We arrived as scheduled at Piraeus pilot station for our Athens call, only to find the Star flyer, Wind Spirit and a host of other craft floating around the entrance waiting to get in. As usual the ferries had preference for coming and going. However communication between them and port control seemed to have been even worse than normal as every time the pilot thought we could proceed another one left the dock. The Wind Spirit decided to swing around on arrival and blocked the centre of the harbor by doing so for 15 minutes and that in turn delayed two ferries, which departure then delayed our arrival again. All in all we docked 45 minutes past schedule.

The pilot was also an unhappy camper as he had been sitting on the bridge for nearly an hour doing nothing, but as it was not our fault; he waved the extra pilot charge that they add to the bill for waiting caused by the ship. We docked this time at the regular passenger berth and that made it easier for our guests to get into town. Last cruise we docked at the Olympic berth and that necessitated a 5 minute shuttle ride from that dock to the cruise terminal.

The shuttle runs all the way inside the terminal grounds and is completely screened off from the rest of the port. This setup is a left over from the Olympic Games when there were several cruise ships docked in port as floating hotels, including our own Rotterdam and the Queen Mary 2.

Another left over from that period are the under water inspections carried out by the local military. At random divers will arrive at the ship to do an underwater search. They do not announce this and the only way we find out is when the authorities suddenly call to say that we cannot turn the propellers for a certain period of time.

Departure was again a waiting game. Around 1800 which is our published departure time, all the ferries start to come in and leave again and that means that you normally do not get out until 19.30. So I try to leave as soon as all guests are on board and then pull out as quickly as possible. I just made it by 1750 hrs. and by the time I came “flying” out of the breakwater, two ferries were waiting to get in and another two were approaching.

We were blessed again with a sunny and warm day. The temperatures at the Acropolis went up to 25o C. or 78o F.
and the warm weather is supposed to hold because the wind has turned to the south. That also means we are getting Sahara sand on deck again. The sky has that familiar brown tinge to it and that in turn will result in complaints about dirty windows and decks when the sand settles on the decks.

Tomorrow we are in Kusidasi, followed by Rhodes were we are not allowed to do any outside maintenance or hosing down the decks, so we will have to live with it until we are past Santorini. The Bo‘sun is mopping were possible but it does not win the battle.