“I think you may have to leave the country immediately”

36.58.29N 25.01.48E

I’m sitting at the navigation table writing and it is darned windy outside, though not as windy as last night. In the middle of the night I moved from the fore to the aft cabin to get some sleep as the anchor chain groaned and swung us around all night; the wind gusting to 30 knots. Ross had made some adjustments to the snubber during the day; not one of his more successful experiments, but 10 out of 10 for commitment to continuous improvement. The result, reduction in chafe on the rope and a new scatter drum on the forward hull, more tweaking today. The reality is that on a windy night you just don’t get much sleep.

But heck, I shouldn’t complain. Other than (and if not for) the wind we are in an amazing place. This is our second night in Ormos Despotico, a large bay between Andiparos and Nisis Despotico in the middle Cyclades. There is good protection from the meltemi in that the waves are small and the anchor is very secure, buried deep in sand, however, the wind is strong and gusty – especially in the middle of the night it seems. In the 16^th and 17^th centuries this was a laying-up port for pirate galleys. I can imagine them here as the bay is enormous, hidden away and remote from towns. The headland to the east is rugged with cliffs and caves. On Nisis Despotico, to our west, there are ruins from antiquity. This area has been populated for thousands of years, although today rather sparsely.

Yesterday I caught the bus into the main town (also called Andiparos). While there were plenty of mostly Greek tourists this is a quiet little place that has not been terribly affected by tourism. No airport, no package tourists, no multi-story hotels. Families and independent travellers are the flavour. There is one little local bus that goes to the furthest ‘village’, Agois Georgios (where we are), and up to the famous cave at the top of the island every couple of hours. Back-packers bus to the beaches on this south west coast; they are protected from the northerly wind. Other than the main town which hides a wonderful intact fortified kastro deep in the centre of town off a small main square, the cave, the cafes, tavernas and the beaches, there is really not a lot to do other than enjoy the laidback-ness of the place. The locals are friendly too. I had a very good experience in the local chandlery/hardware store where the kindly proprietor was able to assist me with the fuses and hose I was looking for.

On the first night here we went ashore to have a bit of a walk on the beach and maybe a drink at one of the three tavernas clustered together on the waterfront. We found a fourth taverna, Zomba’s, set back from the waterfront and ended up staying for dinner. Ross and I shared a fantastic meal of veal in lemon sauce, tasty mountain greens and stuffed tomatoes; finishing off with a plate of chilled perfectly delicious figs.

The swimming is good but at times a challenge as the current is very strong. The other day I jumped in, imagining that I would swim against the current along side the boat. I was immediately swept off and Ross leapt to the back of the boat and looking down with a laugh suggested I grab hold of the dinghy – which of course I was doing in between being pelted by small waves breaking on my head! Yes, I swam like fury and clambered bedraggled back onto the boat – tragedy averted.

I was rudely awoken the other night when Ross called out that he needed some assistance, that he had hurt himself and there was blood involved. I emerged in a dreamlike state to find a pale looking Ross with lots of paper towel around his foot. He’d been putting the swim ladder up - in the middle of the night! - and had dropped the very heavy fibreglass and teak cover onto his toe. I only hoped that he had not performed an accidental self amputation. After examining the damage (while trying to minimise looking at all the blood for fear of fainting) I bound his toe, gave him a couple of pain killers and went back to bed. I woke again later in the night and wondered if I had been dreaming. I turned on the torch and checked Ross’s toe to reassure myself that a. it was not a bad dream and given that it was not a dream b. that he was not bleeding all over the bed. The toe is healing well, but how lucky are we to have toe nails?

In the last month we have covered much ground, traversing the Ionian Sea, the Gulf of Patras, Gulf of Corinth, through the Corinth Canal into the Saronic Sea and finally to the Cyclades where we are now (sometimes in the company of dolphins). We have had quite a few longer stop overs as the wind has blown like crazy for days on end, but then have taken advantage of low wind days to cover ground. Unfortunately the wind has often been on the nose when we have been on the move, except for the passage from Serefos to here where we sailed at 7 kts for the better part of 6 hours.

