Departure and Arrival – Good bad and ugly

by admin · 17/08/2019

Hew and I had a day to relax after Izi left.

Usual boat cleaning and washing jobs and lovely Lazure marina so no hurray. Fuel filter change on engine, was the decks , clean the whole inside, get rid of surplus rubbish and even treated ourselves to a new Greek Cruising Guide. Tracks all set up and Pre-booked the fuel for 1100 the next day on departure and all was looking good.

Sunday started clear beautiful day. We wandered up to the fuel dock and were told they were running about 15mins late. I went into clear with harbour master- knowing they had made a mistake on the document they issued with names. One of helpers came out took me in in the golf cart and looked at the document but was more worried about the date as we had until 1430 to leave Montenegro or be fined. Anyway document stamped and departure document issued and we were ushered off Q dock to hang around until we could get on the fuel doc. Both of us jumped in to have a swim as we drifted around.

Finally got on the fuel dock at 1145 and started refuelling. Had turned all electronics off as requested and signed all the forms. Fuelling was slow as uplifted 1180litres and tanks are slow to balance.

On the tax paid section of the dock I saw a Cook Islands flag so went over to have a chat to the two guys on a big yacht. Asked where they were from? The owner was Russians, the yacht is berthed in Montenegro and it is flagged for the Cook Islands!!!!! I had to smile. He said he would love to get there one day….

Got the fuel all on and I went off to pay and do more paperwork. 11 sheets of same fuel form!!! Fuel guys were very friendly and helpful. Got through all forms done, back to harbour master and customs and police. Received all the stamps and finally off the dock at 1415.

Everyone keen to get rid of us as big queues for the fuel dock and they only book tax free fuel – the rest have to wait. As we powered up the instruments and pushed off the screens seemed a bit slow – didn’t think much of it … 5 min later still no #1 and no #3. Closer look showed no GPS on #2.

By this time cruising down the narrows towards the sea. Stay or go??? Being optimists we opened the navionics on the iPads checked the positions and decided to keep going and fix everything on the way!!! Trying to navigate out, set up iPads, fix screens- shambles. End result was we could not download the full raymarine manual while still in Montenegrin waters so decided easier to leave everything as it was till Greece. Finally managed to get most info on #2 but it would not pick up a GPS. Luckily navionics now includes AIS on iPads so with the maps and AIS on iPads and the radar on the #2 screen and GPS on basic instruments we continued through the night.

Both of us were thinking we will get to Greece and all will be well……

Next morning wind was up for a while and had a good sail but then it died so we decided to try the spinnaker out. All went up ok but way too small – not full hoist 2m short at top and at least 2 m at the bottom. Beautiful colours but not much use- genniker is bigger. What to do????

Get to Corfu port about 1700 decided to go to Comnercial port as close to customs. Big mistake. Although we had read that it could have wake from ferries and be rough we had no idea how bad the condition of the wharf was- very very rough broken concrete. Anyway decided I would jump off and Hew back away from wall as it would rip the fender sand covers to shreds. Thought an hour should do.

Went to the port office who looked at Tepai and payment sent me on to customs. Meanwhile they wanted Hew out of harbour as ferry coming so he headed off outside breakwater. 2.5 hours later customs saw me, then decided they couldn’t accept proof of payment as the document hadn’t updated!!!! Customs are there for ferries, cruise ships and super yachts as lastly private small vessels. They are annoyed at having to handle the Tepai and the transit logs. They said they had not been told by the port authorities that I was coming. Not happy. They told me to come back the next day!!!

I got back to the yacht after being away 3 hours. Hew had come back to wall after 90 mins and although helped by one of the port police the fenders were a mess. We departed for the old harbour. Tied up went in for dinner quickly and crashed. After very little sleep in 30 hours I was shattered.€50 for berth in old port.

Interesting boat next door.

Next morning I had been told to be there at 10. Got on bike and cycled away leaving Hew to try and contact Ray marine agent- who was not really interested!! Got to port authority again And asked if they could check Tepai payments before I went to customs but I was told that they only check documents and stamps – can’t see system.

