Hi G&Z we are not too worried and will assess when there, our plans r to be in Europe mid Feb & will book flights soon too.My concern is what happens if you come across refugees on the water, we will stand to but watch situation & notify authorities, huge probs bringing in refugees on your boat to foreign ports we hear.
LOL we certainly may b in same area please look out for Mistral
Sent friend request, my partner is LACHLANC on here too!!
Deb & Lach

Do you guys have any concerns with the current refugee situation. most of the threads I have read are not to concerned however they do have a habit of getting sidetracked.


By the sounds of it, there is probably a fair chance that we may run into each other next year. Please feel free to add me to your friends list if your would like to stay in touch. happy to share any info we find on the way.


Cheers
Guy and Zoe

Hi Debbie,
Thanks for replying to my message. I will check out the Greece visa thing as that would be great and my wife has been pushing me to work it out so we can book flights.


We are looking for a 40 foot cat as we are taking our 2 sons along and they need the room to run around. Ideally we are looking at finding a yacht around Greece or turkey, spending time there then heading up to Croatia. From there work our way west.


The plan now is to head to Europe in late January, so we can do a bit of site seeing, settle into the culture and keep looking for the cat, most likely a lagoon. At the moment the plan is to only spend 1 season in the med however that still gives me 10 months to convince my wife to take longer. I would like to take a second year to head across the Atlantic but that will be a 10 month discussion.

This has made our lives so much easier, the documentation is pretty straight forward and everything is organised from Australia, once you arrived you register and your passport issued with the Type D visa straight away!

We can plan for 2 summers in the Med, first one sailing around Greece (and maybe Turkey) then heading for the second summer towards the west and hopefully the Canaries for a sail across the Atlantic, all going well.

What sort of yachts are you both looking at and any thoughts on your plans?

Exciting times ahead
Debbie and Lachlan

Yes, the Schengen has been an issue for us. We had been so worried we would be constantly trying to count our 90 days and be clearing in and out of Turkey.....to top off the stress of starting our new live aboard life. We have however had amazing news from the Greek Consulate General this week (we visited their office here in Melbourne) and he went thru the very simple and easy process of applying for a Type D Visa that they will provide us, it will give us unlimited 12 months in Greece (and unlimited movement in and out of any Schengen country as well). SO relieved. We just apply within 3 months of our departure next Feb. He also indicated we would more than likely be able to extend this and he could see no problem as to why this wouldn't occur.

Lachlan had already organised a survey to be done while he was there for the week, and he was able to look at length thru the yacht as it is sitting on the hard in a small village about 2 hours from Athens. The survey came thru just fine and we put the final payment down about a week ago.

Our experience was made pretty easy as we were dealing with an Australian brokerage and owner. We actually met the owner in Pittwater, he has exactly same Beneteau here in Australia, and got to sail for an afternoon with him. It was lovely to hear about his sailing in Greece and Turkey.

Hi Gman, Your worries sound very similar to ours! We spend a few months looking at yachts locally and interstate, however decided that buying in the Med just made sense. We saw our Beneteau Oceanis 473 "Mistral" advertised in Greece with the 3 cabin layout we wanted, we looked at one down in Tassie to see if we thought it could work. Mistral was listed with 2 agents, one in Sydney the other in the UK (the then owner lives in Sydney but has a UK passport). After extensive emails (plus pictures and videos) we put a deposit on it, this allowed my partner to arrange flights to Athens to view. We certainly didn't want the yacht to be sold via the UK while he was in transit, as another party was looking seriously at her also. (more to come but unsure if i can post more than once)

Hi Debbierogers,
I just saw your post in the western med passage plan for newbies thread.
My wife and I are planning on heading to the med next year as well. I also have the visa issue because of aussie passport however my wife has a English passport so am currently investigating options to get around the Schengen issue. If you find any useful info to get around the visa issue I would be grateful if you could share it with me.


I am also interested in the process/experience you went through to buy your boat. did you fly over to look at it or just go off the surveyors report. How did you go dealing with brokers etc. what stragtegy did you use when making an offer, how did it work or any other info you think my be helpful.


Hopefully I am not being to forward reaching out unsolicited however any info would help a heap.


Thanks
The Gman