Position:     36:54.08N    21:40.09E

Location:  Pilos, Greece

May 9^th, 2013

Land Ahoy!!

This had been out longest sail to date and it had gone pretty smoothly – well very smoothly actually and we had caught a little Tunny to boot!

Welcome to Greece!

Greece has strict rules for international boats and crew ‘checking in’ (hmm.. you wouldn’t think they were part of the EU!).
The most convenient port for us was the little port of Pilos SW of Greece.

This was our first taste of the total disorganization of boating in Greece!
We were to find out that “Yes”, it is cheap - but, there are very few ‘marinas’ with the facilities we had come to expect. What there is is often old, worn out or tired, they are mostly designed for smaller boats than ours. You can’t reserve a berth either except on rare times making every port arrival a game of roulette. So, having arrived without being able to make a reservation we found that the only berths left in the small marina were too small for us.

The ‘unofficial’ waterman/fuelman.

We were left with choosing between anchoring or to berth alongside the ‘unofficial’ so called water/fuel dock with no facilities at all. The weather was forecasted to create a swell in this large bay so we decided to use the fuel dock. This had a nasty wall designed for ruining mooring warps and the unofficial water/fuel man was not happy with us using his spot! This chap promptly told us to move on if we didn’t want to buy any water or fuel during our stay.
Actually, it turned out that once he realized I was staying regardless of his moaning and once I’d given in to his begging for 20 Euros he became my biggest buddy ever and offered to keep an eye on the boat!

Checking IN and OUT of Greece.

Once secured to the dock I then had to “check-in” to Greece and pay the various fees required. This meant making four trips. Three of them to the police station and one of them to the immigration office. It took three hours in total, I noticed 25 stamps on the paperwork. Everyone was very nice about it – even the consultancy fee I think I paid was done very nicely too. This ensured that I wouldn’t have any trouble traveling throughout Greece and avoid a potential 10,000 Euro fine that can happen if this is not done properly (“..like the boat over there, Sir. They had to pay 20 Euro/day for not checking out their Transit Log several years ago.”) 

I now have a nice thick wad of official looking paperwork too!  I had to present this at every port I called at. I had to get it stamped IN and then get it stamped OUT! 
At EVERY port of call.
Greece had better be good!