Paying for mooring when you don't have to

Cardo

Cardo

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We've just arrived in Galaxidi, in the Gulf of Corinth. Quite a pleasant place, with a decent, protected harbour.
Having spoken to others who have experience of this place, I am aware the quay is free to tie up to. The water and electric points are also apparently free.

However, according to Heikell, and people I've spoken to, there are a couple of unofficial "Harbour Masters". One is, as far as I can tell, the local drunk, and the other is the diesel man.
The local drunk, when he sees boats coming in, will wave them into a berth, help them tie up, and then apparently ask for €5 as a "fee".

I'm not sure what the diesel man's game is, but he also seems to wave people in. I don't know whether he asks for any money.

I've also noticed the electric points don't seem to be working. However, I've just seen the diesel man fiddling with an electric junction on the other side of the road after a large mobo who he helped moor up asked him about the electric.

So, what's the deal? Would you pay if the local drunk, having waved you in and helped you moor up, subsequently asked €5? The large mobo I noticed handed over some cash. Is it a tip? Or do they really believe he's charging for the mooring?
 
Small update. We were just chatting with the diesel man, who confirmed the electric is indeed free. However, it appears Mr Drunk keeps switching it off from the junction box across the road as a ploy to get people to pay him his €5.
 
Cardo said:
Small update. We were just chatting with the diesel man, who confirmed the electric is indeed free. However, it appears Mr Drunk keeps switching it off from the junction box across the road as a ploy to get people to pay him his €5.[/QUOTe
The guy been there for as long as I can remember , we have never paid him any thing and the few time we went on the quay and he came over to take our lines we always said no thanks , we have never had power or water there so I cant help you with that . personaly I wouldnt pay him any thing , but that me .
www.bluewatersailorcroatia.webs.com
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Just so others can see him coming............

2j5yjgx.jpg


He is the one without a shirt, last month he was rearranging the bins with the aid of Mythos at 9am
 
The drunk is a permanent feature of the place. For a quiet life during the season we usually bung him a six pack of beer..... Off season he can be a real pest, as the rumour is that he will commit some minor act of vandalism or theft to a moored boat, hand himself over to the police and get to spend the rest of the winter in kilnk....
Water and electricity are provided by the town. We have once been asked by a lady issuing receipts for a few euros. I'm afraid the drunk has been known to turn the posts off: go turn them on again after he's passed out or buggered off for the evening.
 
I wish Galaxidi was free, earlier this year we were charged €20+ by the port police for one night in the port. I was informed by them that electricity and water were free!! The local drunk was I believe in jail at that time.
 
B&M said:
I wish Galaxidi was free, earlier this year we were charged €20+ by the port police for one night in the port. I was informed by them that electricity and water were free!! The local drunk was I believe in jail at that time.
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PP there awake enough to come and ask you to visit them? Never happened when we've visited!
 
Ok, so we've all been done by the PP last night and again this morning.

We paid just over €20 for 4 days (3 nights). They don't seem to follow the standard formula here, instead they had a yearly rate they divided by 365 to obtain the daily rate. No one off mooring up fee. For us it worked out to €5/day, which works out about the same as usual. Considering there is electric and drinking water on tap, I still think it's a good deal.
 
Cardo said:
Ok, so we've all been done by the PP last night and again this morning.

We paid just over €20 for 4 days (3 nights). They don't seem to follow the standard formula here, instead they had a yearly rate they divided by 365 to obtain the daily rate. No one off mooring up fee. For us it worked out to €5/day, which works out about the same as usual. Considering there is electric and drinking water on tap, I still think it's a good deal.
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A very good deal ,when we were there no one came around (except the drunk) but 5 euros a night including water and electric is very good
 
Cardo said:
Small update. We were just chatting with the diesel man, who confirmed the electric is indeed free. However, it appears Mr Drunk keeps switching it off from the junction box across the road as a ploy to get people to pay him his €5.
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Cardo,

The "drunk" is my mate Bazilos. He and Andrea, the fat diesel man with the glasses are certainly NOT friends. We were there three days ago (now in Zea Marina). I have been visiting Galaxhidi, regularly for ten years. Bazilos does NOT turn off the juice. He has no access to do so. I DO give him money but only when he does something for me like getting me the air con man or taking the rubbish and then max of €2_. Tell him that when Steve gets back in two weeks time he will have words to say. I first met him in a cold April 2004 when the diesel man would not come out and Bazilos took my two diesel cans plus two he borrowed and went to his home village on his Honda 50 and brought us 80litres back from the farm tank. He can be a pest but be firm, look him in the eye and say "NO" if it is appropriate. Otherwise, apart from the obvious, I have no problems with him.

Update.

Just read your bit about mooring fees. I have paid nothing in Galaxhidi, this year! We have just spent four days there and the only visit from the PP was to ask "Had we been there before?"

What are you doing to upset these people?

BTW, we were the yacht that called you up asking info on Kiato, on your way to Galaxhidi. I thought I told you about Bazilos in that exchange? Your AIS paint was good and strong yet all the others just kept coming and going. Noisy (teenagers on quay) but safe night in Kiato. Canal was closed until noon due to mech probs which spoiled our attempted visit to Korfos. Had a horrible sail instead to here (Zea) but glad we did; the seastate off here today was just awful so wouldn't have liked the fine beat from Korfos in those confused seas.


Yacht "Mary Flavin" remember? It will be in your signals log, of course!
 
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Carmel2 said:
Just so others can see him coming............

