Saturday 14th March...
It'll keep yesterday's grumpy fishermen happy, that this morning we weighed anchor, said cheerio to Preveza, and got ourselves on the way to make more Thésee memories. The waters are very shallow as you leave Preveza which means you must keep to the well buoyed channel, or you're in danger of going aground.
One of the six or so large buoys here
Waving bye bye to the boatyards.
So many masts in there.
..... and that's just a few of them
Captain in charge of steering us clear
I would say it took us at least half an hour to exit the anchorage and make our way out of the buoyed channel, before we could finally turn to starboard and head north to our planned destination.... The lovely Greek island called Paxos. The journey is about 34 miles so quite a distance for a first trip of the season. Here's a photo from our chartplotter. Thesee is in the bottom right corner, and it shows a red line for our heading to Paxos, and the main town of Gaios. We were about 10 miles away at this point.
Looking through the binoculars as we neared, I could see part of a very large ship moored inside the channel where we were heading to. It looked a grey colour, so I called Dean (who was downstairs fixing something or other) to tell him I thought there was a warship in port. Oh no, what if they turn us away? Normally, I have a Plan B, and even a Plan C up my sleeve, but I hadn't today because we had been there last year, and knew the score.
I needn't have worried though, because Dean looked it up on the chartplotter only to find that it was Agios Spiridon..... the blue and white roll on roll off ferry from Corfu!! 😂 and about 20 minutes later it did us a big favour and departed just before our arrival.
So we arrived at Gaios (the main town), albeit a village, and berthed alongside the nice (free at this time of year) pontoon. Seems we are the only visiting boat today. We don't have any schedules to keep, so will probably be here for a few days, or longer. I'm planning a couple of walks on the island, so let's see what tomorrow brings.
Night Night from Thesee & crew
Sunday 15th March...
First full day here in Paxos. More jobs for Dean to sort out, mainly the forward heads shower drain pump is playing up, only working when it feels like it. And also a small piece of stitching has come away on the bimini canvas, so Dean's special canvas needle and thread came out. It was quite blowy this morning, but also the sun was out, so he could have a small chill out afterwards and do some reading in the cockpit.
I didn't realise that it was UK Mother's Day, until I received lovely messages from Jade and Claire. Thank you both for your greetings 💜💜
After lunch I suggested we go on a small ramble that I had worked out. The walk took us across the island to the west coast, to a geological wonder called 'Tripitos Arch'. It's basically a 'Durdle Door'. The walk was about 3km each way, so that worked off our chocolate bar pudding.
On our walk, quite a number of holiday apartments
....and well kept homes
Many many olive groves
and flowers already
Cactus
Lemons
Finally, we reached a sign to Tripitos Arch
It was a well organised pathway
Going down now, not seen the Arch yet
Blue water caves down there
Finally, the Arch appeared
It looks like the path goes right across it!!
Only for lunatics I presume
After a few attempts we manage to get a selfie
That's Antipaxos island over there
Very blue down there near the caves
Now heading back to Gaios
Back in town, Steve McQueen
And a well deserved Mythos beer
Monday 16th March...
Another windy night last night, the boat was shuddering at times. But that's one of the reasons were are here sheltered, as best we can in Paxos. It's rather unusual because normally it's a windy afternoon and then a calm night. But the weather here has decided to decline from our lovely sunny days that we've received so far. And indeed today has been overcast, but still warmish when the wind stopped.
To pass the time on board this morning, Dean had the TV in bits. Hmmm, why should one ask? The DVD drive was playing up and not sucking in the DVD when it should, hence no more James Bond re-runs. End of the world for one of us.....
When there's something available to fix on board, Dean fixes it. End of story. It took a little while to solve this issue, however it's now working and now we can watch James Bond......again.
And the forward heads shower drain pump had to be re-fixed too. By now it was after lunch, and our planned morning coffee and croissant at the nice little cafe nearby was no more.
Here's the TV getting fixed
However, we did drag ourselves off the boat this afternoon and walked to the nice little nearby cafe. We're still trying to find an open bakery, yesterday being Sunday, and this afternoon being siesta time and closed. It's a first time at this cafe and it was very good, well presented and lovely decor. The cups a little trendy, having no handle and a rectangular saucer.
The cafe view across the inlet too
Here's a little info I found in our Greek Waters Pilot Book.....
