Christmas in Asheville, North Carolina

Our last set of postings had us hopscotching thru the Cyclades and Dodecanese Greek Islands to Marmaras, Turkey where we planned to put Lone Star on the hard for the winter.
Our final transit was from Simi, Greece to Marmaras, Turkey on October 14th. We heard Simi was a quiet town and we enjoyed three days on the island enjoying the picturesque harbor town before heading on. On the day of our departure we learned what may prove to be an expensive lesson about the Schengen laws. You may be saying "What are they?". Join the club. We did not even know they existed much less were something to be
concerned about. Nothing was even mentioned in our cruising guides. Well, to make a long story short these are a group of laws adopted by most but not all of the EU countries which difines some visa requirements for non EU resident travelers within these countries and stay limitations for the other visitors that do not need a visa (i.e. us). Basically if you are a non EU resident you can only stay in the Schengen Countries 90 days. That's not 90 days in each country - it's 90 days total in all the countries! And once you leave the Schengen countries you have to stay out for 90 days. They must really not want our tourist dollars! Who are Schengen countries? France, Spain Portugal, Italy and Greece to name a few. In other words there is no "legal" way to do what we did - cruise for 6 months in these countries - without breaking Schengen law. However, apparently none of the countries enforce this law except for one - Greece - and not all the time. Well it was our "good luck" that on the morning we checked out of Greece we had an unfriendly agent who must have had a very bad night before and obviously woke up on the wrong side of the bed. He decided to take it upon himself to inform us in his very limited English of the error of our ways, fine us a very substantial amount of euros and told us we would have to settle up with the Greek Consulate back in the States before we could return to Greece. Furthermore, he said our passports were now flagged in the computer so we better pay up. Now if you saw the unorganized office and the fact that he didn't even touch the computer it may make one think twice about paying the fine. However since we want to return to Greece next year we will be making a trip to the Greek Consulate after the first of the year to clear up our problem and hopefully, fingers crossed, having some if not all of the fine forgiven.

Once in Turkey, we spent the next week getting the boat ready to be pulled out of the water for the winter. This included, oil changes, removing sails, deflating the dingy and numerous other tasks.
On October 14th Lone Star was pulled out of the water and put on the hard for the winter. The Marmaras Yacht Haven Marina is a first class operation and we found the staff to be friendly and helpful. There is also a surprisingly large English speaking group of cruisers that we enjoyed being with until our departure for the USA on October 17th.

We have now settled back in Kingwood and have rented a patio home for the next year while we decide on where to permanently establish a "land base". We have been enjoying catching up with family and old friends. We are spending the Christmas holidays in Asheville, North Carolina with our children and future son-in-law and will definitely be back a couple of other times before we return to Turkey in May of 2010.