Waiting …

“Waiting is still an occupation. It is having nothing to wait for that is terrible.”

Cesare Pavese

If the above quote is true then John and I have had a full time occupation for the past 6 weeks.

Waiting: Awaiting the arrival of Kara who joined us on Tuesday. She transported my ‘portable’ washing machine ordered on Ebay and delivered to Ann and Alex in London (Ebay won’t deliver to Greece). Larger than I had envisioned but, hallelujah, it fits in the shower recess of the main head. Her name is ‘Maisy’. The inaugural test run last night showed she can cope with a couple of towels or a load of clothes and the spinner is amazing. No more waiting for, or simply finding, laundromats and then wasting a whole day finding change and guarding the washing in case it gets pinched!

 

 

Waiting: As I write this I’m waiting for John and Kara to come down from the Parthenon atop the Acropolis. Not that I’m complaining – as the photo shows I’m sitting in the shade on a balcony at the Acropolis Museum drinking iced frappe and catching up on the blog while the other two are in 36 degrees climbing around on a huge rock.

Waiting: Our waiting time for the Bill of Sale for the boat is over – yay.  It finally came through last week and then on Tuesday this week we had our de-registration from the Greek Shipping register certified. This clears the way to apply registration which in effect is the boat’s passport. Until this is received we are not allowed to move from our spot in the marina.

Waiting:  The Australian Shipping Registration system treats our little sailing yacht the same as if it was an cargo ship and requires an onerous amount of information, forms, original documents, and marking requirements. This process usually takes 5/6 weeks. The alternative is to pay extra and get Provisional Registration which cuts the time in half and gives us 6 months to complete (total cost approx AUD 2000). The only problem for us was that with Provisional Registration we could only get a 30 day cruising permit in Greece and then would need all the documents to extend this anyway. It all is very complicated and bureaucratic.

Long story short, we found that we were entitled to NZ registration by virtue of citizenship. The NZ process only requires 3 documents – scans and emails accepted – which I sent off to them by email on Wednesday. They are now processing our application and usually only take a few days before they courier our registration certificate to us and we can start the next phase of this adventure (total cost NZD 1090 for 5 years registration).

While waiting for our New Zealand registration, which will hopefully be received next week, Kara and I had an adventure on the transportation system to get down to the Port of Pireas and find the flag shop. We have managed to buy a nice big NZ flag and will also be flying the courtesy flags of Australia and England (when Kara’s friend, Yasmin, arrives next week).

Summer in Greece is most certainly here. Days are consistently between 32 and 36 degrees with hot nights. We’ve had a few massive thunderstorms which showed up a couple of minor leaks in a couple of port holes so just another job on the ‘to do while waiting’ list.

 

Waiting is over – our stainless steel arch, which combines 2 x 140W solar panels plus davits to haul up our dinghy, is in place and pumping power into the batteries. We have 2 fridges on board so consume a fair bit of power. I know this sounds extravagant – 2 fridges – but let me tell you, one in the hole in the bench top which you need to dive into to find the stuff at the bottom, and the other is the size of a small esky. The small fridge is the drinks fridge and can fit 10 cans of beer, a bottle of wine and one of water. It does have a tiny freezer so I can make a small amount of ice.

 

 

Our workmen have finished with the cosmetic repairs and buffed the boat so it now is clean and shiny and actually feels like our boat.

Waiting: in McDonalds during today because it has cheap ice cream, free wifi and air conditioning 😜. And once the sun goes down we will wait on the boat, eating olives, feta and crackers.

 

Next time – leaving time!