The only thing left to do is polishing, more polishing and antifouling. So a couple of days cutting back the hull and polishing has brought the hull to a shine not seen since we bought Jacana. Meanwhile Ann has been limboing under the hull with a couple of tins of cheap Greek antifoul – well cheap compared to the brands we’re used to back home. Whether it works or not, only a few weeks on the water will tell, but the colour is a much better match to Hallberg Rassy blue above the water line! Also on Monday, in anticipation of Tuesday we’ve a hire car, so after a 40min walk to the airport and a 50min wait in the hire care office we have wheels for a couple of days and very importantly the opportunity to fill Jacana with beer, wine and food. And with the old tender gradually deflating and with no hope of repair, we decided to get a new one. Unfortunately the chandlery at Cleopatra’s didn’t have the size we wanted, so with the car we were able to pop round to the sister shop in Preveza marina, buy one, with discount and get it booked for delivery to Jacana the following day. Great service!
Before launch we also paid the TEPAI which is the Greek cruising tax. This involves filling in a form online, getting a 20 digit reference number, and then using the reference number in an international bank payment. Fortunately it all tied up and a few hours after the payment, the online form filled in earlier showed a ‘paid’ status. (we could have also paid at a Greek bank or Post Office). For Jacana, being under 12m long, it’s a reasonable €33 per month, but for boats over 12m it’s €8 per meter per month. It doesn’t deter bigger boats however.
