Whitelighter
Well-Known Member
If ever the words motley and crew had ever more appropriately joined at the proverbial hip I am not aware of it. None the less, David (Solitaire) and Roger (RogerRat) and I were in buoyant mood as we set off for the 9.00pm British Airways flight to Athens.
The mission, planned with military precision, was to take my new toy, a Bavaria BMB 330, from its former home at Kos Marina to Lavrion on the Greek mainland. A not insignificant distance of just over 200 nautical miles which took in all of the important regions of Greece – the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, Mount Olympus and a lot of open water.
As you would expect with crew of this caliber, a degree of forward planning ensured that we had a complete set of engine filters and belts should Sweden’s finest let us down, passages were planned with alternative contingencies and the bags were loaded with charts, pilot guides, hand held VHF units and back up GPS. Yep, all things considered we felt as if we had every eventuality covered.
Its difficult even in the Solent to work out what is going to happen with the weather. Its should have been harder for waters in Greece, but thanks to a very good web site from the Greek National Weather Service we actually had a pretty good idea of the expected weather over the next four days, important as the weather definitely plays its part in the story. The excellent up to date forecast meant that the 3 hour wait at Athens airport for the connecting flight to Kos was well used in checking and re-checking our route, discussing alternative options and generally taking the Mickey out of each other. It is at this point it is worth mentioning a few things that were already becoming apparent. My passage plan was to stop on the island of Naxos, which looked to afford good shelter and a fairly straight run to our final destination of Lavrion. It became increasingly obvious that David favored the Northern route which led to a stop on the island of Mikonos, which it turns out has a little bit of a reputation as a hot spot for the pink euro – not in itself a problem but David seemed to have a propensity for being stopped at every security point in just about every airport we traveled through, always managing to get frisked by the burley security bloke. Anyway, I’ve digressed, so I’ll let you make up your own minds on that one!
Thursday 6th of April dawned bright and early as we three weary but eager souls made the 20 minute journey from Kos International Airport to Kos Marina. Whitelighter sat where I had left her in March, and stepping aboard again felt like coming home. RogerRat had the fore thought to bring a forum burgee with him (has one been so far from blighty?), and I was presented with it as we took the covers down to prepare the boat.
Roger had also organised the graphics so that she could proudly display her new name and port
The weather was perfect, 20 degrees and no wind. We felt really confident that the first planned leg to Mikonos (David got his way in the end) – a run of some 107 miles, could be easily done in under 5 hours in these conditions. Despite the fact that all of us had been on the go for 24 hours, it was decided to carry on with getting the boat ready for the off. We loaded all of the kit, checked the electronics had survived the trip, and set about plotting the way points into both hand helds we had brought with us as well as the Garmin plotter that came with the boat. It was getting towards that time in the day when food (and beer) is required so it was decided to head for the marina café for some refreshment. As time was marching on it was suggested that we start the engines to check everything was A-OK. Not a problem, everything was running sweet when I left her in March, so with the confidence that only comes before a fall I got they keys, turn the starboard ignition and whoosh the KAD 43 purred into life with just the faintest trace of diesel smoke. Now for the port engine, again turn the ignition and wait for the purr – at least that was the plan. Instead, all we got was the sickening sound of the starter motor turning without even trying to fire the engine.
<span style="color:black">Bug</span><span style="color:black">ger!</span>
Now even with the best laid plans, you have to expect some delays and a few dropped balls, but a problem with an engine that was running so sweetly three weeks before was not something I had been expecting. I hope that it was just a little sticky, I tried again but to no avail. With David quickly on the phone to the UK I calmly walked/jogged/sprinted to the office to get an engineer. We suspected the bendix was jammed, but couldn’t even see the mountings for the starter to get it out, never mind fix it!!!! I got hold of one of the guys who had maintained the boat for the previous owner, and he promised to have the engineer at the boat within the hour – so all we could do was wait.
After lunch, and still no engineer I left the ‘crew’ to double check the route and finish of the loading to book in with the marina office, collect the spare set of keys and check what paperwork needed doing before departure. David being the thorough chap he is, insisted on making a very close inspection of the chart and checking the wind speed and direction at the same time!
It’s worth mentioning something here about Greek bureaucracy and their inherent paranoia about their coastal borders – which is fair enough when you consider they have over 2000 miles of coastal border to protect. Unlike the UK, every time you enter or leave a Greek port (and by port, think fishing village) you need to have your transit log stamped. And to get your transit log stamped, first you have to obtain it. Unfortunately now is the time for an admission. While our planning for the passage, for fuel, food, booze and spare electronics was extensive – my appreciation for the finer points of the Greek maritime legal process was, er, not.
Totally unaware that there might be anything amiss, I presented myself at the Port Police office in Kos with copies of the ships papers and politely requested a transit log. When asked for my papers I confidently handed over the file containing the insurance, my ICC (which incidentally they didn’t give two hoots about) and copies of the bill of sale VAT cert.
After the problem with the starter my mood had shifted down slightly, but hey, stuff happens and I was sure it could be fixed. What happened next was a real shot out of left field.
The Greek law legislates that to obtain the transit log the skipper of the vessel must have insurance (check), skippers certificate (check) and original ships registration certificate (ah, oh dear). The thing is Whitelighter was originally under a German flag, and has a marine mortgage so is required to be part 1 registered in the UK. You can’t register for part 1 until you receive a deletion certificate from the German registry. And the German registry is very, very slow. I only had confirmation that the boat was GOING to be registered, and this it tuns out, would not do!
