Gaios, Paxos

We have settled into a comfortable rhythm on the boat now that all the problems have been sorted. This morning I woke up to see the sunrise and we set off by 7.30am when some of us were still asleep. Giorgos prepared another delicious breakfast, today we had oats porridge in addition to the full fare we had yesterday. I could get used to this, having someone else cooking and cleaning up…it would usually be my job. He is a very good cook and prepares such delicious and healthy meals.

My pelvis/hip pain has been okay, I am obviously not walking that much when we are on a boat all day so that is helping to keep it calm. Last night getting in and out of the dinghy to go ashore was tricky and a bit painful, but we don't often have to do that. When swimming I lower myself down the ladder into the water which is fine, and coming up again I have someone to help pull me out the water. 

The weather has been perfect, I thought it would be unbearably hot and while it is hot, it is not uncomfortably so. The breeze when out on the water keeps us cool.

This morning we sailed south from Corfu to Paxos, where we stopped to see some caves. It was quite busy with other boats coming to see the caves so we did not stay long. It was 13 years ago that we were last in Greece on a sailing holiday and it seems much busier now, more sailing boats and quite a few super yachts. I haven’t seen any old wooden fisherman’s boats, or even the fishermen themselves - on our last visit we saw wooden boats and fishermen everywhere, now it seems they use modern little power boats. A sign of economic advancement which is good for the country but not good for photography! I managed to find a few wooden fishing boats but they were tricky to photograph as they were cheek by jowl with other modern boats.

There was a bit of a swell today and poor Anna got seasick. I usually get seasick very easily but so far I have been fine, the catamaran is definitely more steady and stable than a mono hull. She was sick all morning but after a swim she felt better and was able to eat lunch. There was somebody else also getting sick on a neighbouring boat…Luke cut his foot on a barnacle which bled a lot but it’s okay. 

We stopped in a beautiful bay with turquoise coloured water, apparently this was one of the locations used for the Netflix movie Maestro in Blue. Ioannis said he auditioned for that but was unsuccessful. Everyone swam there, I found the swell a bit much as the waves kept hitting you in the face - we then went around the corner to another much calmer bay near Mongonissi beach where we had lunch. Giorgos served the most delicious salmon cooked with ginger, a bit of garlic, and lemon, accompanied by carrots, broccoli, salads and rice. His carrots were amazing! We all then had a swim, and for the first time the boys were able to use the SUP boards as the water was calm enough here to do so. I did quite a few lengths swimming out and then back to the boat.

Tonight we are mooring in a small marina at Gaios on the east side of Paxos, and dinner will be onshore in a restaurant. I am getting by using roaming which is usually 5G but tomorrow when we go to the west coast of Paxos there will be no roaming so I won’t be able to upload tomorrow. We are also struggling a bit with charging phones, computers etc as we cannot run the generator while the boat engine is on.

I spoke too soon, the cold water pump has broken and there is no cold water on one half of the boat so showers are too hot and toilets cannot flush! An engineer has been called out...This boat is a disaster, it's only 4 years old but obviously has not been correctly maintained. Thank goodness Gavin is not the skipper and it's not his problem.

I won't be able to upload tomorrow as no roaming and no wifi.