Gauvia to Petriti to Nisos Paxos

Our First Anchorage in Corfu

We left Gauvia under power and proceeded to sail, power, motor sail, sail and eventually power (sails up, sails down again and again) and anchored in a small indented bay on the east side of Corfu called Petriti. While we dipped the dinghy in the water we didn’t bother with the engine and we stayed onboard, had a good dinner and an early bedtime after a couple chapters of “The Life of Pi”.

Fishboat and his "dinghy"

The Town of Lakka

We got up fairly early after a bit of a “washing machine” night – when there is no wind the boat tends to orient itself sideways to the swell – and that means rocking and rolling and a fitful sleep. We had done some research and the islands of Paxos and Antipaxos have 3 of the best beaches in the Mediterranean and some cool harbours – though the stories of a rat swimming out to a boat freaked us out a little bit. We arrived at the harbour of Lakka on Paxos around 1pm and wow – what a nice place. It has clear blue water, only a few meters deep and is safe on 3 sides from the weather. There were a number of boats inside, a couple of superyachts with their multiple dinghys, jetskis and crew to tend to every detail, and then there was our “laundry boat” that had many different pieces of laundry drying in the rigging.

We swam and dove and played for a couple of hours, then went into town for a drink and an appetizer. Unfortunately the place we selected was a bar, so no food, but we were treated to a show. A German boat with 10 men on board (identical T’shirts & everything) started ferrying their crew in for dinner. Either the chap who was driving was completely smashed, or had never driven a dinghy before. He hit a bunch of boats, gunned the engine when it was out of the water, did a few accidental donuts and couldn’t drive in a straight line. His crew and the entire shoreline were killing themselves watching. Marina struck up a conversation with a British couple on the beach that had hired a villa on Paxos and got some ideas on where to go next. It was nice just to have a chat with another English speaking person.


We went back to the boat for dinner and during this time a German charter boat came in and anchored about 30 feet from us – ridiculously close if you ask me. Anyway we made it through the night (more rock and roll) unscathed and Marina headed off to town for a little marketing.

The girls are having a good time

One-two-three-go