37:34.03N 22:47.48E
Muskrat
Chris and Alison
Mon 10 Oct 2022 19:17
09/10/22 Weather Temp 28’c, sea temp 27’c, wind light and variable, sea state slight. With the engine on we decided to try the water maker with its new filter that we had brought at great expense from Trinidad and then paid an enormous amount to get it through customs at the Greek end. Unfortunately, for various reasons, we had a lot of trouble getting the new filter into the casing and Chris was terrified he had damaged it in doing so. So with fear and trepidation we put the water maker on and started to make, hopefully, fresh water. The directions said we had to run water off for an hour before drinking it to get all the chemicals out of the filter from the manufacturing process, but it was clear from about 30 minutes onwards that we were not getting the salinity down enough to make drinking water. That meant we had probably damaged the filter in putting it into the casing. Feeling very despondent, to say the least, we tried an old ’steamy’ trick (so Chris tells me!) of putting the water through the water maker twice, this made very drinkable water but obviously took a little longer, but at least we could now make drinkable water while we try to decide what to do next. We arrived in Nafplion late afternoon and were very pleasantly surprised to find the town quay almost empty, so we had the pick of moorings to choose from and a lot of room to get Muskie steering astern, as we have mentioned before this is something she doesn’t like doing at all. We were soon tied up against the quay admiring the very pleasant surroundings. Nafplion is very Venetian in character with narrow streets all competing to grow the biggest and best Clamatis or bougainvillea and despite it being quite a large town, it was surprisingly quiet. We are gong to get our fix of antiquities here because there are 6 museums, a huge citadel on the hill and Mycenae ruins about 9 kilometres inland. Before all that though, we had one last chance at trying to get an Unlimited Transit Log (UTL) instead of our Limited Transit Log that we have to hand into the authorities every time we leave the boat and the boat is limited to stay 18 months in the EU. We have been, since BREXIT, eligible for an UTL but the Greek authorities have been reluctant to issue these because of a mix up in their system at some point after BREXIT and now the easy way out for them to deal with the mess is to only issue Limited Transit Logs. With some advice from the CA and one particular member, it was recommended that we try for one in Nafplion customs. So, armed with every single document at our disposal, a plan of how we would handle the interview and our fingers well and truly crossed, we nervously entered the customs office. A very officious security man made us write our names in his book before directing us up 3 floors. We entered the room to be greeted by a very pleasant customs officer who couldn’t have been more friendly and efficient. He took our papers, no questions asked and promptly started the procedure of getting us an UTL. The whole process took half an hour, several trips down the stairs and back again to various offices, but at the end of it all we had our UTL in our hot sticky hands. At last something has gone our way for a change.  Narrow streets of Nafplion    The view from the top of the Citadel  There were a thousand or so steps to climb to the top of the citadel. |