So after an hour of bad negotiation in greco-english the port police gave me two options. Get an original registration certificate or take the boat out of the water! Suddenly the starter motor was the least of our problems…
The mission, planned with military precision, was to take my new toy, a Bavaria BMB 330, from its former home at Kos Marina to Lavrion on the Greek mainland. A not insignificant distance of just over 200 nautical miles which took in all of the important regions of Greece – the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, Mount Olympus and a lot of open water.
As you would expect with crew of this caliber, a degree of forward planning ensured that we had a complete set of engine filters and belts should Sweden’s finest let us down, passages were planned with alternative contingencies and the bags were loaded with charts, pilot guides, hand held VHF units and back up GPS. Yep, all things considered we felt as if we had every eventuality covered.
Its difficult even in the Solent to work out what is going to happen with the weather. Its should have been harder for waters in Greece, but thanks to a very good web site from the Greek National Weather Service we actually had a pretty good idea of the expected weather over the next four days, important as the weather definitely plays its part in the story. The excellent up to date forecast meant that the 3 hour wait at Athens airport for the connecting flight to Kos was well used in checking and re-checking our route, discussing alternative options and generally taking the Mickey out of each other. It is at this point it is worth mentioning a few things that were already becoming apparent. My passage plan was to stop on the island of Naxos, which looked to afford good shelter and a fairly straight run to our final destination of Lavrion. It became increasingly obvious that David favored the Northern route which led to a stop on the island of Mikonos, which it turns out has a little bit of a reputation as a hot spot for the pink euro – not in itself a problem but David seemed to have a propensity for being stopped at every security point in just about every airport we traveled through, always managing to get frisked by the burley security bloke. Anyway, I’ve digressed, so I’ll let you make up your own minds on that one!
Thursday 6th of April dawned bright and early as we three weary but eager souls made the 20 minute journey from Kos International Airport to Kos Marina. Whitelighter sat where I had left her in March, and stepping aboard again felt like coming home. RogerRat had the fore thought to bring a forum burgee with him (has one been so far from blighty?), and I was presented with it as we took the covers down to prepare the boat.
Roger had also organised the graphics so that she could proudly display her new name and port
The weather was perfect, 20 degrees and no wind. We felt really confident that the first planned leg to Mikonos (David got his way in the end) – a run of some 107 miles, could be easily done in under 5 hours in these conditions. Despite the fact that all of us had been on the go for 24 hours, it was decided to carry on with getting the boat ready for the off. We loaded all of the kit, checked the electronics had survived the trip, and set about plotting the way points into both hand helds we had brought with us as well as the Garmin plotter that came with the boat. It was getting towards that time in the day when food (and beer) is required so it was decided to head for the marina café for some refreshment. As time was marching on it was suggested that we start the engines to check everything was A-OK. Not a problem, everything was running sweet when I left her in March, so with the confidence that only comes before a fall I got they keys, turn the starboard ignition and whoosh the KAD 43 purred into life with just the faintest trace of diesel smoke. Now for the port engine, again turn the ignition and wait for the purr – at least that was the plan. Instead, all we got was the sickening sound of the starter motor turning without even trying to fire the engine.
<span style="color:black">Bug</span><span style="color:black">ger!</span>
Now even with the best laid plans, you have to expect some delays and a few dropped balls, but a problem with an engine that was running so sweetly three weeks before was not something I had been expecting. I hope that it was just a little sticky, I tried again but to no avail. With David quickly on the phone to the UK I calmly walked/jogged/sprinted to the office to get an engineer. We suspected the bendix was jammed, but couldn’t even see the mountings for the starter to get it out, never mind fix it!!!! I got hold of one of the guys who had maintained the boat for the previous owner, and he promised to have the engineer at the boat within the hour – so all we could do was wait.
After lunch, and still no engineer I left the ‘crew’ to double check the route and finish of the loading to book in with the marina office, collect the spare set of keys and check what paperwork needed doing before departure. David being the thorough chap he is, insisted on making a very close inspection of the chart and checking the wind speed and direction at the same time!
It’s worth mentioning something here about Greek bureaucracy and their inherent paranoia about their coastal borders – which is fair enough when you consider they have over 2000 miles of coastal border to protect. Unlike the UK, every time you enter or leave a Greek port (and by port, think fishing village) you need to have your transit log stamped. And to get your transit log stamped, first you have to obtain it. Unfortunately now is the time for an admission. While our planning for the passage, for fuel, food, booze and spare electronics was extensive – my appreciation for the finer points of the Greek maritime legal process was, er, not.
Totally unaware that there might be anything amiss, I presented myself at the Port Police office in Kos with copies of the ships papers and politely requested a transit log. When asked for my papers I confidently handed over the file containing the insurance, my ICC (which incidentally they didn’t give two hoots about) and copies of the bill of sale VAT cert.
After the problem with the starter my mood had shifted down slightly, but hey, stuff happens and I was sure it could be fixed. What happened next was a real shot out of left field.
The Greek law legislates that to obtain the transit log the skipper of the vessel must have insurance (check), skippers certificate (check) and original ships registration certificate (ah, oh dear). The thing is Whitelighter was originally under a German flag, and has a marine mortgage so is required to be part 1 registered in the UK. You can’t register for part 1 until you receive a deletion certificate from the German registry. And the German registry is very, very slow. I only had confirmation that the boat was GOING to be registered, and this it tuns out, would not do!
So after an hour of bad negotiation in greco-english the port police gave me two options. Get an original registration certificate or take the boat out of the water! Suddenly the starter motor was the least of our problems…
