Around Paxoi

An Austrian Yacht on the ground

Sailing into Petriti, we saw two yachts that are anchored out in the bay. A Catamaran and another blue yacht. Getting closer in, we were surprised to see that the blue yacht was actually aground.

Later on we found out that this yacht belongs to a drunken Austrian who left the boat in the bay for the winter. On an 8 bft storm, the anchors dragged (or broke as the local fisherman said).

The result is:

Lakka Bay

On the North end of Paxoi, there is a lovely bay called Lakka. The bay is large, lovely turquoise water, a couple of beaches and a very nice town at the head of the bay. The only thing is that the place is so popular that the bay fills up with boats towards the afternoon. We left for the well known Paxoi town (Gaios), the capital of the island.

The caves in swell

On Thursday morning, we woke up early and motored our way around the island to show our visitors (Yael, Neta and Miki) the lovely caves. Unfortunately, as we got to the west side of the island, we could see that this is going to be a challenge. A little bit of swell built up during the last couple of days of strong southerlies. The bay, which is open to SW, was a little rough. We decided to try and go in anyway (I stayed on the boat), but without the outboard because it would not be possible to get it to the dinghy in such waves. So the three of them rowed the dingy down to the caves, and after some adventurous 30 minutes they came back to the boat. It was so different that last week. I had to show them the pictures from the caves on a calm day to change their impression of the place.

Sivota (Moutros)

Our last day on the boat! We anchored at the North bay of Sivota. The same group of islands where End Bay is.

We spent a beautiful afternoon at the beach. Watching the tour boats come and go. We learned a new term there: “Champaign diving”. The crew of the tour boat throws a couple of Champaign bottles to the sea (depth of about 5m) and the tourists need to dive and catch them. It was a nice game to watch… Eventually they made it…

At some point, as the wind picked up, Miki and I decided to the take the kayak for a ride around one of the islands. This was challenging. We had one long leg against the sea and we couldn’t see where it ends… It was a total of only 2 NM but it looked like a marathon to us.

When we got back on board, the girls wanted to tour around as well. Miki took them on the dinghy, with the outboard, to do the same round. They got back 40 minutes later saying it was scary!

At that point the waves started creeping into the bay. We felt as if we anchored in the middle of the sea. So, just before sunset, we decided to move in to one of the inner bays where the water was as calm as a mirror. What a difference!

Friday morning, we motored our way to Corfu, just before the forecasted NW wind started. We were lucky to get in just before the wind picked up. After all, we have a flight to catch today.

So, even if it was very short, we had great sailing, a great team and a great time.

Looking forward to be back in July!

To see the whole album of this weeks sailing trip click the image below:

PrincessNayeli20110601_Corfu_with_Neta_Miki