Having successfully extradited ourselves from Albania, we once again turned south into pretty much the same conditions as before. But at least they weren’t getting worse and we’d had a break and a good nights sleep.
It soon became obvious that we weren’t going to make landfall in Corfu in daylight so we decided to press on and head for Preveza down the mainland coast a bit. We worked out we could get there about lunchtime the next day, which was pretty good.
So after dodging a few ships in the tight channel between Corfu and the Albanian coast, we sailed up the marked channel that took us into Preveza at about 11am. We were happy to get to Greece.
We passed Cleopatra Marina on the other side of the estuary (as this is the site where Marc Anthony got his arse whipped by Octavia and had to flee with Cleopatra back to Egypt).
We found a spot on the wall at Preveza and then proceeded to check into Greece. We found the Port Authority, which was a good start and when we had filled in some paperwork, they showed us on a map where to find first Customs and then the Police.
Customs was about a kilometre away and they grumpily filled in our paperwork so we could get our 30 euro transit log. Then it was off to the police station 3kms away to get our passports stamped. Once we found the police station it took us a few attempts to find the right department. They were quite happy to let us wander around the building, past cells and offices with people in casual clothes, not many people in uniform. Once we had located passport control, they seems a little interested in our visit to Albania – wanting to make sure we had just 3 people on board and not another 30 Albanian refugees.
Passports stamped, we headed back to the Port Authority to pay another 15 euro for our Crew List to be stamped. Then it was back to the boat to explain to Denise why we were gone so long.
By this stage La Mischief was being blown onto the wall and it was time to find a safer spot to spend the night. Preveza has a small marina so thats where we headed for 14 euro a night for a good night’s sleep.
With La Mischief sorted it was time to go explore the town and get some SIM cards and groceries. We walked into town to find everything shut. No worries – its probably their siesta. So we hunted around to find some opening hours and found that all shops shut at 2pm on Mondays (and Wednesdays and Saturdays).
Don’t they know there is a financial crisis on. So we had no choice but to buy our SIM cards the next morning, before leaving to explore the Ionian Islands of Greece.
A Little Bit of Mischief 