Saturday 8 July 2017 – Gaios, Paxos

We left at a fairly decent time.  No dramas in raising anchor and off we go.  Keith really wants to go to Paxos and Antipaxos, having been there over 20 years ago.  So the plan is to get to Antipaxos and anchor to have a swim and then go to Paxos for the night.

There is no wind, so it is another motor trip.  The anchorages on Antipaxos are not well defined in the pilot book, so we just have to look and see.  It turns out to be a bit of a disappointment as the first place we look at is too deep to anchor safely on sand.  The second place, called we think Emerald Bay, though very beautiful with the clearest blue and blue green waters is also terribly over crowded.  There are at least 15 boats including rented day boats in a small area, plus four big daytripper boats there.  We have terrible trouble finding somewhere to safely anchor where we will not fall back on other boats.  It reminds us of East Head on a holiday weekend.

We do get an anchor down though we are very close to two other boats.  We have a swim, but Richard and I are unhappy to leave the boat empty for any time for fear of colliding with the neighboring boats.  So we just have a quick swim around the boat while the Weymers do a bit of snorkeling.  Just before we are about to go the boat behind us starts to take his anchor up and finds that we are over it.  He does manage to get it up without hitting us, but it is a bit hairy.  If only he waited 5 minutes  we would have moved.

We are pleased to get away from the anchorage but in the light of the number of boats around we are a little concerned that we won’t get a berth on the town quay in Gaios.  We get there at about 1pm, and are very pleased to find a nice place on the end of the pier next to where tripper boats moor during the day, but not at night.  We are also right in front of an ice cream place that sells coffee ice cream!



We have lunch on board and then take a wander around the town, which is very picturesque.  The only problem is that it is boiling hot.  It is 32C in the saloon and maybe worse outdoors.  We are also told that unusually it is 80% humidity!

So we spend the late afternoon under the bimini and try to keep cool.  Tonight we went out to dinner.  Food OK, but very expensive.  Now back on the boat, it is a bit noisy, but we will try to get to sleep.  The plan is that this is our last night before getting to Gouvia Marina where the boat is booked to spend the rest of the summer.  We will take it very slowly with stops as we have a guaranteed berth!


Our overall impression is that it is much busier here in the Ionian than it was in the Cyclades or Dodecanese.  We will be pleased to leave the crowds behind.

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