Halekai has been berthed next to SV Mindedal in the Pylos marina for over a week now, enjoying our last days in Greece before our visas expire. The marina is a sort of no man's land, built with EU money to help stimulate the economy, but never completed by the locals. Electric and water lines were installed but never hooked up. No one is in charge, so fishing boats and private yachts tie up for free wherever there's space, and everything is becoming dilapidated from lack of maintenance. Abandoned, derelict boats are starting to clog up the dock space. Sadly, it's the third such aborted marina we've come across (the others were on the islands of Rhodes and Patmos), and friends have shared accounts of yet others. What does this say about the Greek state of affairs?

As yachties we have to clear Customs & Immigration upon entering and leaving each country, and we're expected to check in with the Coast Guard office at each harbor we visit. A small fee per night is due for tying up to the town quay. But there's little enforcement, so most boats don't bother to check in. In the harbors where we've done so, there were typically half a dozen young uniformed men and women hanging out, talking on their cellphones and trying to look busy. One person could have easily handled the meager workload. There were no computers. Since the Coast Guard offices are manned 24/7, that means several shifts of underemployed people on the government payroll. If this is typical of Greek bureaucracy, it's no wonder the government is in financial crisis.

But as tourists we've been relatively unaffected. We loved our time in Greece.