On the 5th Oct we headed to Vathy, Meganisi with a southerly forecast coming in. The public quay there is an ideal bolt hole to shelter from a southerly.

The lovely village hums in main season but is re claimed by the locals in Oct. There isn't a bank or ATM and the locals say they leave their keys in their doors in winter time.

A few late season yachties lined the waterfront. Anyone who has sailed knows that the first thing on a yachties mind when arriving on the quay is, ' Where is the electricity box to plug in to and is there any water ?'

The two newly installed electricity boxes on the quay were padlocked and had a tel contact number which I duly called........for 2 days !!!! I asked in the adjacent taverna ,'Who might have the key'. Normally there is a small daily charge.

No one knew who had the quay, but I mentioned the tel number I had been trying for 2 days.

' Oh no !', was the reply, 'You mustn't call that number the guy has joined the army and he's not supposed to have his mobile with him. If it rings and the captain hears it, he will be in a lot of trouble'.

So I and half the yachts had been calling it for .........2 days plus how many yachts for days before!!!

What's more he had taken the only key to the box with him!!!

Later that day the box on the  other end of the quay was surprisingly opened and some yachts plugged in. I asked one of the yachts who had opened the box, ' a man with a beard came the reply'

Yes in Greece I thought hmmmm this could take time.

Finally I was directed to another adjacent taverna and there I found a ' bearded' guy who did have the key to.............the other box. He said he was, just looking after it till the guy who'd gone off to the army came back. The guy had forgotten to leave.......the key to the other box.

So when would he be back, ' Next year sometime ',  .......with the only key. Hmmmm.

So having exhausted all avenues there is only one way forward  when the only key on the island has gone away with its custodian to join the army............very large rig cutting bolt croppers !!!!

And so the padlock was carefully cropped we plugged in , closely followed by the other yachts and we waited to see who would appear to collect our daily fees.

About an hour later, the first taverna owner screeched to our boat on his scooter. He had been to see the mayor of Meganisi to try to solve the problem of the key. ' The mayor has said for you to open the box and plug in'.  'Thank you' , we said......phew, permission after the crime. Tony thought I might have been taken away in handcuffs !!,

The next day two official looking ladies came to the box and to the boat. 'Who had opened the box', they asked. Well on an empty waterfront I might have been tempted to say I didn't know, but not wanting any innocent party to take the blame we admitted to the act adding........'We had permission from the mayor' . We'll it was true, just retrospective permission.

And so we honestly paid our dues for all of the days we had been and would be plugged in. A new padlock was added to the box and a new tel number to call was sellotaped to the top.

At least the guy in the army could perhaps use his phone again..........the mystery of who had the key to the electricity box was solved and the crew of Tioram weren't led away in handcuffs. !!!!

Love to all

T and T xx.

Photos of Vathy and the electricity box