Let us out!

The Greek Waters Pilot book says that the customs in Rhodes is particularly strict.  We have run into Greek port police throughout our stay huffing and puffing about not getting an exit stamp in Corfu, about folding our travel log, and probably getting mad about other things they express in Greek so we haven’t the slightest clue what else we did wrong.

Dad and I decided to seek out the customs offices the day before we were leaving to see what the procedure was for leaving Greece and the EU altogether.  What we got was a huge miscommunication and an afternoon and evening of worrying about whether or not we would have to survive one of the consequences.

The boat is allowed in the EU for 18 months.  Dad entered last July so our 18 months were coming to an end around December.  After 18 months there is a boat load, ha!, of taxes that Dad would have to pay and depending on how customs worked their magic we could be fined on top of that for not having the appropriate paper work and they could essentially take and impound the boat.  Not something you want to take lightly.  We as Americans have 3 months or 90 days to be in the EU on a temporary visa.  If we exceed this limit, again we could be fined a lot of money and then we are looking at possibly jail time depending on the extremity of the situation.  Again not something to take lightly. 

When we tried to explain the boat and us without visual aids, things got lost in translation and they all started talking Greek to each other trying to work it out together.  To add wood to the fire, we were going to Turkey and the whole jump between Greece and Turkey is supposed to be a political mess that complicates things.  So we left being told to come back at around noon the next day and everything would be sorted out.  As soon as we got back to the boat Dad made sure he had all of the proper documentation, checked all of the books we had on rules and regulations and all we could do was wait for the next day.

When we got up we went grocery shopping and then made our way back to the customs building ready for anything.  It was a cake walk!  The passport control guy joked with us, the customs guy was super nice and told us what to do when we got to port authority.  We walked clear across the water front back to the port authority and she was quiet and stamped us out, and that was it.  We dropped off our bent transit log and were free to leave.  No charges, no problems.

We celebrated by trying the local “fast food” restaurant Goodys which is in Greece and Italy and which we hadn’t tried and then left the country holding our breath and waiting for someone to come running after us saying we didn’t dot and eye or didn’t pay a certain tax.  No such thing happened and Dad’s horseshoe that has been guiding us along shined again.