2j5yjgx.jpg


He is the one without a shirt, last month he was rearranging the bins with the aid of Mythos at 9am
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I am his "Intellectual Assets" agent, BTW. For that photograph we MAY be seeking payment of royalties, I have to warn you! The bins and the "English looking Dumb f u c k with the dead cat over his shoulder must make their own arrangements with you!

Oops! Is that you? Sorry about your cat!
 
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Steve C Cronin said:
I am his "Intellectual Assets" agent, BTW. For that photograph we MAY be seeking payment of royalties, I have to warn you! The bins and the "English looking Dumb f u c k with the dead cat over his shoulder must make their own arrangements with you!
Click to expand...

Keyboard Warrior - Detected
 
Steve C Cronin said:
Cardo,

The "drunk" is my mate Bazilos. He and Andrea, the fat diesel man with the glasses are certainly NOT friends. We were there three days ago (now in Zea Marina). I have been visiting Galaxhidi, regularly for ten years. Bazilos does NOT turn off the juice. He has no access to do so. I DO give him money but only when he does something for me like getting me the air con man or taking the rubbish and then max of €2_. Tell him that when Steve gets back in two weeks time he will have words to say. I first met him in a cold April 2004 when the diesel man would not come out and Bazilos took my two diesel cans plus two he borrowed and went to his home village on his Honda 50 and brought us 80litres back from the farm tank. He can be a pest but be firm, look him in the eye and say "NO" if it is appropriate. Otherwise, apart from the obvious, I have no problems with him.
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To be fair to Bazilos, he was pretty harmless. He could be a bit of a pest and kept trying to "help" with anything he could. You'd be adjusting lines and he'd come over and either give advice or start pulling on the end of the line, or something along those lines.
Access to the electric is pretty straight forward. The electrical junction box across the road has a big hole in it and you can reach in and flip the breakers. I had seen Bazilos hanging around the box earlier on but hadn't thought much of it. It was only when Andreas mentioned Bazilos switches it off that it made sense. I never heard Bazilos's speech as he wasn't around when we arrived, and I did notice he didn't ask for money if he hadn't helped moor up. However, he certainly made an effort to be involved, even if there were already plenty of people there to take lines!
We hadn't paid him, so it wasn't an issue, however I would've been a bit miffed had we paid him thinking he was the harbour master, and then have the PP turn up and ask for payment. I certainly would've been asking questions of the PP as to why they allow it. But then, that didn't happen to us, so I wasn't in a position to ask.
Update.

Just read your bit about mooring fees. I have paid nothing in Galaxhidi, this year! We have just spent four days there and the only visit from the PP was to ask "Had we been there before?"

What are you doing to upset these people?
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I think it's the boat that turned up next to us! They'd had to pay last time they'd visited, and funnily enough once they turned up the PP also turned up. And boy were they keen!

BTW, we were the yacht that called you up asking info on Kiato, on your way to Galaxhidi. I thought I told you about Bazilos in that exchange? Your AIS paint was good and strong yet all the others just kept coming and going. Noisy (teenagers on quay) but safe night in Kiato. Canal was closed until noon due to mech probs which spoiled our attempted visit to Korfos. Had a horrible sail instead to here (Zea) but glad we did; the seastate off here today was just awful so wouldn't have liked the fine beat from Korfos in those confused seas.


Yacht "Mary Flavin" remember? It will be in your signals log, of course!
Click to expand...

Nice to have chatted with you! We were well prepared for dealing with Bazilos on our arrival, but as I said he wasn't around when we turned up!

Unfortunate about the break down. The seas are pretty naff today. We've just tried to head west and ended up giving up. Had about a metre of swell bang on the nose. No, thanks!
 
Cardo said:
To be fair to Bazilos, he was pretty harmless. He could be a bit of a pest and kept trying to "help" with anything he could. You'd be adjusting lines and he'd come over and either give advice or start pulling on the end of the line, or something along those lines.
Access to the electric is pretty straight forward. The electrical junction box across the road has a big hole in it and you can reach in and flip the breakers. I had seen Bazilos hanging around the box earlier on but hadn't thought much of it. It was only when Andreas mentioned Bazilos switches it off that it made sense. I never heard Bazilos's speech as he wasn't around when we arrived, and I did notice he didn't ask for money if he hadn't helped moor up. However, he certainly made an effort to be involved, even if there were already plenty of people there to take lines!
We hadn't paid him, so it wasn't an issue, however I would've been a bit miffed had we paid him thinking he was the harbour master, and then have the PP turn up and ask for payment. I certainly would've been asking questions of the PP as to why they allow it. But then, that didn't happen to us, so I wasn't in a position to ask.

I think it's the boat that turned up next to us! They'd had to pay last time they'd visited, and funnily enough once they turned up the PP also turned up. And boy were they keen!



Nice to have chatted with you! We were well prepared for dealing with Bazilos on our arrival, but as I said he wasn't around when we turned up!

Unfortunate about the break down. The seas are pretty naff today. We've just tried to head west and ended up giving up. Had about a metre of swell bang on the nose. No, thanks!
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Well, we're stuck here in Zea Marina on a free berth (as we are KG Marinas annual bertholders, at Gouvia) and it looks like we will be here until Saturday as the engineer has gone off with our new aircon to bench test it for 16hrs to find the leak. Distributors are footing the bill from UK so we are spending a rather comfortable, albeit steamy few days here. We are going into Pireaus centre tonight to sample the famous "Mikrolimano" dining quarter which is a €4 taxi ride away. I could get used to this life!
 
We were there in mid August and Andreas was good in taking our lines and filling up our diesel. It is a beautiful spot and we were happy to pay the port police the 15 euros they asked for. Excellent value in my book.
 
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