Archive for March, 2009

…easy, sit in the sun on the weekend and sunburn your forehead! Yup, sunscreen is now on the list of things to pack

Getting SO excited! As the days warm up, and the sun comes out, we are getting more an more excited about the trip. Today was absolutely gorgeous in Vancouver. The temperatures crawled up to about 10 degrees C and we joined a few friends down at the Yacht Club to sit on the deck, soak up the sun, and partake of a few Strongbow ciders. A friend needed to fuel his boat and so we hopped on board for the short trip around to the fuel dock. But the weather was so lovely, and he just couldn’t resist going out for a jaunt, particularly when it’s a bit bumpy outside of the harbour. So we went out and rode the waves and enjoyed the afternoon.

And being out on the water just makes me look that much more forward to the trip. It’s only a short few weeks away! The first boat payment has been made, tickets are in the drawer…… very, very excited.”

Gads! And I thought getting the boat sorted out was frustrating!

We have gone through four travel agents that have provided us with itineraries ranging from milk runs with four stops on the way to London, to others that have given us potential bills for upwards of $5000 each for flights! And yet when I look for flights, I can manage to get the two of us there for about $4500 all in.

One agent couldn’t find Preveza. Another couldn’t book with Aegean Airlines. A third wanted to charge us $1000 for a flight between Athens and Corfu when I found a flight for 14 Euros! Go figure.

It turned out that the problem for all of them was the flights between Athens and the islands of Corfu (arrival) and Lefkas (departure). Because we are at the beginning fo the season, there are very few flights. There is only one flight out of Preveza/Lefkas on the day we need to leave. And trying to coordinate that with Athens to London was proving challenging since the airline doesn’t show up on any of the agents screens.

Finally, I contacted Carlson Wagonlit Travel and sent the woman the itinerary I had built and the pricing I had found. After a bit of back and forth, I had to book one flight myself (Athens to Corfu) to get the web price, but she was able to book the rest. It was great to go through them as we have a Royal Bank Rewards Visa and the points were able to be turned into cash for travel through them. Beats trying to work around blackouts because you are flying on points. They simply translate into $2400 for use anywhere, any time, any flight. Period.

I had to book one of the little intra-national ones myself since I could get a rpice that was astoundingly cheaper online than they could get through their licences. Oh well, it’s done!

So, that saved us a lot! And the flights are finally booked, so tomorrow I will finalize the paperwork for the boat…and then it’s just start to accumulate and organize the things we need to take.

Oh…sooo looking forward to this!!! We are so in need of a good holiday! And four weeks in the Mediterranean …. well, that definitely fits the bill!

OK, now that we have agreed on a boat and a price…it’s starting to feel like a reality. Before we were so tied up in wedding “stuff” that we couldn’t really even think about it. That, and the fact that we were kind of freaking out about the costs associated with an unplanned wedding where we had been socking everything away for the trip. This one is only about a week longer than our last trip, but it’s going to cost almost twice as much I think. Costs have gone up, the dollar has gone down. Bad timing all around.

Oh Well. To Quote Bertuzzi…”It is what it is.” Chip?

Now we start to make lists. Lists and instructions for our live in critter-sitter. Lists of things we need to remember to take. Like insect repellant. I remember that mosquito and Kirk and their all night war. I don’t need to relive that…although it was rather funny from my perspective…except for the lack of sleep thing…

I finally settled on a new Navigational software package that works on the Mac. There are relatively few out there, and the ones I’ve found certainly aren’t as fully featured as what we had for the PC. But it will do. It does what it needs to…it loads the right charts, it records a track, it talks to our GPS unit either by bluetooth or by cable (thankfully! THAT took some doing and a driver hack by some kind soul in cyberspace). We can plot courses and measure distances and directions. No bells and whistles, but it does the basic necessary tasks.

I was a bit concerned that I wouldn’t have the Mac up and running with equivalents for everything we are used to, but I think I have pretty much all the bases covered now. About the only program I wasn’t able to replicate was Streets and Trips, although there is a program out there called Route Buddy that does the same thing, but at a higher cost. Odd since absolutely everything else I have bought for the Mac is cheaper than its PC equivalent. usually a LOT cheaper! And usually a LOT better software too! If I decide we need road maps…I might buy it…but really…we are traveling by water and can buy a map of any island we want to investigate by scooter.

Speaking of which, I suppose we should go and renew our international driving permits so we can rent those scooters.

Last time we went we had a dickens of a time finding spices. I’d like to pack a little spice kit…but I have to admit that I worry a little bit about customs. I suppose I could pick up some sealed packages rather than pack my own…might look a bit better if we get searched at customs. A thought….