Bisou de partout: GREECE

Officially entering Greece was quite unlike any other country we had been to thus far (perhaps with the exception of Tunisia) in that there was a fair amount of bureaucracy to contend with. As we motored up the channel to Argostoli, we prepared the paperwork and re-read the pilot guide for information as to what we would need to do once we arrived into Argostoli. In Greece, there are certain ‘ports of entry’ that perform the duties of customs clearance, passport stamping and transit log preparation, and we had already decided to enter at Argostoli on the island of Cephalonia. The harbour is a well-protected one with a long public quay on which we were able to tie up alongside as it was not particularly crowded. The advantage of this was to be secure and close to shops and restaurants – the disadvantage was that a large cruise ship had just berthed in the harbour and there were literally thousands of tourists walking around gawking at us as they passed by the boat. We had been given the name of a ‘port agent’ by our French friends in Tunisia and said to call him on the VHF when we arrived. Little did we know that he was incredibly busy with the cruise ship in town but he did make the effort to meet us at the boat and offer to assist us with our paperwork. In the meantime, while we were tied up, we met some Americans who had also just arrived from Sicily where they had wintered (they have dual citizenship with Italian passports as well) and as they come to Greece every year they told us that the procedure was very straightforward and that we could do it ourselves. In the end, “Leonardo” our agent, didn’t show up later that evening when we went ashore for dinner, so we ended up doing the necessary paperwork ourselves the next day – more on that later.

We decided that we would be more comfortable at anchor in the bay, so after dumping our rubbish, we released our lines and found a good spot near the Americans and not far from a Canadian sailboat called “Three Sheets” from Sarnia, Ont! We met the owners of this boat later that day and had a great chat with them – lovely people who bought their boat in San Diego and have sailed it all the way through the Panama Canal and across the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.

A Greek dinner was almost obligatory for our first night in Greece, and so, although we were rather tired after our long voyage, we showered and dressed for a nice dinner out. We found a small, and not-too-touristy ‘taverna’ (restaurant) with a good variety and reasonably priced and sat down to eat. The first item to be ordered was a large (500mL) glass of ice cold beer, followed by fried anchovies (small fish) and souvlaki (kebabs); all of which were delicious. Home-made baklava was impossible for Robin to resist and even Tad, who had a taste, thought it was very tasty. Thus replete, we headed back to the boat and a sound night’s sleep.

The next morning Robin made her way ashore to complete the entry documents: as our boat is non-EU we needed to purchase a ‘transit log’. This is somewhat like a ‘passport’ for the boat and is valid for 6 months (even though we, its crew/passengers/owners, may only stay in Schengen Europe for 3 months) – each port that we stop in, we are supposed to get a stamp in and stamp out and this way the Greek authorities can keep track of where you go and how long you stay. The fact that many cruisers stay at anchor almost the entire time they are in Greece means that it is not convenient to try and find port police to get the transit log stamped – the authorities are well aware of this and simply ask that you try and get the log stamped once a month or so. The most important thing is that you MUST hand it in and be stamped out of Greece when you leave – if you do not do this, all kinds of hell breaks loose (I don’t want to know about it!). So, this means that you need to find a port near to where you plan to exit, that has the authorities to be able to stamp you out (not always easy!).

The documentation process was going smoothly and we were simply waiting for the police to stamp our passports when our Canadian friend came running to the Port Authority where we were seated to tell us that Bisou had dragged her anchor and was sitting just metres from a concrete causeway about 200m from where we had left her! Tad leaped to his feet, and ran with Reg back to our dinghy and from there out to Bisou to ‘rescue’ her! Robin, meanwhile, waiting on the dock was watching through her binoculars hoping that all would be well. In the end, the whole thing was a comedy of errors – in their haste to leap onto Bisou, Tad had asked Reg to tie off the dinghy and come aboard while he reset the anchor. They motored back to where we had originally anchored, reset and made Bisou safe again, then prepared to take Reg back to shore (where Reg’s wife, Phoebe, and their dinghy were waiting). That was when they noticed that the dinghy was no longer there! Looking around the bay Tad spotted a fishing boat coming along towing ‘P’tit Bisou’ behind him – both Tad and Reg waved madly at the fisherman who came alongside Bisou and took Tad across to the Port Authority. Tad tried to explain to the fisherman that they had lost the dinghy in the rush to get back on the boat but the fisherman spoke only Greek and insisted on taking the dinghy to the Port Authority. We discovered later that he had radioed in his find and wanted to be sure that the dinghy was returned to its rightful owner! We thanked him profusely and the adventure was over! Well, we still were waiting to get our passports stamped – the police officer had gone off on another errand, but thankfully our ‘friend’ Leonardo offered to take us to the police station in his car where we were finally officially stamped in to Schengen Europe and Greece!

We invited our new ‘best friends’, the Canadians, on board for a drink and a chat that evening and enjoyed their company and their stories immensely. Exhausted from all the excitement of the day, we fell asleep rather early.