After Levkas we mostly motored to Cephalonia through the dramatic Ithakis channel between Cephalonia and Ithaka. We anchored overnight in Ay Eufemia and then set off early the next day to Messolonghi, a strange little town on the mainland at the end of a narrow canal through salt marsh and swamp. Along the channel were fishermen’s houses (pelades) on stilts over the water and people up to their thighs in water farming shell fish; reminiscent of Asian waterfronts.

It was a Sunday and after tying up to a pontoon at the hot, dilapidated, incomplete marina, which felt like it was at the end of the earth, we went for a wander into the town. Amongst the maze of still lanes empty of people in the early afternoon heat there was an array of incredibly funky, colourful bars. We couldn’t quite believe our eyes. Apparently the town has a couple of technical colleges and a high student population. We had a beer in a café with fans that also sprayed a cooling mist of water. The other patrons played backgammon, gossiped, smoked (as everyone does here) and sipped icy drinks.

At about 7.30pm we went back ashore for dinner. This was real Greece. The tavernas did not open until 9.30 - people don’t even think about preparing food until after the sun goes down. Alas, we managed to kill some time over an ouzo or two, but this was a reminder that until Messolonghi we have been in relatively touristy areas where the English need for dinner on the table at 6, northern Europeans a little later and the Mediterranean’s who commence dinner after sundown are all accommodated.

The next day we set off for Trizona Island which was affectionately recommended to us by Richard, on ‘Marionette’, last year. We passed under the Rion Bridge which crosses the Strait of Rion and Andirrion and is a feat of modern engineering. Completed in 2004, this suspension bridge is visible for miles and is the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world at 2,252m. So that was the excitement for the day. Wind bang on the nose, we motored the day to arrive at the delightful incomplete marina nestled in a protected bay. Many other friendly yachts flying varied flags were there with people travelling either east or west, and exchanging useful information about their experiences. Some boats had been there for weeks just having a holiday.

Trizonia is a small island with lovely walks, good swimming, one village with a few tavernas and a couple of bar/cafes (including Poseidon with wireless internet access and very friendly proprietor) and a handful of cars. A caique ferry runs at regular intervals to the mainland where you can get supplies and catch busses to other locations for day trips, which we ended up doing as, after a couple of days, the wind blew up and we decided to sit it out.

Our first day trip was to Navpaktos. The town was known in medieval times as Lepanto. This was where the Turks refitted before the disastrous Battle of Lepanto (1571). Their fleet was annihilated by the Christians, who were desperate to hold back the Turks gaining a further foot hold in the Adriatic. Over 15,000 Christian galley slaves were awarded freedom as a result of the success, Turkish losses included 113 galleys sunk and 117 captured, their losses in the vicinity of 30,000, excluding the 8,000 who were taken prisoner – astounding! Around the ancient harbour old houses have been refitted into cafes and boutiques. The harbour walls connect to the castle walls which run up the hill side to the top. We walked up to the castle for the magnificent view of the gulf (Rion Bridge one way and in the distance Trizonia the other) and then back down to the harbour where the focus of the town’s activity is today – a town square shaded by enormous tree shading cafes, hustle and bustle, and excellent food shopping. The town felt very cosmopolitan after being on islands or in small towns for a couple of weeks.

The next day trip was to ancient Delphi, set high on the slopes of Mt Parnassos. The somewhat longer bus ride along the coast and up into the hills requiring a change in bus at Itea was an interesting start to the day. The bus goes up through the town of Delphi and on the other side of the town there is a museum which houses the most important finds and then the excavation which exposes this spectacular classical site. There was much to see including the intact amphitheatre with a view over the impressive Temple of Apollo and the lower site which is crowded with smaller buildings, temples, sculptural groups and dedications, an enormous Stadium is right at the top where the Pythian Games were held every 4 years. This sanctuary flourished from the 4^th to 6^th century BC; for a Classics scholar this would be no less than heaven. The day was capped off nicely with lunch in the town with a fabulous view down to the gulf.

After a week at Trizonia we were very ready to head towards the Corinth Canal and into the Aegean. The gulf areas are interesting and rich in history but I was especially itching to get to the Aegean – to the islands and the clear water. We are also picking up my friend Karin in Turkey at the end of August and we’d like to be there in plenty of time.

