Chania, what a great Tourist Town

While I am generally not a fan of tourist towns, I will admit to being a big fan of Chania. I guess one of the reasons is the low cost of staying there. At about 8 Euros a night to tie up to the quay with another 3Euros for water and electricity, it’s the bargain of the century. Add to that a very lively waterfront with great restaurants, an excellent chandlery, lots of local attractions, a very nice beach, spectacular Venetian architecture and pretty good shelter from wind and sea.

You get to see things in Greece that you don't get to
see other places around the Western World. Hey pup,
how are you doing?

Ross and I arrived on a Sunday in quite a bit of wind, like pushing 35-40 on the way into the bay and a solid 20-25 when we were preparing to anchor. A nice couple of guys from nearby boats suggested that we go side-to on the quay and that worked out quite nicely given the 25 knot side-wind. Man, when you lose the bow in that breeze there is no getting it back. Anyway tied up to the quay I went off to Port Police and got us registered with Spiros, the local harbor master. While it costs 25% more to be side-to I think I can afford the extra 2 Euros a day so we didn’t move.

The view from the cockpit of Tara into town

I rented a car to pickup the girls at the airport and used the extra time I had to go the the Tera Crete olive oil factory we visited last year and picked up 7 liters of olive oil, some balsamic vinegar and some olives. Then off to the airport and waited for three pretty weary girls to come out of the baggage claim with 50# of boat parts, and 10 bathing suits each. Jess and Chloe came out first as they only had carry-on luggage, and then Marina followed in about 10 minutes. They flew to Crete for about 40 Euros each on RyanAir. The bag probably costs another 100 Euros – and if you don’t check-in online it costs 55Euros for each to check in at the gate. Thankfully the gate agent told them in advance and they found an internet kiosk … “Yes ma’am it is 40 Euros for the flight and 55 Euros to check in”. I can imagine how that conversation must go. I doubt that they have any irate customers over that cash grab. Probably goes a bit like my discussion with Canadian mobile phone carriers:

Matt: “so let me get this straight, it’s 10 gigs is $100. OK, I need eleven gigs, how much is it, $110, $109?

Mobile Phone Company: No sir it is $1,100. Each megabyte over 10G is $1.

Matt: WTF??”

A cruise ship came in and lit off fireworks near the entry marker
which is a piece of art in itself

Anyway, back in Chania there is a street that just sells leather, there are lots of art galleries, many restaurants and bars, and lots of places that sell clothing … sounds like a teen-age girl’s holiday resort. We ended up staying an extra day because I needed to install the new alternator Marina brought and I thought the girls would enjoy the experience of Chania. In reality we probably would have been happier to leave a day earlier but we have between 35 and 75 miles to go so we need to give ourselves enough time to enjoy the touristy bits but get ourselves into the sailing/cruising mode.