Well, we are now on Plan Z. After changing our minds umpteen times, we have decided to overwinter here in Missolonghi!!!! It turns out it is a "must see" place after all....... and that explains why we haven't posted anything for the last 5 days. As per my last blog, it is totally devoid of tourists so no charter boats or Italians.
The marina is being redeveloped and has "just opened". They are offering good deals - about a third of the price of Levkas and Gouvia - for a full year stop. We have taken out a contract for 7 months including lift in and out for just over 1300 Euro (12M boat). We'll leave the lift in and out until the end of the winter. There has been lots of activity with various boats signing up for the winter (quite a few British Boats) so there will be probably 15-20 boats occupied over the winter. All they need to do now is sort out the Lecky!!!
The photo above shows the pretty substantial pontoons in place from 10 years ago. These will be replaced with new ones over the winter but as the marina is at the end of narrow channel, it is very well protected. There only electric in one area of the marina but it is due to be installed "soon". Water is available on this pontoon but only just. It should all be working by October we are told.
Notice the brightly coloured building at the end. This is the cafe - just built and being used temporarily as the marina office. It was painted on Wednesday to be ready for the marina blessing. A priest came down and spent half an hour chanting and tossing holy water over us all before we tucked into the kebabs and beer. All the temporary residents turned up and a great time was had by all. This event did trigger a lot more contracts being signed. There are great plans for this place and it will be as bill as Gouvia when finished but in the meantime it will be a bit of a building site. Jannis who runs the marina is overjoyed that he has sold 70 contracts in a couple of months!!
Here is another view of the marina - mostly alongside berthing at the moment but we will all be on lazy lines by October. The marina is a good walk into town - about a mile - but it is easy to get a taxi back with all of the shopping. It is a pretty big town with lots of shops which we are starting to find our way around.
We also now have a good internet connection. Because it is a university town, they must have free wi-fi for the students. We can just get it on the boat with the antenna half way up the mast - but we are the only ones who can. Lots of people have now ordered the one we have. We also have taken out a vodaphone contract for mobile broadband for 30Euro a month which is a very fast connection - hence we can now upload photos.
Getting the vodaphone contract was a bit of a hassle! We know people have succeeded by just giving a greek address (the marina) but now they are demanding a tax number. With the help of Jannis (the marina manager) I got a letter to take to the tax office (just by the port police office) and it only took 30mins before I emerged clutching a bit of paper with my number on it. The trick was to convince them that you are going to LIVE in Greece for the year. We are now live on Vodaphone so I should be able to live stream all the Liverpool games on the internet!!!
Our plan is to stop here for a short while and then go off sailing and end up back up near Levkas to meet up with Tony and Margaret on China Blue - who have at last made it to Greece. We plan to sail for another 6 weeks and see some of the Ionian without all the crowds who should go home by the end of August. We plan to get back here by the beginning of October to moor up for the winter.
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