The next stop was Andikiron and then Corinth, where we tied up in the small smelly harbour and were pounded by waves, wind and sea spray for the next few days, watching the big freight ships and ferries come and go. This was made altogether bearable by the presence of Sue and John on Samphire II who tied up next to us and were excellent company most evenings for drinks or dinner, regaling us with tales of their many years of sailing experiences and tips for the next leg of our journey.

Corinth is quite a busy city, not far from Athens by road or train, the crossing point to the Peloponnisos and near the western entrance to the Corinth Canal. While not an all together attractive place there are a few ancient sites of interest nearby, including Ancient Corinth which we visited.

Dominated by the monolithic Doric columns of the archaic temple of Apollo, this was another very impressive excavation site with museum. One of the most interesting things for me was the visibility of the different periods of activity in layers, a clearly visible agora, sanctuaries and temples, going back to the 5^th century BC. This is where St Paul spoke to the Corinthians in AD52. On top of this the distinctive architecture of Byzantine churches. In the museum the artefacts include prehistoric, Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Roman and Byzantine periods. My favourites were the Roman floor mosaics and wall paintings. The site was occupied continuously since the Neolithic period to the Middle Ages.

Ross remembers Corinth fondly as where we had a big win with the Port Police and Customs over our paperwork – I’ll let Ross recount this tale.

So, the big day to go through the Canal arrived. Suza and Robert on ‘Agapi’ (the Greek word for love – what an excellent name for a boat!), who were also tied up in the harbour, were going at the same time as us. As there had been some issues with anchors tangled in chains in the harbour we agreed to leave together early in the morning and help each other out if the need arose. Alas, we both cleared the harbour without issue. We met up again at the end of the day in Korfos for dinner and to exchange photos.

The trip through the Canal was great. We had to register by radio with the Canal authority and they gave us the go ahead to proceed through. A tug boat with a big ship led the way and about a dozen yachts followed. It is an amazing experience to go through this man made canal and see the rail and road bridges overhead. At the eastern end we had to tie up to a dock and pay for the pleasure. This was a bit of bedlam but pretty amusing, with eastward bound boats tying up and a gaggle of westward bound boats ready to go through on notice.

We spent the afternoon and night at anchor in Korfos, a quiet protected town where we could swim, yay!

The next day we moved on to Poros where we went stern-to to the quay. This is a strange way to pack boats into the quay where you drop your anchor about 3 boat lengths out from the quay and then reverse in to tie up. You have to ensure that the anchor is dug in and pray that you don’t get blown off course when it is gusty, which it was for us, and hope that someone will be there to take your lines on the shore. Sailing is easy, and of all ways to tie up, this is one of the more difficult to do well as there are many factors involved. This time we went in well first go. We practically high fived. About 20 minutes later we were just relaxing and happy with the way the boat was sitting when the Spanish boat next to us left. Their anchor chain was under ours and they pulled up our hook; back to the drawing board! Out we went again. Then it was our turn to be caught on someone else’s anchor chain, thankfully we did not pull their anchor up completely. Then we put our anchor too far out, then on the third go we made it in and were happy. For the next few days, every morning and afternoon, we watched the circus as boats left and pulled up anchors and mayhem ruled.

Otherwise Poros was a delight. A change in the architecture with white buildings, blue window frames and shutters and red roofs; labyrinthine, narrow, stairways between houses and a church around every corner go up to the rocky slopes of the small volcanic peninsular on which the town is built. A low isthmus connects the town to a second larger green island. The clock tower at the crest of the town catches a cool breeze after a hot walk up on a hot day and the view is second to none.

We discovered Dimitris Family Taverna and Butchers shop for a couple of excellent meals. The bakery to the east of the South quay was the best place to go in the morning for fresh bread, croissants and delicious biscuits and the people were very friendly. While a very touristy place, there is a nice feel to Poros.

In the middle of the afternoon the town is silent with only a few people mooching around trying to stay cool in cafes, but at night the waterfront comes alive. Kids on bikes in the town squares, tavernas doing brisk trade and music picking up for the night club scene. People seem to stay up all night and sleep during the day at this wonderful time of year.

Fully stocked with water, fuel and provisions on Saturday the 9^th we set off for Serifos. This was a longer crossing into the next island group, the Cyclades. It was striking to see this barren rounded rock of an island emerge through the haze, dotted with little white cubes of houses. After a night in the crystal clear water of Ormos Koutala, we move to Ormos Livadhiou, the bay of the main town. The anchoring here was difficult, lots of weed, but after many tries we were well dug in, which we needed to be as that night the wind was back.

