Despite the bureaucracy and administrative difficulties that all cruising yachties have to face when on a boat in Greece, I still think this country has a real magic that makes all the annoying complexities totally worthwhile.
We happened to arrive in Corfu at the weekend and the check-in process kind of went alright – well for me it was easy as I stayed with the boat while the skipper did the honours.
We had anchored in Garitsa Bay, a wide and large anchorage, fairly well protected and with good holding (but only if you can find a patch of sand.) It is an ideal place to anchor if you are picking up family or friends arriving from the airport which is an easy walk only 1km away.
The port authority and customs buildings are a longer walk along the sea front and around the other side of the headland so Jonathan had quite a long walk in the heat of the day to cope with.
When he arrived he found the offices closed because it was the weekend!
Fortunately, Jonathan noticed the cruise ship terminal (how could you miss it when those big blighters are in?!) so he realised that there would have to be offices to deal with all the passengers and also for those arriving on the international ferries that would dock throughout the weekend. So off he went and found the appropriate port authority building.
The ladies there were very pleasant and efficient and once they’d completed their part of the check-in process, sent him on to the Customs Officers who were also very nice. However, at Passport control Jonathan met one of those officials who quite honestly makes your heart sink while simultaneously wanting to spit chips.
Jonathan went up to him just to ask if he was in the correct place to get our passports stamped and he barked out the instruction “Don’t try and jump the queue – you must go to the back of the line!”
Duly chastened, Jonathan sat down and waited while around a thousand ferry and cruise ship passengers were processed. Over an hour later he took his turn.
Part of the requirements for staying in Greece on a boat is the payment of a cruising tax called Tepai. In theory this can be done online but we have heard of a number of instances where people have paid online and then been told at Customs that there was no proof that this had been done and they would have to pay again. The website is an absolute nightmare!
As we were paying for June (even though we arrived right at the end of the month), July, August and September (even though we’d be leaving early in the month) we couldn’t risk losing over €400 if we paid online.
Unfortunately, the office that deals with the cruising tax could only take payment for one month (who knows why) but they said we could pay at the Post Office “any day, it’s easy”.
A few days later we went along to the Post Office which wasn’t far from the anchorage. When we arrived there was quite a big crowd of people milling around and Jonathan said to me “this is going to take at least an hour”.
He was spot on, an hour later we were at the counter being assured that we definitely COULDN’T pay for the rest of the Tepai at the post office! No amount of argument could persuade them otherwise and they told us we should go to PEK. “What is PEK?” we asked. “PEK is …PEK”.
None the wiser but armed with an address we made our way to ”PEK” and found it was the taxation building. Of course it wasn’t the right place but there was one very nice woman who tried to phone the Customs/Port Police but couldn’t get through. Don’t think it would have helped anyway!
So off Jonathan went walking back though to the other side of town in the heat while I went to the market to buy fruit and vegetables for my sister Julia’s forthcoming visit.
Eventually he arrived back at the boat, having paid the cruising tax in full but not before being told once again by the “workers” sitting round at Customs chatting and smoking that he should go down to the post office to pay!
Despite all of the hassles it was wonderful to be back in Corfu and explore the lovely and quite unspoiled old town a little more and to eat delicious Greek salad for lunch.
There wasn’t too much time for exploring however, as our boat needed a thorough clean after the trip from Montenegro and there was also a lot of washing to catch up on. Frustratingly we had just finished cleaning when we had a tiny shower of rain which carried a massive amount of red Saharan dust. The decks were a mess!
We had been anchored in Garitsa Bay for a few days and hadn’t budged an inch so we were pretty confident that we’d managed to hit a patch of sand when we anchored. Oh how wrong can you be!
We knew that the wind was about to change to a Northerly and that it was going to be moderately strong overnight but as we had been sitting at anchor for several days we felt certain that all would be fine.
Again, how wrong can you be?! At 3am Jonathan woke me saying, “We’re dragging, quick get up”. I jumped out of bed bleary eyed and ran forward to pull the anchor up. As it came up the reason we dragged was starkly evident – the anchor was absolutely covered in massive clumps of weed!
Meanwhile, we were heading straight for a French monohull and Jonathan warned me to run and be ready to fend off while he tried to manoeuvre Sunday out of the way.
We did touch the other boat very gently – just a quick knock, fortunately with absolutely no damage, not even the slightest scratch. However, it was enough to wake the skipper who came running out but by then we were well clear. It was a scary experience!
Jonathan tells me we tried to reanchor but I have no memory of this – it would have been impossible to find a spot of sand in the darkness!
We spent the next few hours motoring in circles and doing figure of eights round the super yacht Zeus and other super yachts in the outer reaches of the anchorage.
Although we would rather have been in bed, our meandering trip around the anchorage was actually quite relaxing and quite scenic with all the super yachts lit up, the floodlit castle and the iconic windmill to gaze at.
Soon several other boats that had dragged their anchors appeared – some heading out to sea to find a more sheltered anchorage and others circling round until there was enough light to see a patch of sand amongst the weed to anchor in.
Finally dawn came and we were able to attempt anchoring again. We took several goes at it and on our travels around the anchorage saw many skippers in sleeping bags and in their PJs who had obviously been on anchor watch since the early hours.
to lighten
Once we anchored safely we kept a watch on all the other boats in the anchorage. The wind was still blowing strongly from the land and with the seabed so thickly covered with weed, in between the sand patches, we were concerned that there might be more dragging boats.
We were right! There were several dragging boats over the course of a day – one which caused a lot of dramas because its owners had foolishly gone to shore.
This boat was moving quite quickly by the time it reached where we were anchored. The boat next to us had get their anchor up and motor out of its way – thank goodness they hadn’t gone ashore!
We were about to lower our dinghy so we could go to the boat and reanchor it but just then a dinghy with a large outboard whizzed past with two fit looking men inside who were heading for the boat in distress.
Of course we watched as they clambered aboard and we could see them trying to start the engine but didn’t seem to be able to. In the meantime a tender for one of the super yachts anchored in the outer bay went past and we flagged him down to see if the young guy driving could go and assist which he thankfully did.
I’m not sure if the rescuers managed to get the engine going but thankfully somehow they managed to reanchor the runaway yacht. The owners must have such a shock when they returned to the anchorage to find their beloved home a long, long way from where they left her!
Salty tales from Bali Hai on Sunday 
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