Long haul to Greece

We took on water by the fuel quay in Syracuse and Pipo the water man said we would be OK to stay there the night - so we did. Big mistake!
The swell went on all night grinding us hard into the concrete quay and threatening to chafe through all of our nice new mooring warps. We took an hour to get it safe enough including using our canal plank outside the fenders to help protect the boat.
We then attempted to sleep with the idea of getting up at 0330 to sail by 0400. In the end the grinding and crashing had us both awake at o200 and we said sod-it and got up so we were away by 0300.
We had a pretty uneventful passage with mostly nice gentle Easterly tail winds all the way. The strong winds the previous day gave us a reasonably severe shaking for several hours once we left the shelter of Sicily but it all calmed down by evening. We saw no land for two days and at night, the stars and the phosphorescence were breathtaking. We both saw several shooting stars. Several pods of Dolphins visited us and played around the bows and in the middle of the sea, 100 miles from land an small yellow bird landed, took a few crumbs from Lindsay and then disappeared off over the sea again. Hope he made it!
When dawn broke on the Friday, Kefalonia was clearly vivble on the horizon but it took another few hours to reach it. On the way we swerved to avoid a floating 100 gallon Diesel drum - glad it wasn't night time, as we would have had no chance of seeing it.

Argostoli is lovely - a nice, low-rise town set in a beutiful bay under green mountains. The customs man was very nice but as it was May day when we arrived, the tax office wasn't open. so we couldn't pay for our cruising permit and he couldn't ceck us in. He was appologetic but we would have to wait till Monday. Fortunately, not a problem for us as we don't plan to leave till Tuesday anyway.
Tried to get a 3G data SIM but it appears that all the companies have changed the rules this year. No more pay as you go and you have to have a greek address, landline number and tax number to get a contract! Luickily I rang Vodafone headquarters and got a different story - there is an exception for yachtsmen. So now I have to go back to the shops and explain their own rules to them on Monday. Wish me luck!