Tonight we’ll sleep aboard Envoy for the first time in 2013, on the hardstand at Lefkas marina. Our first impressions are that Envoy is much how we left her last October. The only damage noticed so far is to Envoy’s aging storage cover, which is wearing thin and has split in two places, apparently during a recent hail-storm.
Here in coastal Greece it’s early spring, and the locals say it’s been an exceptionally mild but wet winter and has rained constantly from December until just a few days ago.
Quite a lot of the work planned for Envoy during winter has been done, and importantly the source of the leak in one of the fuel tanks has been found. We meet with engineers today to find out how they plan to weld a repair in this difficult-to-access tank. I’ll post more on Envoy in a few days.
Emirates offered the best airfares, and also have a generous luggage allowance at 30 kg each. Only problem is the Auckland to Dubai flight is over 19 hours (including a brief stop in Sydney) making the first leg a very long haul, so we stopped in Dubai overnight to break the journey before our flight to Athens.
Coming back to Envoy we always have quite a bit of luggage as we procure things in NZ we can’t easily get where Envoy is located. When checking in at Emirates we were 7 kg over weight and were told it would cost us NZ$455 in excess baggage charges. After I explained we were away for eight months the check-in clerk took pity and reduced the charge to NZ$325. Fortunately our cabin baggage was not checked as that was over-weight by several kg too (you are allowed 7kg plus a laptop, plus a ladies handbag).
In Dubai we moved some weight into our already-bulging cabin bags and avoided any further charges for our nearly six hour flight to Athens.
From Athens we needed to catch a bus for the 5.5 hour trip to Lefkas, and during our taxi ride to the bus station near downtown Athens we noticed how little traffic there was. The driver told us that with the economic crisis, around 30% unemployment and increased taxes on petrol many people can no longer afford to use their cars, and there’s been a big shift to public transport. He added that crime has also increased and he’s been robbed twice while driving his taxi at night.
Waiting for about two hours at the very run-down Kiffisus bus station we were approached by numerous street vendors trying to sell goods including perfume, paper towels, cheap toys, cigarette lighters, sunglasses and pictures. They ranged from young children to the elderly and included a pregnant mother – the only person we bought something off - for one Euro. Since arriving in Lefkas several people have told us how bad things are for many Greeks, and that the general situation is expected to be worse for this year compared to last. Really there is no ray of hope for an improvement in Greece any time soon.
Greece has a close affinity to southern Cyprus, and there is much feeling here for the Cypriots who are losing something like 40% of any bank deposits over Euro 100,000. Of course there are also super-wealthy money-launderers from various countries (notably Russia) with large deposits in Cyprus, but the sorrow is for older people who’ve worked all their lives to save money for retirement only to lose a large part of their nest-egg in this way.
Here in coastal Greece it’s early spring, and the locals say it’s been an exceptionally mild but wet winter and has rained constantly from December until just a few days ago.
Quite a lot of the work planned for Envoy during winter has been done, and importantly the source of the leak in one of the fuel tanks has been found. We meet with engineers today to find out how they plan to weld a repair in this difficult-to-access tank. I’ll post more on Envoy in a few days.
Emirates offered the best airfares, and also have a generous luggage allowance at 30 kg each. Only problem is the Auckland to Dubai flight is over 19 hours (including a brief stop in Sydney) making the first leg a very long haul, so we stopped in Dubai overnight to break the journey before our flight to Athens.
Coming back to Envoy we always have quite a bit of luggage as we procure things in NZ we can’t easily get where Envoy is located. When checking in at Emirates we were 7 kg over weight and were told it would cost us NZ$455 in excess baggage charges. After I explained we were away for eight months the check-in clerk took pity and reduced the charge to NZ$325. Fortunately our cabin baggage was not checked as that was over-weight by several kg too (you are allowed 7kg plus a laptop, plus a ladies handbag).
In Dubai we moved some weight into our already-bulging cabin bags and avoided any further charges for our nearly six hour flight to Athens.
From Athens we needed to catch a bus for the 5.5 hour trip to Lefkas, and during our taxi ride to the bus station near downtown Athens we noticed how little traffic there was. The driver told us that with the economic crisis, around 30% unemployment and increased taxes on petrol many people can no longer afford to use their cars, and there’s been a big shift to public transport. He added that crime has also increased and he’s been robbed twice while driving his taxi at night.
Waiting for about two hours at the very run-down Kiffisus bus station we were approached by numerous street vendors trying to sell goods including perfume, paper towels, cheap toys, cigarette lighters, sunglasses and pictures. They ranged from young children to the elderly and included a pregnant mother – the only person we bought something off - for one Euro. Since arriving in Lefkas several people have told us how bad things are for many Greeks, and that the general situation is expected to be worse for this year compared to last. Really there is no ray of hope for an improvement in Greece any time soon.
Greece has a close affinity to southern Cyprus, and there is much feeling here for the Cypriots who are losing something like 40% of any bank deposits over Euro 100,000. Of course there are also super-wealthy money-launderers from various countries (notably Russia) with large deposits in Cyprus, but the sorrow is for older people who’ve worked all their lives to save money for retirement only to lose a large part of their nest-egg in this way.
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