The entry to Livadhiou is striking as, from the distance, the conspicuous white houses of the chora look like snow atop the conical hill of an otherwise burnt dome shaped mountainous landscape. The bus up to the chora and the walk down the next day was amazing. Another small town of twisty windy stairways and paths, a very distinctive architectural tradition of white washed cube primary forms with tiny windows, Aegean blue shutters and dazzling pink bougainvillea for contrast. Every house has a dazzling view and an outside terrace. Just gorgeous. And if you have spare time here it seems you build a church.

Here on Andiparos the architecture is similar but arches have been incorporated into the pure cube form of Serifos.

So now we expect to be blown around for today but tomorrow the forecast is for the wind to abate and we will head further east to the next island stop on the way to Turkey.

And now a few words from Ross...

Weather – what else matters?

This year we have a bit more access to weather information. Internet availability is better in Greece than it was last year in Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro. We even get WiFi occasionally. There is also a very good Greek sailing weather website - meteo.gr/sailingmapf.asp which we use extensively as well as windfinder.com and weatheronline.co.uk

We are now attuned to the vagaries of the forecasts available on each site and do our own compensating adjustments. Seven-day forecasts such as those on Windfinder and weatheronline are often inaccurate more than a couple of days out but still useful as a general idea of what winds to expect.

We are now half way across the Aegean and weather info is particularly important here. Days (sometimes weeks) of Meltemi winds from the North of up to Beaufort force 8 and more (35+ knots) regularly sweep down the Aegean, particularly in July and August. You really don’t want to be out pleasure cruising in that if you can avoid it. So we study the weather info and wait for ‘weather windows’. We are currently holed up at anchor in a shelter

ed (from the waves not from the wind) channel between two islands, south of the island of Andiparos. We have been here for three days whilst a Meltemi blows through and we will depart for Turkey tomorrow in predicted calmer conditions – a ‘weather window’. With our anchor very well dug in we are taking bus trips around the island and socialising a bit with an adjacentyacht. The nights are somewhat more fractious with the wind howling through the rigging in the dark and one ear always open for the shrill beeping of the ‘anchor dragging’ alarm. Still, I find that a double (triple?) Campari sleeping pill before bed assists greatly in dealing with these matters. Living on a boat for a while you soon realise there’s no real mystery to the long-standing and deep relationship between alcohol and seafaring.

Unlike some boats, light to moderate winds are ok for us as we don’t need a lot of wind to make good time. 10 or so knots of wind on the beam (coming from across the side of the boat) will give us 6 or more knots of boat speed. That’s around 100 km travelled in 9 hours. More than enough for us as we are island hopping here in the Aegean with 100km being about the greatest distance between islands. With 13 hours or so of daylight a day we can do it all in daylight with early morning starts. Up just before dawn, weigh anchor and off - we have seen some beautiful, caffeine augmented, sunrises.

Military Mischief.

Approaching the Corinth Canal I was somewhat aghast to witness our ship’s GPS (Global Positioning System) system die. O.K., electronics on boats do fail sometimes, but did it really have to be here and now with us about to navigate through a narrow canal and with all this commercial shipping activity around?

I rebooted the GPS a few times and resorted to tapping the aerial/receiver – all to no avail. Our electronic chartplotter was still working but the ’ship’ icon on the plotter which indicates our position on the chart had gone. Without that, the plotter is pretty useless and akin to looking at a big paper chart with no good idea of where you are on it.

So, we were about to resort to non-electronic navigation. Yes, dead reckoning, tidal streams, estimated positions, hand-bearing compasses and running fixes. All that stuff that both Carolyn and I have studied and know how to do but really never use and would be very rusty at. Tres terrible!

We were sailing in company with the Austrian boat ‘Agapi’ and they had transited the Canal before. I was telling them of our GPS woes over the VHF radio when they told us the probable reason – apparently the Greek military scrambles/blocks the reception of GPS satellite signals in the vicinity of the canal due to the canal’s strategic significance.

Sure enough, after transiting and when we were two miles or so on the other side the GPS came back to life and we could put away the paraphernalia of the old navigation technology. Phew!

