With a F5/6 northerly, and with well reefed sails we had a very fast, 30 mile beam reach sail to Poros. At one point the plotter flashed up a record 8.9 knots.
We then spent 8 nights in and around Poros, with a couple of nights on the Town Quay and other nights anchored in and around the attractive Poros bay
We’re meeting Philip, Ellie, Rory and Oscar here in a couple of weeks so we wanted to familiarise ourselves with good swimming bays and anchorages. Also, the Cruising Association is now encouraging Brits with boats to get an Unlimited Transit Log, basically a piece of paper that confirms its paid VAT status.
So armed with lots of paperwork, confirming that VAT had been paid on Jacana in 2007, that Jacana was in Greece on Brexit day, that VAT hadn’t ever been reclaimed and that Jacana had not left Greek waters since Brexit day, we visited Poros Customs. The lady, Christina, was very polite, although very perplexed that we had been in Greece for 3 years without a Transit Log, and she eventually went through the process of issuing an UTL. However a few minutes into it, she remembered that she could no longer issue UTLs, and that as from a week or so ago the application had to be made online. So very apologetically she sent us away back to Jacana to dig out the laptop.
3 hours and 8 failed submissions later, with cryptic error messages, we gave up. Christina in Customs did however send us an email saying that she would investigate.
We also caught up with with Mandy and Kev who were also anchored off Poros, on board Jacana for a drink or two!
Ann’s knee is still giving her some grief so we decided to eliminate the possibility of it being a DVT by visiting a Poros GP. The first 2 were both closed so ended up getting a ferry across to Galatas (we could have taken the tender) to find the run down hospital just out of town where the smoking GP on duty, sent us with a piece of paper back into Galatas to find the ultrasound scanning centre. After asking in the building where Google Maps had taken us, we eventually found it up a side street. An hour later, and €80 lighter, the scan was done and we had to go back to the hospital and present the results to the smoking GP. She confirmed it wasn’t a DVT but fluid buildup on both knees. By Sunday, we’d had enough of loitering in Poros.
We then spent 8 nights in and around Poros, with a couple of nights on the Town Quay and other nights anchored in and around the attractive Poros bay
We’re meeting Philip, Ellie, Rory and Oscar here in a couple of weeks so we wanted to familiarise ourselves with good swimming bays and anchorages. Also, the Cruising Association is now encouraging Brits with boats to get an Unlimited Transit Log, basically a piece of paper that confirms its paid VAT status.
So armed with lots of paperwork, confirming that VAT had been paid on Jacana in 2007, that Jacana was in Greece on Brexit day, that VAT hadn’t ever been reclaimed and that Jacana had not left Greek waters since Brexit day, we visited Poros Customs. The lady, Christina, was very polite, although very perplexed that we had been in Greece for 3 years without a Transit Log, and she eventually went through the process of issuing an UTL. However a few minutes into it, she remembered that she could no longer issue UTLs, and that as from a week or so ago the application had to be made online. So very apologetically she sent us away back to Jacana to dig out the laptop.
3 hours and 8 failed submissions later, with cryptic error messages, we gave up. Christina in Customs did however send us an email saying that she would investigate.
We also caught up with with Mandy and Kev who were also anchored off Poros, on board Jacana for a drink or two!
Ann’s knee is still giving her some grief so we decided to eliminate the possibility of it being a DVT by visiting a Poros GP. The first 2 were both closed so ended up getting a ferry across to Galatas (we could have taken the tender) to find the run down hospital just out of town where the smoking GP on duty, sent us with a piece of paper back into Galatas to find the ultrasound scanning centre. After asking in the building where Google Maps had taken us, we eventually found it up a side street. An hour later, and €80 lighter, the scan was done and we had to go back to the hospital and present the results to the smoking GP. She confirmed it wasn’t a DVT but fluid buildup on both knees. By Sunday, we’d had enough of loitering in Poros.
