Paperwork nightmare!

Once moored we started the check-in process and that’s where the problems began…

Our last port of call was Rhodes harbour and, as we were an EEC boat in EEC waters, we had not formally checked out. This was unacceptable to the officials – they had to have some sort of stamp. It would appear the concern is whether the boat might have been in Israel.

The negotiations went on all day long and by the afternoon we had a posse of around 10 people next to our boat. The problem was not with us, they were happy to issue our visas and let us enter the country, the problem was with Irony! The marina staff, immigration & customs officials etc were all touchingly helpful and friendly. They did everything in their power to sort things out. Unfortunately they could not persuade the higher power (we believe it was the harbourmaster) to concede. We presented receipts from Mandraki marina, showed our track on the laptop of our passage, etc etc. All to no avail.

We were told at around 15:30 that we would have to leave by 18:00, sail to Iskenderum in Turkey, check in and check out, and then return. This would be a 170 mile return journey (around 18 hours of sailing each way). Needless to say we were not happy about being forced out at night on limited sleep after just having completed a 3 night passage to get there. Additionally we would be leaving with no weather information.

We refused to leave without fuelling, as we did not have sufficient fuel for the journey, to be told it was too late in the day. This resulted in further hours of negotiations. An engineer came on board to check on the fuel in our tank and to calculate our fuel consumption (basically calling us liars). Finally they brought a tanker in and we got 200 litres (approx $0.175/litre!!!). By this time it was around 22:00 and they still were insisting we leave. In exhaustion and stress I broke into tears as we were about to start the engine and depart! Nic said all the men on shore were devastated and this prompted the next attempts to resolve the situation. They got Nic to radio Latakia port control to request remaining until daylight. By this time the uncompromising official must have gone home because they allowed us to spend the night.

The next morning we threw our lines just before 09:00, feeling somewhat better for some sleep and some food.