I had checked with my bank and the payment had gone but the Tepai form had locked me out!!! Got to customs by 1030 and told to wait outside until 1200. Went to check and one girl finally went and asked inside. Managed to get through the door and sit down to wait. Then was told they had no time till after 1500 . When I said I had already spent 5 hours over two days waiting for them and could the guarantee the time at 1500 they looked at the schedule of ferries and started to say no. I was getting really fed up and then one of them agreed to do the paperwork. One hour later and much grumbling and stamping I had the documents. They had handwritten out all the information for the transit log that I had already entered in the electronic system for the Tepai. They also got another guy to come and look up my payment who then used his phone to take a photo off the screen to prove they had checked!! They could not believe the guys the night before had not done the paperwork.

Then back to port authority so they can check the same papers and enter it in their register!!!! €335 later I was on my way with a caution to come back to get stamped out of Corfu!!!!! Grrrrrr at this stage I was thinking I hate Greece and why did we come here. Or perhaps I should just say Corfu.

Hew had better luck. Had not been able to convince the Raymarine guy to come even though all gear under a full warranty but he had managed to download the full manual and achieved a factory reset on three screens after much button pushing and powering on and off.

Left the old port for a nice bay to the south for a lovely swim and glass or many of Prosecco while Hew tried to convince me to get my sense of humour back. Had a swim in the middle of the night and the water temperature was beautiful 28deg- like silk.

Next morning we decided to go back get signed out, pick up a SIM card for Greece, and some boat bits at chandlery. Hew was dead against checking out but since I had been specifically warned I felt I should.

I walked into the door of the port office and saw 6 different sets of yachties and thought – oh dear – here goes…. I stuck my head into the office I had been in the night before and the lady who did not speak english recognised me and said to wait while she found the right person. I was out in under 15 mins. Another lady told me she was trying to sell a boat and it was taking her days to get the paper work. Previous day a guy has told me he had taken the whole day walking around trying to get all the stamps. The process is a bureaucratic nightmare, colossal waste of time and money . Apparently EU flagged boats can do it in one of the marinas but non-EU can’t. The whole time I was in the port office in the morning the only words spoken by staff were- wait!, forms!, – no please, thank you …….. what ever. What has happened to “visitors are welcome”. The whole process and reasons needs to be looked at.

Left that afternoon for another bay down the coast. Settled in with Hew fixing 3rd toilet for the trip and me trying to get the Greek SIM card to work. Hew won and I failed. In process I made the problem worse – then we remembered that last year we needed at PC laptop to fix it with an internet cable. Not a Mac!!!!

Decided to sleep on it. Woke in the morning to a foggy world and flat calm.

Decided it is easier to have a small yacht with no electronics/ internet / AIS/ radios – then you do not waste time with the electronics and once out of port you disappear!! Oh for the simple life.

Off now to Kefalonia – love the hydrofoils to Sarande- very smoky.

Straight forward trip down the coast and stopped for the night st the southern end of Corfu

Next stop Bay at the northern end o Kefalonia. Very pleasant but by the morning the wind was getting up so we thought we would make straight for Argostoli.

Home of “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” and a great reason to re read the book. Makes so much more sense when you are in Greece and all the anecdotes about the locals. I made Hew re read it and he was in tears over the funny bits. Of course it is a very sad testimony on the idiocy of mankind and wars as well.

Saw a great pod of dolphins – 7- mother and baby and juveniles all playing in the bow wave. Great to see

Argostoli was blowing 20g25 got into dock but too beam on for our bows and holding no good so set sail for North end of arm for a couple of days cleaning, clearing up and tidying up. Found a very sheltered spot under the cliffs and both blue muscles and oysters in the shallows. We passed both Oyster and mussel farms mid way to the bay. Initially tied to the cliff but again too much beam wind pressure from guts so end just anchoring out and settled down for two days of windy weather. Checked out the local cuisine….