New 12th edition Greek Waters Pilot now out
by Rod Heikell on 4 Dec 2014
‘Time is, time was, times past’ old Roger Bacon’s bronze head was supposed to have said and as I look back over nearly 40 years of sailing around Mediterranean waters I can't help but reflect on time passing by. 'Isn't it a bit like painting the Forth Bridge?' a friend asked of my pottering around looking at harbours and anchorages.
In a way I suppose it is, but then the view from my floating office can't be beaten and changes daily and with a glass or two of quaffing wine the view from the cockpit when the sun is over the yardarm beats any pub.
Like a lot of things that happen to us, it was an accident I started writing pilots for the Mediterranean. It all began when I was skippering a flotilla around the Saronic and eastern Peloponnese in 1978. On the first flotilla I had to take my little fleet around to harbours and anchorages I had never been to. Giving the morning briefing was a nightmare. From the old fathoms charts I gleaned enough information to suggest courses, bearings, dangers to navigation to be avoided and then announced I would definitely be in the harbour or anchorage I had never been to. The little engine on the Cobra 850 lead boat was red-lined so we could get in first and assume a pseudo-knowledgeable insouciance on the quay as we helped them to berth.
If I was a bit confused I figured the charterers would be to, so I set to work writing a booklet with plans of the harbours, pilotage instructions and a bit on what to do and see ashore in the charter area. An introduction detailed important stuff like how to operate the toilets and what not to put down them, basic engine checks, reefing the main and roller-reefing genoa, as well as other important things like a bit on Greek cuisine and the history and culture of the region. The charter company had the booklets printed up and so began all those decades of my nerdy writing of these guides.
Then as now all pilotage should be used with your own seamanship and pilotage skills. Pilots are a guide to getting safely in and out of places without hitting any hard bits. Waypoints need to be used with care and double-checked if possible. All the waypoints appended WGS84 are waypoints we have taken using bearings and radar for the position of the waypoint. In this book alone there are hundreds of waypoints and try as we do to proof them, with all those figures and decimal points, errors can creep in.
For this edition we have pottered around the coast and islands checking up on things, revising plans and drawing some new ones. We have added new aerial photos where they work and climbed to high places to take our own. While cultural and economic changes have left their scar on the Greek psyche, still much of it is familiar and as welcoming as ever. Whether as a result of the recession or some natural evolution, Greek food has improved markedly and variations on Greek cuisine put it up there alongside other Mediterranean cuisines. The wine has improved as well and Greece now produces some very good wines.
If there is one thing that has caused confusion and a degree of consternation amongst yachties in Greece it is the circulation tax which became law in 2014. It significantly adds to the cost of sailing in Greece with the tax coming out at around €140 a month for Skylax. While I believe there should be some way of collecting revenue for cruising these waters, the projected rate seems on the high side. Not that it has been collected yet as the procedural systems are not yet in place. In fact this year the port police simply shrugged their shoulders when I enquired about it. Any new developments on the tax will go up on the corrections page on the Imray site.
Old Bacon's bronze head may have a point about time, but a later Bacon, Francis Bacon who like his namesake was a philosopher in the empirical tradition, said: 'Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.' It's not all bad and if you see us around drop by for a glass of something, though there's not much old wine on board. It doesn't keep well at sea.
Rod Heikell
Cowes 2014
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