Pen Y Ddraig (Greece) Report.

This report is brought to you by Lusi. Please email the preceding address if you have any questions or comments.

The opinions expressed are those of the person(s) who submitted the report and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of NetNude.

Pen Y Ddraig situation
Sept 11-16,2002

Sept. 11 Wednesday

Upon arrival at Preveza airport a call to the PYD captain was met with "you've got a problem - the boat is not in Nidri, it is broken down in Frikes on the island of Ithaka."

No arrangements had been made for the charter's delayed start even though the boat had been laid up for at least one day before our arrival. His suggestion was that we take the ferry from Lefkada to Ithaka in an attempt to meet the boat.

After meeting Ann and Robert in Nidri, we phoned Mike, the owner, who suggested we go to Syvota, on Lefkada, and wait for the boat there.
All four of us taxied from Nidri to Syvota and found rooms. Calls to John, the captain, led us to believe the boat would be repaired the next day.
We settled in and waited.

Sept 12 Thursday

A call to John in the morning told us the boat would not be ready until evening, at the earliest. Continued calls to John during the day made it clear the boat would not be ready that day. Friday would be the earliest day we would be aboard the boat.


September 13 Friday

The boat arrived in Syvota in late morning. We went aboard and were greeted with the news that one of the heads had been repaired and was now working, but there was no water pressure so hands could not be washed after using the paper bin.
During the rain that day we discovered none of the skylights could be closed nor made watertight. They all either were missing tie downs, or the tie downs were so corroded they would not work. Consequently the twin cabin had one bunk that was wet whenever it rained, which it did every day.

Every skylight hatch leaked, but most were not over a bunk. The one in the saloon was over the coffee table and could not be sealed, so the table and seating were wet.

We also learned that if one was below there were strong diesel fumes to cope with. Because of these fumes we had to have the skylights open for ventilation. The rain necessitated closing the hatches, but made it very uncomfortable below deck.

September 14 Saturday

The boat hoisted sail and went to Vathy on Ithaka. We were never asked where we wanted to go; the captain just set sail for Vathy. It had been our understanding that this was to be a sailing holiday going where we wanted to go within the boat's cruising ground.

September 15 Sunday

When leaving Vathy the anchor winch broke as the anchor came aboard. This necessitated that we go to a large harbor to have it repaired, negating the ability to fulfill our desire to stop at some small beaches.

During this time we were able to have the sails hoisted again due to strong breezes from an approaching storm. When the storm hit four of the guests were forced to stay below and suffer the fumes, poor ventilation and leaks. We were told this was the only time the sails had been up two days in a row while the current crew had been aboard, they normally motored the whole time.

As we came into the harbor at Sami, on Kephalonia, the engine would not start; apparently the part that had just been repaired had failed again. Now there were two repairs that had to be made before we could sail anywhere.

September 16 Monday

This morning everyone went ashore for showers, since there was no hot water on the boat. When we came back we were told we had to stay off the boat until at least midafternoon while the floorboards were torn up for repairs.

The Captain also told us he could not guarantee that he could return two of us to the airport at Lefkada because the wind was from the North and the boat could not sail into the wind, and the engine was not strong enough to motor into the wind.

It was at this time we left the boat. Damian and Marianna had to get to the airport since they were only with us for a week (two more days) so they had to leave. Ann and Robert wanted to be with their son, and we wanted to be with them all.

There was no guarantee the boat would be any better for the remainder of the charter, the fumes and leaks would never go away.

In our rush to leave and make a ferry to Lefkada from Fiskardo on northern Kephalonia some things were left behind. We were never able to get in touch with the Captain to arrange their return; his cell phone was never on and there was no voice mail.

To date we have heard nothing from the boat owner. There has been no reimbursement of out of pocket expenses while awaiting the boat, either.

This report is brought to you by Mike, owner of the above boat. Please email the preceding address if you have any questions or comments.

The opinions expressed are those of the person(s) who submitted the report and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of NetNude.

Pen Y Ddraig situation
September 2002

Jan has asked me to comment and I do as follows:

The trip referred to started badly with foul weather keeping our boat on another island, coupled with an erratic starter motor which we had bought "fully reconditioned" a month previously. In fact it was simply repainted and gave us a lot of trouble. As this group were arriving I was buying a new one in the UK and arranging to send it out. These are not available in Greece.

Ann the tour leader had given everyone (and her group were not all arriving the same day) her UK mobile telephone number as a pivotal point of contact. Sadly she didn't understand "roaming" and her phone didn't work, making communications impossible.

Once we had picked up the whole group they clearly had been expecting something like the QE2, complaining at lack of comfy seats on deck, being the first people ever to say the boat is not "spacious" (per the brochure), indeed displaying every sign of never having been on a mid-sized yacht or anything vaguely similar in their lives before. Ann is not on the internet, the only place we have anything like a brochure, so I had sent her a b&w print off, but she lost that and her colleagues/family did not get to see it (I think).

Sadly too the weather was atrocious and this is, so far as we are concerned, the nub of the complaint. Had the sunshine been glorious they would have been a happy bunch, we're sure of it, but it doesn't matter what sort of yacht you're on, if it's raining cats and dogs all day you're going to look for things to complain about.

One toilet had been broken by a previous guest and the spare part which was very hard to locate (I found it in England eventually) was on its way out. The guests failed to obey orders and stuffed toilet paper down the one toilet that had been working, rendering that (temporarily) useless too. And then the starter gave us more problems but as the weather was so bad, the boat could not have gone to sea anyway.

They've also claimed of lot of nonsensical rubbish about the boat not being able to sail, so it's hard to know how to respond to them. I think they expected us to sail out of port into a storm and because we didn't they think the boat "cannot sail".

It's very important to me that people enjoy their holidays with us, and very sad when they don't, hence I've offered quite a bit more compensation (Note from Jan: I received a copy of this compensation email Nov. 10) than we are obliged to under the terms of the deal, because their jumping ship with ten days holiday still to go saved us various food and expenses which I've offered to pass onto them. I've not had a response yet.

A look at http://www.prested.com/pydfull.htm will indicate to any fair person how we try to down-play the luxury aspect of the boat and emphasise the possibility of things going wrong. What more can we do?

Additional note: The people I was with in June mostly want to come back next year, so do others who came mid season.

This report is brought to you by Lusi. Please email the preceding address if you have any questions or comments.

The opinions expressed are those of the person(s) who submitted the report and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of NetNude.

Pen Y Ddraig situation
Sept 11-16,2002

Note from Jan: This is a followup to the past reports on Pen Y Draig.

I now appreciate the trip failure was a result of an unfortunate combination of circumstances, to a large extent atrocious weather, which Mike had no control over. An agreed offer of settlement has been made.

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