Trip had joked (I think) that this was the passage we were going to try

We headed south to Pylos to clear into Greece for the season. We had to slow down and give way to a cruise ship at the entrance to the bay (someone on board was having a medical emergency and they had to get them to shore), so we took the more interesting entrance through the rocks. A little puckering under sail, but we made it safely.

This was the actual passage we took into the bay

Once anchored in front of town, we settled in for what would be a bit of a wait. Greek bureaucracy is notorious, but it took days to clear in. It went as follows:

Sunday: Arrive and anchor. Fill out the online forms eTepai (cruising tax) and transit log (authorizes you to be in Greek waters).

Monday: Check with the Port Police who tell us to return the next day due to a Greek holiday (Pentecost).

Tuesday: Get in line at the Port Police (there were a lot of people clearing in). They reviewed all of our boat documents and stamped our crew list. Visited the post office to pay for our eTepai (ridiculous extra banking fees to do a wire transfer online). Back to the Port Police who were waiting to hear from Kalamata (customs office that manages the transit logs). Visited Immigration who complained that we had not got gotten our passports stamped into the EU in Malta (Trip tried and they refused, only stamping a crew list), but he did, finally and with a smile, stamp our passports. Emailed additional information (stamped passports, completed crew list, etc) to the Kalamata customs office.

Wednesday: Went back to the Port Police who issued us a paper transit log. Afterward we receive an email from Kalamata stating that our transit log application had been rejected as we should not have applied before paying the tepai and getting our crew list stamped.

Thursday: went back to the Port Police with the concern of the new email. Through some conversation and phone calls, we were confirmed to have a legitimate transit log. We tried to pay (30 euro), but the Port Police can’t take the money and you cannot pay at the post office like the tepai, so we were assured that there will not be a fee. The clerk from the Port Police then spent the next 30 minutes showing us all the places we need to visit in the Peloponnese (I love how proud the Greeks are of their country, even if the bureaucracy sucks). Non-alcoholic beer (so we don’t fall asleep mid afternoon) to celebrate.