Four Go Greek
Four go Greek
It seems that there has been some sort of failure with Blogspot. My last post appeared to publish as normal but when it was viewed as a web page, the title and intro were visible on the site, but when opened up the text and pictures had vanished. I have tried to correct this but to no avail.
So we seem to have successfully migrated to WordPress. This is a bit more complex for me to use but I will just have to learn.
I think there had been some public concern that the disappearance of the post was to avoid the poor taste of publishing a post in which we sunk and perished, but not so!
We were due to sign out of Turkey and emigrate to Greece on 1st May. We have previously used Mr Gurkan Demitras of perayachting in Bozburun and contacted him again. The 1st May was the first day of the police imigration service in Bozburun opening for the season so that all worked well.
High winds were forecast over the next few days so we moved to within shooting distance of Bozburun and celebrated Linda’s birthday at the Octopus Restaurant nearby. We then had a short trip round to the harbour to sit out the tempest.
Bozburun is a pleasant very traditional little town whose main industry is building and servicing Gulets. They have a nautical academy training in all marine trades so it was a good place to find a diver. Lynn and Osman of the restaurant phoned a friend who turned up promptly and fitted our anode on the prop shaft for a significant payment. We turned down the option of cleaning the hull for an even more significant payment. We are after all cruisers, not racers, and I possess Speedos and a scraper. It would however be nice to go a bit quicker. We have along journey ahead and a half a knot will make a significant difference to our times on passage,
There are lots of Russian folk around, including groups of young men. As well as displaying many of the stereotypical characteristics of Russian young men, they all seem to be flying drones. One lot had a very sophisticated, mean looking device that he was flying using a virtual reality headset, presumably First Person Viewing as he went along. I suspect the war has brought this technology on very quickly and I am not sure if these groups are draft dodging or in training,
The checkout from Turkey was straight forward once the computer system decided to play ball, Having sat dormant for 6 months it presumably went through its various updates before groaning into action which meant the mandatory administrative delay occurred.
Off we went to Greece and had a nice sail across to Symi. As we got close to the island we were approached by a fast grey patrol boat, which turned out to be the EU border patrol, manned by Danish guys in full military kit. They asked us to slow down and we had a conversation about who we were, what we were doing and where we were going. It was all very civilised but I am glad we looked less than suspicious.
On a previous entry into Symi we had tried to moor up at the immigration police dock. However this would have meant dropping the anchor in about 40 metres or going along side. So that is what we did only to find that when the ferry left and delivered its wash we thunked hard on the seabed several times. i.e. it is too shallow.
So this time we moored up in the main harbour only to be thoroughly reprimanded by a policeman and a chap who announced he was the harbour security agent. This seems to be a new invention.
I tried to explain, and indeed the Marinero confirmed to them that what I said was indeed the case.
However I was repeatedly told that when entering Greece we must do so “in cooperation with the harbour authorities.” Do what you are told. I suppose they had built their new immigration dock before they found out it was not really fit for purpose and there will be a bit of moussaka on the face of whoever is in charge.
The rest of the check-in process was similarly heavy on the bureaucracy. We went round to the Immigration Police office which was empty when we arrived, but we could see through the window that we were on CCTV. After a while two police, a bloke with a young lady trainee in tow, and the newly created Harbour Security chap turned up. We had to make up a crew list, which along with our passports were duly stamped by the trainee.
We then had to go to the Harbour Security man’s window, who further stamped and photocopied the newly created crew lists and charge 30 euros for the admin costs.
We then went round to the top of the harbour to the very fine Customs House. The lady there was the one we had dealt with on our last visit the previous year. On that occasion I had caused chaos by trying to get the Greek state to abide by it’s own regulations and claim Returned Goods Relief on the VAT on the boat. This just means we could be issued with a long term transit log rather than a temporary one, which necessitates visits to the Police in every port of call.
With tongue firmly in cheek I had another go. She went off and spent some time rifling through various old files before finding the one that explained that under no circumstance should UK citizens be dealt with other that as treacherous back stabbing pirates, and that all their movements in Hellenic waters need the closest control.
She explained it was impossible. Apparently last year someone tried this and they had an adjudication from head office.
I then explained that I had paid my cruising tax (ETEPAI) online but it was still in the system over the bank holiday weekend, but I should shortly be able to demonstrate that it had been paid by viewing my bank account online. Apparently last year someone had tried this, the codes had been wrong and the payment had been refunded. I think this was probably me too, although I did ultimately pay it.
So I had to pay this tax through a new application which she kindly did for me on her computer, but when I reached for my Revolut debit card to pay, she threw her hands up in horror. It has to be in cash! It would seem the Greek authorities no longer trust electronic money transfers.
Off I went to the cash machine to pay the 234 Euros.
It subsequently transpired that I have now paid this tax twice, and I doubt I will ever get it back!
We were then issued with our new shiny temporary transit log, freshly stamped in blue ink, and off we went to the Harbour Police, which is up some steep steps diametrically opposite the immigration police, which is part of the police proper, office. After knocking on a large rusty steel door from the Venetian period, it finally opened with the sort of grinding creak that only a large steel door can make. A somewhat surly chap greeted us and ushered us inside, He further put about three different stamps on our new transit log, and relieved us of 15 Euros.
However we were now legally in Greece and the EU, so celebrations all round and down came our yellow flag. Time for a Mythos.
We had a bit of an uncomfortable stay as the ferry wash in Symi is dreadful, and although a very attractive little town, it is not ideal as a berthing spot.
The following day we circumnavigated the island and ended up at the remote bay of Panormitis where we anchored up. This is the location of a very picturesque monastery and retreat. There are large notices up about watersports, music and nudity in order to preserve the sanctuary of the retreaters.
It said nothing about loud card games. Switch and Solo were the most raucous.
As you may know I always like to do a few little technical projects. Last year I got my Raspberry Pi all connected up as the chartplotter, and acts as an NMEA server, sensor hub and AIS receiver for the boat. A further important safety measure however is AIS transmitting.
Bespoke AIS transceivers are pretty pricey items and I searched to see if there were any other options. I came across the perfect solution for the economical sailor, an AIS transmitter designed for fishing net location.
It come with a cable that allows it to be programmed as a boat and transmits at 5w, the same as the big ship class 1 AIS.
70 Quid from Alibaba, and it seems to work perfectly. Here are my tracks on AIS and on my chartplotter. It also has the advantage that it can be taken into the liferaft in an emergency, the battery lasts about 3 weeks between charges and my mum can now follow our progress in the vessel finder app! Not shure the last really is an advantage, but I can turn it off if needed.
Another purchase this year was a dedicated tablet to run Navionics on. I had an old Samsung tablet that now seems to be not compatible with the most recent update of Navionics so I looked for a replacement.
This is an Oukitel RT3, waterproof and ruggedised tablet. It is very heavy and robust, it synced with my phone to download all my apps seamlessly. The screen is brighter for daytime reading than the dedicated chart plotter display and in practice has been excellent.
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