FIRST POST FOR 2012

We’re enjoying the summer back in New Zealand, especially meeting up with family and friends, and will arrive back in Marmaris on 31 March.
Envoy is still in our minds though as we renew insurances, and source spare parts. Most importantly we ordered the Lugger parts and insulation to rebuild the dry exhaust system.
Envoy’s battery banks have been load-tested, and both the House and Bow Thruster banks were in poor shape. This is not unexpected - firstly as these battery banks are respectively over 7 & 9 years old, and secondly because when tested last year they weren’t looking good. To replace six x 6V and two x 12V USA-sourced AGM batteries is costly in Turkey, but something we have to do.
Good news for Turkish cruisers is that a new regulation restricting visitors to 90 days in any 180 day period (like the Schengen countries) does not apply mainstream western countries. So the status quo will remain whereby you can stay in Turkey indefinitely provided that every 90 days you leave the country for a few hours. This is easily achieved by making a brief visit by ferry to one of the many nearby Greek islands.
Meanwhile the Greeks zealously police their rule limiting visits by non-EU cruisers to 90 days in any 180 day period. You’d think the Greeks would want cruisers to stay and spend their money. For visitors from most countries the 90 day period is not only for the time spent in Greece, but the total time spent in all Schengen countries. However there is a special exemption for New Zealanders, who are allowed to spend 90 days in each Schengen country.
When planning a cruise these factors have major importance. This year we plan to leave Turkey and island hop across the Aegean, around the bottom of Greece to the Ionian and on to the Adriatic. We hope to spend more than 90 days in Greece by taking advantage of a regulation that professional skippers and crew can stay indefinitely. If that works out we’ll spend most of our time in Greece, visit Bulgaria and Montenegro, and probably end up in Croatia about early November to winter over. If we can only stay 90 days in Greece we’ll end up in Croatia several weeks earlier.