PAXOS is seven miles south of Corfu. The island is the smallest of the main Ionion islands, five miles long and two miles wide. Until recently it produced little else except Olive Oil, for which it is famous. At one time, Harrods only sold olive oil from Paxos. Now tourists from Corfu regularly visit the island, and in recent years a large number of villas have been built. The island is also popular with flotilla companies, and in the summer the harbours and anchorages are full of yachts.
The main town Gaios is quite cosmopolitan, with delis and boutiques.
(Well I think the word 'cosmopolitan' is over-rating it by a long shot) 😂
LEGEND says that it was off Paxos that a significant historical event occurred, when the Egyptian pilot Thamus was becalmed, and disobeyed a voice from the water commanding him to announce that the great god Pan was dead. I'm sure you'll all have heard about this 'significant historical event' ??? 😏
Thank you very much to everyone who has commented on our blog page, and by email, whatsapp, and messenger too. It's great to hear you are enjoying our adventures along with us, and also it's a good way for us to keep a diary and all our photos, because otherwise they would just sit in some spurious folder on the laptop, fading away into the oblivion of space.
There really wasn't a lot going on today. The only excitement for us was getting a crusty loaf (finally), and two grapefruits (although they did look like oranges, and we had to do a google translate to make sure). However, nearby the bakery, the local kitties were all waiting patiently for breakfast at the fish stall. They must be well behaved because none of them jumped up, even when no-one was keeping watch.
Do you think they are all related?
We did come across an old half disintigrated radial aircraft engine though, on show outside one of the cafes.
It's been cold this morning, and now this evening too. Still naff cloudy weather and wind. We even started the engine for an hour to charge the batteries and warm the water for showers. Ooh, and we got to watch a DVD without the TV breaking down too.
Wednesday 18th March...
I planned another walk for today. Not a ramble, but just a half hour (each way) walk up the coast road and back again. There were three small bays to explore, with some lovely villas and apartments en-route. The beaches were all rocky but would be sunspots in the height of the season..
Approaching beach number 1 - Paralia Kamini
Arrival at the entrance to beach number 3 - Paralia Kaki Laghada
From there we made our way slightly inland to a reservoir, which turned out to be quite a disappointment, because it was virtually empty. After all this rain over the wintertime, it didn't seem right.
It was quite mucky and murky
We walked around the reservoir hoping to take a path back to the boat, but google maps obviously is confused, because there is definitely no pathway here to follow. So we did an about turn and walked back via the coast road.
This beautiful cala lily growing on the roadside as we neared the boat
And is this the Apollo space capsule here?
I'm writing the blog early today, because we are going to eat tonight. Hopefully, there will be something open, even if it's just the Burger Bar.
BTW..... It's still windy here
Thursday 19th March...
Thursday 19th March...
Well, sorry everyone, no blog photos today. The weather has been HORRIBLE, very windy and wet. We haven't been off the boat all day. Just stayed on board trying to keep warm. It looks like that's the last of the weather dodgy-ness for now. Three days of sunshine coming.
Friday 20th March...
As forecast, the sun did indeed shine in all its glory this morning. It's like we've been transported into another land.... or sea. It's was pretty chilly though when we woke up. But the sun, and lack of wind, meant that at last we could do a job that has been waiting since last Saturday.
On our way to Paxos, we couldn't unfurl the genoa sail fully because the top furler kept sticking. This meant that we needed to take the genoa sail down and give the furler some TLC. So 9am we got started, the genoa sail came down and we laid it on deck. Dean spent a good while flushing out the furler and greasing it, whilst I was doing the fetching and carrying back and forth. Skivvy, I think is what you call it.
Making a start
Sail down on deck
Doesn't look much sail, but believe me it's massive
Here's Dean doing his thing with the furler.
Note: He cut a plastic container which he attached
below the furler to catch all the residue.
Job done. Close up of the furler.
And that's the residue what came out after flushing
Sail re-attached and ready to hoist back up
We were very pleased with how it all went. We've just been for a walk now to get some shopping. Might go out again to eat tonight. The taverna which we went to the other night was super. Really nicely decorated, and the food was truly excellent. It's called Piazza Massa. They have cats too, like everywhere else, and I feel bad for not feeding them tit-bits. The food was too good not to eat myself.
Only one complaint today, my camera is playing up. So who knows if there will be any more blog photos or not tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
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