The first time we arrived in Greece we chose Preveza on the west coast as our port of entry and then again as our port of exit on our second visit to this beautiful country.
When we arrived Preveza, that first time, we had been caught in a massive thunderstorm just a few hours before arrival and while sailing from Sicily so we were a bit tired and still on edge.
The entrance channel to Preveza felt awkwardly narrow after having spent a bit more than two days at sea, the view of Cleopatra, Ionion and Aktio boatyards full of yachts waiting to be splashed for the season was impressive. Across from the boatyards, the town quay with only a few yachts tied alongside didn’t seem to offer much protection from the weather so we preferred to find our place in the anchorage behind the newly built marina. We had received good input from a fellow Aussie that had been at anchor there for a few days.
It was the nicest welcome we had ever received up to that time when arriving at an anchorage, within a few minutes Tim and then his girlfriend would be in our cockpit sharing some beers and advice.
It was Friday afternoon and too late to go find the authorities to do our check-in formalities, so we put our feet up grabbed a drink and waited for the following morning.
Saturday morning with our new friend's pointers we made our way to the town to find the Port Police, what we had not expected was to find them to be closed for the weekend. We then went to the Customs office but that too was closed.
At least we didn’t need to worry about immigration because we had already checked into the Schengen zone in Siracusa.
We would have to wait for Monday but until then we could indulge in Greek savoury pastries for the weekend.
Monday morning we went first to Customs office, the guy that started preparing our Transit Log seemed to be inexperienced with the procedure and by the time the lady who we would later deal with every other time we visited the office arrived we were well into filling in all the forms. She took over the process and when she realised we had not yet visited Port Police she gave a bit of lecture to her colleague. Papers concluded and she shooshed us out of the office straight to the Port Police to stamp the Transit Log and with precise instructions to have Port Police to fax her the crew list and for them to attach it to the Transit Log.
We should also return once the new cruising tax the TEPAI was rolled out. In the meantime, the first guy tried to explain to us that John could be stamped on the Transit Log instead of the passport...
We rushed to the Port Police, the Customs lady was not in a great mood when we had left so we didn’t want to jinx the next step of our entry formalities.
We got to the Port Police office and got all things sorted in no time, the official on duty, however, was not in a good mood by this time but stamped us in and out of the Transit Log after asking us when were we living Preveza to our next Port.
He had absolutely no interest in us returning there to stamp out days later.
It was early April and for the next few weeks we wouldn’t see many other boats on the water, it was still too early in the season.
By mid-October, we would be back in Preveza to check out of Greece, before heading back to Siracusa in Sicily and then Tunisia for the winter, after having spent most of the season sailing in the Adriatic Sea.
This was the second time visiting Greece and this was the most convenient port for us to depart.
Knowing exactly where to go and their working hours made life easy on checkout.
A couple of minutes in the Port Police office getting the necessary stamps on the Transit Log and then a few more minutes returning the Transit Log to Customs and we were ready to leave.
***In the spirit of sharing our dreams and experiences we have shared this blog post in the NOFOREIGNLAND.COM website sailors community. In this post you can find information regarding check in and out procedures with location for the Port Police and Customs.