Greece! Just Kidding…

I had many potential titles for this post. They included “Forget Greece” or “I Hate Greece” or “Back Sooner than We Thought” or simply “Some Things are Not Meant to Be.” I thought I might regret some of those early options. 

Our plan was to make the short hop from Albania to Greece where we would continue to have family and friends join us for the next three months. We should have known we were having a bad karma day when it began with a difficult departure from Sarandë, Albania.

We were getting ready to pull up our anchor, good ole’ Gertie, and Conor figured out that the Australian catamaran in front of us was likely sitting right over her. As it turns out, the owner and family were all piled into their dinghy getting ready to head to shore. Conor called out and explained that he might want to hang around until we were clear. Good thing he did. Gertie was indeed resting underneath their boat and as I was drawing her in, we kept getting closer and closer.  We were scrambling to move fenders around and the other skipper, Ian, used his full dinghy as another ‘fender.’ We ended up with a not-so-fun game of bumper boats. As Gertie was almost all the way in, she stopped short. Turns out, she had hooked an unknown 300+ meter mooring line extending from the beach swim area under the water. Gertie was stuck and we kept bumping. Ian kindly offered to assist as he was in the prime position in his dinghy underneath Sabática’s bow where the anchor was visible. He and Conor were able to get a trip line in place, and Ian pulled her free. Thank goodness for Ian! We were finally on our way, but not without being a bit rattled. 

We made a 2 1/2 hour choppy trek through the channel to Corfu. As we arrived at the marina where we had a reservation, the harbor master explained over VHF that he didn’t have our reservation. We’d have to wait a couple of hours. Thankfully, he discovered his mistake soon enough, and we entered the harbor. It was one of the most treacherous docks we’ve seen yet. The staff member helped us get our boat tied off to the stone dock and then just left to presumably help others. No instructions or information provided. The large rocks dipped well under the dock such that we could only tie off about twelve feet away. No passarelle was going to reach from boat to dock. So Skippy improvised and cleverly used UberDing as a transfer system back and forth. We were also placed near the very end of the dock near the open sea with lots of wind and swell, making for a bumpy stay. Sheesh. Already we were having concerns about Conor’s brother, our sister-in-law, and their two young children arriving to the marina near midnight the following day.  

Given we were in a new country, our first order of business was to track down and acquire new SIM cards for our phones. We eventually found the store we were looking for, but it was closed for another three hours. One refreshing and delicious gelato later, we headed back to Sabática because our agent was coming to meet us and gather all of our documentation to help us get checked into Greece. Theo gathered all of our documents and said he’d return the following day around noon. Conor revisited the telecom store and successfully returned with multiple SIM cards. We got them installed no problem, but they didn’t want to work very well where we were located. Sigh. We just cooked dinner on the boat and crashed for the night. 

The next morning, I got laundry done and we were getting prepped for our new arrivals. Then, Theo called. There was a problem. He had gone through all of our documentation, and his partner had reached out to an immigration officer they knew there in Corfu. If we attempted to officially check in, I could get detained and Sabática could be seized. What?! We met Theo and his partner at the marina bar a bit later for their explanation. They were essentially doing us a favor. Turns out, the officials in Corfu have a different interpretation of EU law than the rest of the EU countries we’ve visited so far. The law states: As an EU citizen (which Conor is), he is allowed to travel throughout the EU and Schengen area no problem. As his spouse, I have the same rights as long as I am traveling with him. By contrast, if I were just an American tourist on my own, I’d only be allowed in the Schengen area for a total of 90 days. We have both obviously been within the Schengen area for more than 90 days (though in different countries), and thus, the Greek officials were not going to allow me entry. Ridiculous. Insane. We might have had some other words at the time. Theo said the best thing we could do was to simply leave. So we did. 

Conor organized a hotel for his brother’s family since they were still arriving into Corfu that night. (He was doing this anyway so they wouldn’t have to deal with the crazy dock.) He spoke to another agent in Greece to get a second opinion. She was going to do some calling around but explained that immigration officers at the various ports of entry into Greece are known for having different interpretations of the law. We might be able to enter via another port, but then what? Boaters are required to get stamps at each port they enter throughout Greece.

We left Corfu and retraced our course back to Albania, dumbstruck. Now what? Plan B and C and D started to formulate. Not only for our impending arrivals, but all of those for the rest of the season. Safely back in Sarandë (where we could stay for up to a year if we wanted), we started to connect with all of our remaining summer visitors to re-organize their plans. We’re happy to get to explore more of Albania (see my previous post!), and so far our family and friends seem keen as well to explore north to the likes of Montenegro and Croatia. As always, stay tuned!

By the way, a very dear friend gifted me the little ‘Keep Calm & Carry On’ pillow that hung in our kitchen at home for many years and came with me to Sabática’s galley. She laughed saying ‘You’re on a boat, how could you possibly get stressed out?!’ Case in point. 😉 #boatlife