazy lines and excitement was over. However it didn’t stop us watching with prurient interest as others came in behind us.... what a palaver !

I was appointed the agent to sort the paperwork for our exit back to Turkey. All the documents were in perfect order. What could possibly go wrong here then ?

I was told to go to the police first. So I did. Not THOSE police, the other police. Where to find them ? ‘ find a man with a similar uniform .. they will tell you’ . Aha ! So I walked all the way around the town to the opposite side of the bay. I think he meant the harbourmaster, so google translate came up with the wordage and I stopped a nice chap in a uniform. He directed me around the bay, out of the village and up steps where of course the harbourmaster was sneakily hidden.

He took the papers and multiple stamps were produced and thudded down with great aplomb… Was it really going to be easy after all ? Looking good… but suddenly the atmosphere changed and teeth were sucked….. ‘ we have a problem ‘ .My heart sank. What now ? ‘ you have to go to the police first ‘ . ‘ I don’t understand . I have been to the police ‘ .

Apparently not the RIGHT police. Who are based in a portacabin sneakily hidden from view on the other side of the bay. Right next to the original police station in fact.

‘ go there immediately and then return as soon as possible. I have one more stamp to complete …..’

So off I went. At least I am getting my 10,000 steps in. I arrived in a sweaty state. ‘ no. you cannot do this just now . Come back at 6pm.’ Drat.

Think Benny Hill music.

6 pm eventually came and I snuck back to the holy grail of the portacabin. Of course a different officer presided. I explained my quest to be greeted by ‘ No. I will leave the office at 7 pm’ I couldn’t quite see the relevance of this and I’m afraid my bonhomie had just about evaporated. I thought I’d go for it.

‘ Please do this now because the harbourmaster is expecting me. I stared hard and for a minute he returned with a challenging glare. Who would blink first ? Was the old lady going to cry?

He slowly leant forward and picked up a stamp. Then an ink pad… looking good.

Whack and it was done. Yahoo.

Just a run back to the nice young man. He looked a bit sorry for me in a sticky frazzled mess. ‘I’m sorry I’m late’….. He smiled. The stamp was raised and YES IT WAS DONE !

Time for celebration. I realised on the way back to the boat that I now had license to peruse the duty free shop. An unhappy looking lady growled as I entered. ‘ You must have your leaving papers before you can shop here!’

Tara ! I waved them with unbounded joy. Child in a sweety shop ? No ...but a Scot in a whisky shop where ‘ buy one get one free ‘ is the order of the day. A happy ending.

C.

I have been having trouble understanding why the Customs chief in the Dodecanese is taking a different position on VAT ti his own Government.  I have been through it in quite a lot of detail. I have a copy of a letter from the head of Customs in Athens to all his regional chiefs explaining exactly how UK yachts post Brexit should be dealt with. But still the Rhodes guy will not implement this

So I have corresponded with Mr Roditis several times over the last year and he has been very encouraging. He has committed that he will fight tooth and nail on my behalf. After the account was settled and we have not heard another word from our champion against injustice for yachties since. He won’t answer emails, take phone calls, zip……

On thinking about all this further it seems likely that there is a mutually beneficial collaboration going on. If I were to be successful in getting my VAT status recognised I would also be rewarded by getting a life long unlimited Transit clearance for all EU water. Now in whose interest would it be for me to have to get a temporary Transit Log each time I enter Greece from Turkey, and every 18 months if I sail within Greece? Clearly the agents benefit from the status quo. Clarity has occurred!

This is really annoying as I would really like to get my application submitted before the three year deadline for being outside the EU.

Turkish cupasoup in Kamal Ataturk mug. Enjoying the culture!

And while I am on the subject of rats in Greece, I am not sure what to make of these footprints we found all over the deck the other morning. I hope it was a cat, but I have never seen a cat with such mucky feet.

Feline or rodent?

However, the sailing has been good. The winds have moderated a bit since we came. There were some pretty fierce days while we were ashore. They have settled into a more normal pattern with quiet mornings and building winds in the afternoon and evening, and settling down at night to allow sleep to occur. Gentlemen’s sailing conditions.