From: "SV Perception / Phyl & Fred Denton" <denton@flash.net
To: The Crew
Subject: Crews Letter #2002 09 The Continuing Greek Sailing Tax Saga
Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 17:11:08 +0300

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen;

As we all know from classic literature, when tragedy keeps raining on the protagonist, the root cause is a character flaw in his past.

When the yachtsman enters a port, the Port Police must be visited. Generally, if you don't have Greek, the business is conducted in English. The most likely candidate on the Police side to have English or to draw this duty is a young, female officer, a recent graduate from Port Police School. She is certain that this American is a criminal. A careful sorting through the Transit Log, ship's document, insurance policy, captain's certification, papers from the last port, etc. will undo this culprit. This process in some places takes as little as 10 minutes and costs as little as 88 cents Euro. In other ports, as long as an hour or more and as much as 15 Euro. (1 Euro = $0.95) Gentle reader, you will remember that in late April in Athens Perception was in Port Police jail for not paying her sailing tax. At that time, we were told that when we left Greece in June another 3 month payment would be due. In Rodos, in preparation to leave the country, we approached the Police early and explained our recent past. They looked over the documents from Athens and consulted the oracles of written laws and telephone. After extensive research, the officer said, "They may do that in Athens, but here in Rodos we don't collect a 'sailing tax'." The next day Symi I ran over Perception. It has been called Rhodes Rage.

Most yachtsmen explain Greece this way. From ancient days, Greece has been a collection of city states with a near common language and always at war with each other. Even when they were not at war, they were pirates. Why should you expect them to change? The boats from the European Community complain bitterly because they know that their tax Euros (or pounds) are flowing through the EC and into Greece. They expect some reasonable degree of consistency or civility. For this American boat, we accept that we can't change it and no one made us come to Greece. The people, the sailing, the history, scenery, and food make up for the inconvenience of the administration.

Now, we are in Turkey. Our evil past either has not caught up with us or this administration has decided that the yachtsmen's dollars are better collected through services and product than bureaucratic shenanigans.

The check-in procedure was a five step process: buy a transit log for the boat at the marina, visit the Medical Officer, buy a visa from Immigration Control for each of us, clear Customs and get a stamp from the Port Police. In Marmaris, this could all be performed with a short walk between marina and ferry pier. The total time required was less than an hour. And the Immigration Officer introduced us to buroc, a Turkish breakfast pastry. The process must be repeated each three months and when we leave the country. At least that's the story for now. Our evil past is still undetected.

In Turkey, the people, the sailing, the history, scenery, and food are fantastic. Turkey was in the World Cup semifinals. And the administration is not so inconvenient.

NOTE: We are three trip logs short of a full book. Those guests who have not reported on their cruises are encouraged to apply fingers to keys.

Perception's "post August 1 plans" are beginning to take shape. Turkey is very nice. We will probably leave Istanbul about 10 August to cruise south toward Anatolya. By 1 November we will put into our winter port, yet to be determined. Set up Perception for the winter. Fly to Texas on 15 November.

At this time it is a crew of two for August through November. That leaves 4 berths uninhabited. If you would like to see some of Turkey, now is a good time to come go sailing with us.

Keep a Tight Luff,
Phyl and Fred

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