Cost to transit the canal for a boat of our size was around AUD$330 – nice work if you can get it.

“I think you may have to leave the country immediately”.

That certainty of life - tax. Our boat has now been in Greece for ten months. As a non-EU registered boat (we have Australian registration) we are liable for a Greek tax which applies if your boat is in the country for more than 3 months. The tax is about 250 Euros for each three-month period for a boat of our size. So, we were up for around 750 Euros (about AUD$1,300). But, because our boat had been stored out of the water for 8 months and Carolyn and I had left the country for that period, theoretically we could put the boat into customs bond and the tax ‘clock’ stops running for that bond period. The problem was that at the end of the 2007 season when we had pulled the boat out of the water at Preveza I went to the customs office to get the ‘bond’ paperwork done – and they didn’t want to know about it. What to do? – You can’t force people to do their job. So, with flights home to catch we left it as was and decided we would sort it out when we returned.

Upon returning this year we launched and sailed away from Preveza with seriously out-of-date paperwork – an expired permit to cruise in Greece and tax owing. We could have just paid the tax, and a possible fine for late payment, (maybe $1,500 - $2,000 all up) and put things right, but we knew that we shouldn’t have had to pay it and that niggled at us. We had also heard that due to people smuggling activity - which is much more prevalent in the Aegean than in the Ionian Sea – the customs, navy and harbour police were more vigilant on paperwork over here. What to do? – We knew that some other boats in our situation had just done a runner and gone to Turkey - or wherever - without formally checking out of Greece and paying the tax. We were not entirely comfortable with that.

Whilst in the town of Corinth Carolyn and I discussed it one night and had virtually decided to go to the authorities there and just pay the tax and fine, when the decision was made for us. The next morning the Port police unexpectedly arrived at the quay and told each yacht skipper to attend their offices with the boat’s documents – today.

I kissed Carolyn goodbye – she assured me she could bake a cake with a file in it – and I tromped off to the police station with our illegal documentation. Greek port police offices are bizarre, Dickensian even. Even in Corinth which is a busy commercial port, everything is laboriously entered into huge hand-written ledgers. No computers are in evidence, there are a lot of staff scribbling on bits of paper and, of course, everyone is smoking, talking loudly and animatedly.

Well, they checked our boat’s papers and our passports, levied the harbour dues ($10 a night) which I paid and they completely missed the fact that our boat’s documents had expired months ago. So, I told them. Well, we then had five (I counted them) people working simultaneously on our ‘case’. Conversation became more animated and voluble, a calculator was produced, the police chief was consulted, phone calls were made and after around an hour they told me I would have to pay 750 Euros plus a fine (yep, that’s what I had worked it out to be too). The only problem was they weren’t authorised and it wasn’t their job to collect it and I would have to go to the customs office in town to pay it and to get new paperwork issued.

The Customs and Excise office was a different ball game – this is where the money was. Computers with internet connection, much bigger, plusher and quieter. I eventually found the right guy (after mistakenly stumbling into the office of the Director of Customs). I related our full story - the guy spoke excellent English as he had lived in the States for a few years. His initial response was “I think you may have to leave the country immediately”. Bugger, I hadn’t even had time for lunch and now we may have to leave the country.

I asked if there was any possible alternative (as we loved Greece so much!) and he was most willing to investigate and went to speak to the Director. To cut a long story short, within a couple of hours he had obtained faxed proof from the boat yard that our boat was stored out of the water for the dates we said it was, copied our Greek entry and exit stamps in our passports, retrospectively put our boat into customs bond for the 8 month period and extended our permit for the boat to be in Greece until the end of August, 2008. The total cost for all this was 20 Euros with no tax liable or fine payable – excellent outcome! A great guy who couldn’t have been more helpful – and hey, how long can it take for me to build that extension onto his holiday house? Child’s play really. He wished us a very pleasant stay in Greece and on my way out I had the temerity to stop by the Director’s office, thanked him personally and told him how helpful his staff member had been. He also effusively wished us a pleasant stay in Greece.

With a load off our minds we went out for a celebratory dinner that night with John and Sue from Samphire II, the boat next to us. We drank a toast to ‘I think you may have to leave the country immediately’, laughed and watched the sun set over the sea. What an unexpected day’s events.