Messolonghi

The trip from Patras to Messolonghi went well, the sun was shining and sea calm. Messolonghi marina and town quay are at the end of a 4km canal sort of thing, in a lagoon,see photo from Pilotbook. It is very sheltered as you would expect and all the land around is low lying, they produce salt around here. On the sides of the canal up to the lagoon are houses on stilts, it all felt very Asain, although some of the houses are very flash. We tried to go into the marina as I was looking forward to having power but no, apparently they have no license at the moment. Here is the story as we got it from a Brit who has been based here for a few years now.
The marina was jointly owned a Greek and a Dutch man, they had previously had another business that had done well but they had a disagreement, it’s rumoured the Greek man was pocketing cash and the Dutchman took over the Marina. However the Greek man then started making waves and getting the authorities involved about standards and services which has resulted in the Marina loosing its license to operate. This was last year some time and since then the sole owner has been jumping through Greek bureaucratic hoops and is nearly there, he now just needs to submit a plan for the next three years development (new requirement). When we arrived and tried to come into marina port police followed the boat in their vehicle to make sure we didn’t go in. They also checked the paperwork at the Town quay where we moored for a few days before anchoring off when the wind direction changed.
We have met the Marina long stay residents, they are great and it is a real shame about the license as location is good facilities showers loos laundry cafe all good, other things are not allowed like cranes etc until license sorted.
The town itself is modern as it’s a university town so lots of young people which is unusual as on the islands they have all moved to the mainland for jobs. The cafes are also modern and used. But one thing we have noticed especially since the tourists are gone is that although there are no smoking signs at cafes and restaurants the ban is not enforced. When we asked about this we were told ‘yes it is the law but we would have no customers’!
We have done our shopping both for food and the boat completed laundry and used showers (there is a little green frog in the shower area) so are ready to move on. Wind should ease tonight so hopefully tomorrow we will head back out to the Ionian Islands, this time Cephalonia and the port of Sami, but we will wait and see, if it is still very rough we will just come back to Messolonghi.Read more