Greek 'Dekpa'

[nimbusgb]

After all the horror stories about right royal runabouts dealing with Greek officialdom I was somewhat apprehensive about getting one this morning. I have survived 6 seasons without one but with the Greek situation at the moment I felt being 100% within the law might be a good idea.

So I reluctantly went over to Preveza Port Police office armed with a sheaf of papers. ( Insurance docs, Passport ( take all the crews passports ) Certificate of (in)competence, Bill of sale, Registration certificate.

I'm worried questions will be asked about past lack of Dekpa, will my bill of sale be OK? Will I get into a VAT nightmare and will I spend a day bu$$ering about to get it all together.

I get handed a map printout and a piece of paper and given instructions to walk up to the tax office to pay for the documents. Nightmare thinks I. 10 mins later I'm at the almost deserted tax office and another 20 mins and I'm already back at the Port Police office.

All in all from parking up to driving off with the Dekpa, 40 minutes.

Now what was all the worry about?

 

[oldbilbo]

All in all from parking up to driving off with the Dekpa, 40 minutes.

Cheez! It took longer than that to buy a Road Tax Disc this week in Central Bath!

'Live the dream...'

 

[DaveRo]

Does your new DEKPA have a vaidity period or expiry date? I was told recently that new ones do,

 

[nimbusgb]

Not that I can see. It's a 'book' just over A4 size ( great! it doesn't fit anywhere sensible!!! ) with space for lots of stamps but no expiry date that I noticed.

 

[ccscott49]

.......and what are you meant to do with it? Nobody explained to me and I still dont have one, port police in Gouvia still dont have any! What if you dont go into any other greek ports? I anchor out everywhere, dont like town quays, get my anchor pulled up all the time.

 

[jordanbasset]

I was always doubtful about getting my Dekpa stamped and only went in to the Port Police if asked to. However my experience of the port police in Kalamata may make me change my ways. The young woman officer there is delightful. She asked me to come into the office and I thought oh well another 30 minutes of my life I won't get back. But she was efficiency herself and after five minutes it was done and she gave me a bag of savoury biscuits as a 'present'. On booking out she was her usual efficiency and she offered coffee and juice - Brilliant!

 

[little_roundtop]

I was always doubtful about getting my Dekpa stamped and only went in to the Port Police if asked to. However my experience of the port police in Kalamata may make me change my ways. The young woman officer there is delightful. She asked me to come into the office and I thought oh well another 30 minutes of my life I won't get back. But she was efficiency herself and after five minutes it was done and she gave me a bag of savoury biscuits as a 'present'. On booking out she was her usual efficiency and she offered coffee and juice - Brilliant!

Our experience of the Greek port police is that they're as variable as any other manned service. Some are wonderful and friendly and others are total twats. We've even seen this variability between different shifts in the same port. We reckon that it's best to keep smiling, be polite and don't argue, they can make life quite difficult if they've a mind to.

Edit: Bloody 'eck, the profanity filter let twats through!

 

[Tugw]

Edit: Bloody 'eck, the profanity filter let twats through![/QUOTE]



Thats why theres quite a few in the forums

 

[rivonia]

.......and what are you meant to do with it? Nobody explained to me and I still dont have one, port police in Gouvia still dont have any! What if you dont go into any other greek ports? I anchor out everywhere, dont like town quays, get my anchor pulled up all the time.

What your supposed to do is take to the port police and get it stamped in and then when you leave get it stamped out. We do this once every 30 days when in the Greek Islands. We have NEVER been charged for the service. The DEKPA is not for any particular lenght of time. When it is full then you simply get a new one.

Fair winds

Peter