About diesel quality in Greece

[Eren]

I need forumites past experience about the quality of diesel in Greece.

Last year I was bringing my boat from Turkey to Montenegro. I filled up the tank in Turkey, all went fine. First top up after that was in Mykonos. As soon as I filled up the Greek diesel, my port engine started to have difficulty in maintaining a stable rpm (my boat is a motorboat with 2x575 HP Cat C9s). +/-50'rpms continuously. Then the starboard engine followed the same. I had to do a fine adjustment with the throttles to help the engines synchronize and get stable. I changed fuel filters on the way, that helped a bit but did not solve it completely. In the end, it wasn't a big issue and I completed the rest of the season by "fine tuning" the throttles.

This year, I had the annual engine service done in Montenegro, filled up the tank there and set on the way to Greece for Ionian islands. Problem was gone and I had a straight 200 nm to Corfu without any problems. I filled up again in Corfu and bingo, the exact same problem started again!

Of course now I am in doubt about the fuel quality in Greece. Long before, I had read a note at a forum that the lubricant content of Greek diesel was low and the wrlter had recommended of adding 20 lt oil for each 1000 lts of Greek diesel. I haven't tried that as it quite a vague recommendation but, I would like to know if any of the forumites has similar experiences with the diesel in Greece.

Any input is appreciated.

 

[vas]

I'm based in Greece so only use Greek fuel...
However I only use AVIN fuel which *I think* has the highest antibug content. A very. Good and reputable diesel pump/turbo specialist claims that we indeed should add a little yellow 10SAE oil on each fill to "help" pump lubrication.

A friend with two CATS did it, not me yet though...

Cheers

V.

 

[Hardmy]

I am based in Greece since 3 years and I never had any difficulties with fuel quality here. True that I have older mechanical engines (2x425hp Cats 3208TA). And when changing my Racors every year, I never found any debris or any water in the glass below.

I take references about the fuel man from other boaters. I also take a sample in a bottle before filling, should I have problem afterwards I can send it to a laboratory. I tend to fill in the same places: Saranda/AL (opposite Corfu), Preveza, Nydri, Poros (Aegean side). My preferred fuel is the Revoil xtra4 which is being delivered to all big tripper boats in Nydri. Never had any bugs, nor do I add any Grotamar or anything else. This diesel is sitting in my boat (while on the dry) for the whole winter.

The only problem I saw to date, are the fuel men who "play with the meter". My parents have been ripped off in Preveza (about 10-20% difference). I witnessed 1-2 month ago a big fight between a Greek customer (80-100 liters missing) and the local mini-tanker man in Galaxidhi.

Eren, where do you refuel? In marinas/fixed station or with a mini-tanker? Are you still in Greece?

 

[Eren]

Dear Vas/Dear Hardmy,

Thank you very much for your help. I am actually at Ionian islands at the moment, at Kalamos to be exact. I have read Hardmy's valuable thread about his trip to here and just took note of the phone number of the fuel guy in Nidri. Tomorrow I will contact him to refuel.

Frankly I also doubt about the amount I received at my last refuel at Corfu yacht club. I theoretically received 1200 liters but I am surprised how quickly it is consumed...

On the services, my Racor filters were all clean as well. My doubt is more close to lubricator content of the fuel. I might try to add the oil but I don't want to try it this time as a serious passage back to Montenegro is waiting for me, I don't want to play with it before this passage.

 

[Jim@sea]

Even in the UK we can have diesel problems with supplies, I took my truck to a filling station and filled up with diesel, 15 miles later the engine stopped, fortunately on this truck there was an in line filter, which was clogged up with goo, which I cleaned and carried on, only to find that 50 miles alter it was getting clogged up again. I understand that when a tank is low and the filling station has a delivery all the goo gets churned up, and as some filling stations remove the filter within the diesel pump (as they keep getting goo slowing the pump down) the goo is passes on to the buyer. And I imagine that in Greece they are even less circumspect.

 

[Eren]

Dear all,

Let me give you some feedback about the Greek diesel issue. I filled up my tank from the fuel man in Nydri, who was referred by Hardmy. The difference is like day and night. The instability at the rpm immediately disappeared. So I understood that the root of the problem was coming from the fuel quality. Also I recalculated the amount of fuel I spent from my last refueling from the Corfu Yacht Club. I understood that I was heavily cheated there. Now I understand why any local who is helping with the mooring lines ask me if I need fuel. I can see that there is money for anyone in the game. As the price of diesel is more or less fixed, this money comes out from either delivering less fuel or delivering low quality fuel or even both. Therefore all should be careful about this and buy fuel from rather well known sources.

Thanks a lot for your help.

 

[BartW]

thanks for the feedback !
we were spoiled with high quality fuel at a very good price in PM ;-)
(the PM fuel station has its own laboratory for quality inspection of each delivery, Kosmas told me)

 

[Eren]

Yes Bart, never had such a case in Montenegro. Frankly speaking, neither in any other countries that I fueled before as well (France, Croatia, Turkey, Italy). It was only in Greece and I wouldn't report it if it was only once. It is good to keep the heads up for other forumites.

 

[Hardmy]

Glad to read that your trip in your homewaters went well. Fuel quality is for us moboers indeed critical. I agree that the "friendly line helper fuelman" is not guaranteed the best bet!

You seem to navigate greek waters a lot, you were even in Mykonos? How did you deal with the meltemi and the problematic harbour? Any chance to drop a few lines about your experience(s) in the Aegean or even disclose a couple of pics? ;-)

 

[Eren]

Glad to read that your trip in your homewaters went well. Fuel quality is for us moboers indeed critical. I agree that the "friendly line helper fuelman" is not guaranteed the best bet!

You seem to navigate greek waters a lot, you were even in Mykonos? How did you deal with the meltemi and the problematic harbour? Any chance to drop a few lines about your experience(s) in the Aegean or even disclose a couple of pics? ;-)

Dear Hardmy,

Sorry for my delayed reply. First of all thank you for your help with the diesel issue.

Yes, I travel a lot at the Aegean Islands, mostly the eastern ones. About Mykonos, I am not sure that it is the best island to go on the Aegean in any means:

Pros:
- You can show off to your friends that you were in Mykonos in the summer.
- It is nice to have a drink at the old Mykonos village at the sunset.
- Mykonos is nice if you like partying. There are lots of bars, clubs, etc. But the age level is usually around 25. There are also some classy clubs and restaurants.


Cons:
- Harsh and continuous wind.
- Wind.
- Very poor marina conditions, also the marina is far from the island's center.
- Wind.
- Crowds of people.
- Have I mentioned the wind?

Normally it is not possible to leave the boat alone at anchor because of heavy wind. May be an eye sight away only for a lunch escape. The protected bays are on the south coast, but they are also not comfortable to stay.

After my latest trip to Ionian, I clearly understood that I don't like places with heavy "land tourism" (ie. Corfu). I'd rather like to be in places like Paxos or Kioni at Ithaca. Therefore Mykonos is not that much in my list.

All in all, I should say that, it is good to be there with own boat for a couple of days. But better watch the weather closely and try to find some calm days (they are there now and then). I was there, I am happy that I did it.

If you would like to go to east side of Aegean Sea, I would recommend Patmos, Samos and Simi. But please note that there are several nice islands to the west of Mykonos, of which I don't have much information.

Please note that the Greek islands on the Aegean sea are much different than the Ionian islands. They are mostly volcanic islands, dark stones at the beaches, very few trees. But architecture is very nice. The white houses as you see on the photos are everywhere. On the Ionian, you feel the Italian spirit, on the Aegean, you feel the Greek spirit.

I hope that I was helpful!