ADELAIDE TO GREECE 2014 - The journey begins..............

Being sleep-deprived and jet-lagged is such a small price to pay when you eventually arrive at your destination. Every year the journey is the same, airports, long flights and so much time wasted going through the painful process of boat registration.

Our first few days in Greece were spent taking in the sights and culture of Corfu. 

The Corfu coast road

The Liston Volta in Corfu town

 
 

A typical family holiday activity at our hotel

  

Corfu butcher shop

Usually we rush to go sailing, this time we decided to explore the town, relax and start the registration/boat entry process. Big mistake! The bigger the town, the more pedantic the process.

Being non-EU aliens means our every move is documented in triplicate, on paper (using carbon paper to copy), authenticated by local customs and port police then sent to Athens just to be absolutely sure. The costs (8E + 15E +30E) along the way are trivial, but the process is tedious. 

Thank goodness the new laws about boat tax (400E/yr) are still to be passed by the Greek government. As usual, govt and port officials were totally confused about transit logs – maybe non EU boat owners are a scarce species?

Fruit shop in Igoumenitsa

 

Plataria bay

Waiting for summer in Plataria

 Plataria is a small fishing port near Igoumenitsa on the Greek mainland. Each year we base ourselves there as it is not so touristy, is utterly beautiful and now feels a bit like home. The locals say that summer hasn’t arrived but we think it’s perfect – 24C, cool nights and light winds. One small issue about being based in Plataria is that virtually no-one has credit card facilities. As we needed to stock up on supplies we headed off to catch the local bus to Igoumenitsa. After an hour of waiting at the bus stop a friendly Greek couple from Syvota picked us up and took us to town. Last year it was the local orthodox priest who took pity on us – we must look old and trustworthy!

There is nothing like messing around in boats; we sleep well, make new friends and generally slow down