Having walked through the streets of Argostoli, and found that it was full of tourist shops and tavernas, we decided to head out the next day. Robin went ashore to stamp us out of Argostoli and Tad went to collect the Camping Gaz bottle which he was having filled. We had also decided to try and find our fisherman ‘saviour’ and give him a bottle of wine and a little stuffed koala to say ‘thank you’ for rescuing our dinghy. Just as we were leaving Bisou to go ashore, Tad waved the fisherman down who happened to be passing by. The fisherman came over to the boat and asked what he could do to help – we merely handed him the bottle of wine and said we wanted to thank him for helping us the day before. He was extremely pleased and motored off to the quay to sell his night’s catch. After completing the stamping out, Robin walked back to meet Tad where he confessed to having made a “terrible mistake”. We had inadvertently given the wrong fisherman the bottle of wine! While walking along the quay to collect the Camping Gaz bottle, Tad had seen the ‘correct’ fisherman arguing with the fisherman to whom we had gifted the wine and gesturing wildly towards our boat! Tad immediately realised that it was a case of mistaken identity (in all fairness to Tad, the fishing boat was identical and the ‘real’ fisherman, whose name we found to be Stavros, looked VERY similar to the ‘wrong’ fisherman) and we raced back to Bisou to collect another bottle of wine, another koala and bring it to Stavros with profuse apologies. While we were trying to explain what happened, another local stopped by who spoke excellent English and was able to translate our error into Greek for Stavros! Fortunately everyone had a good laugh about it all and we were able to make our escape from Argostoli without further mishap!

We headed back out of the channel and around the south coast of the island to a beautiful sandy bay and the little town of Katelios. Our American friends had told us about this anchorage and were due to catch up later that day. We thought we were truly in heaven in this place – lovely clear water, tavernas lining the beach further down and peace and quiet at night. One of Tad’s immediate desires was to change our anchor – not my idea of relaxation, but after our dragging incident (for which we still have no explanation) he wanted to put on our Rocna anchor.

I will digress for a moment here while I explain about the anchors. Those of you who have no interest in sailing technology can skip to the next paragraph!

When we initially ordered all the extra bits and pieces for Bisou in La Rochelle, Tad had ordered two anchors: both Rocnas (made in NZ and very good!), one of which was 35kg and one of which was 25kg. The heavier anchor was to be our main anchor while the 25kg one was our secondary anchor (in case we lost the other). Due to all kinds of hiccups by our sometimes wonderful chandlery in La Rochelle, the heavier anchor was not ordered until too late and we never received it before we left. We tried in vain to find another at various chandleries along the way, but it’s not an item normally carried (expensive and therefore not as popular as others). We did end up purchasing a 32kg Delta anchor instead before we left La Rochelle, and this served us well, never dragging, always ‘biting well’ up until Argostoli. We think that in Argostoli, the anchor must have flipped over when the wind changed direction and never bit back in as it dragged (which shouldn’t happen but does). The Rocna has a very sharp point (good for biting into weed and heavier clay) as well as a ‘roll bar’ which allows it to roll over and ‘bite’ if it drags or changes direction. Even though our Rocna was only 25kg it is rated for a boat our size and Tad felt that it was a better option for the types of bottom we would be encountering in Greece. So, with some effort by Robin manipulating the engines to keep Bisou in place while Tad raised the old anchor and fixed the new one (I have made it sound so easy – it wasn’t!) we re-anchored and were delighted with the way our Rocna bit into the sand. The real test would come later in more challenging anchorage areas.

A little later in the afternoon we sighted “Finalmente” with our American friends on board and invited them over for a drink and nibbles which went on until late (as they do on yachts!) and not needing any dinner, we hit the hay!

The next day we went ashore to explore the little village of Katelios and were amazed to see the number of people around in small hotels, and guest houses. We snorkeled, swam, and just generally enjoyed the weather and eventually all decided to go ashore for dinner that night. We had drinks and nibbles on board “Finalmente” first, and then dinghied ashore for a lovely Greek meal with live ‘bouzouki’ music to entertain us!

After a couple of days in a delightful anchorage we were keen to keep going and so rounded the southeastern cape of Cephalonia and headed north. Beautiful small towns in bays and on hillsides were fun to pass by, and of course, Robin had her hook out to try and catch those elusive tuna! We were visited by a pod of dolphins on the way north, but nary a fish!

As we entered a ‘channel’ between Cephalonia and the island of Ithaca, the wind increased considerably and so the last hour or so of our journey was with a 25 knot headwind and a chop. Not much fun, but the anchorage we found made the trip worthwhile. We had spotted a little bay on the charts but there was not much information either about the size or the nature of the bottom. Fortunately for us, there was a large yacht in the anchorage but they were literally just leaving! As there really was no room for more than a single boat (of our size) we were really pleased at our good fortune. The bay was not far from Ay Evfemia, but as isolated as if we were on the moon. Nothing but the sound of waves and goats! As we jumped in for a swim we were puzzled by the chill in the water until we put our masks on and saw the familiar blurr in the water indicating fresh water streams flowing into the bay. The seawater was a comfortable temperature, but where the freshwater streams met the ocean it was chilly! We sat on our boat watching a local farmer draw fresh water from a well up the hill and walk down to his olive trees along the beachfront to water them several times. We enjoyed a lovely peaceful evening star-gazing and then sleeping soundly.