Jess had preflighted the engine and Marina and Jess had breakfast made and had gotten us ready to go other than lifting the engine off the dinghy. Given that there was not a breath of wind, we could have left the engine on the dinghy with impunity, as long as a 100 foot Pershing didn't cruise by 30 meters away … which happens with alarming frequency here in Greece.
Once we rounded the bottom of Corfu the wind turned on and we had a terrific jib reach into Lakka with between 6 and 8 knots of boatspeed. The girls sat on the bow cushions and I read, then steered the boat for a while. As always with a couple of boats on the bay there is a race. There was a 40 footer or so with both main and jib up coming into Lakka and we stomped by him using our waterline length to pound through the waves. It is amazing what a knot of boatspeed can do over a 10 mile reach – where you go from a mile behind to a mile ahead pretty quickly. That’s not happened too often to us in reverse. The B50 rates pretty poorly in PHRF, I think because it doesn't go up and downwind all that well, but in a reach … look out.
We pulled into Lakka and chose a great space to anchor and had just finished stretching our chain when a Nielson Charter boat asked us what we were doing … “Just Anchored” and the lady on board said “you’re right in the middle of the channel” to which I responded with a chuckle, “Have you ever been to Lakka before?” because it was pretty much empty and there is no such thing as a channel...in Lakka you pack in like sardines. Marina and I attempted to explain this to the back of her head until she said, "We no longer wish to continue dialogue with you” in her lofty British accent. It was pretty funny. I wonder what she thinks about rush hour … people all over the road … what are they doing?
We pulled into Lakka and chose a great space to anchor and had just finished stretching our chain when a Nielson Charter boat asked us what we were doing … “Just Anchored” and the lady on board said “you’re right in the middle of the channel” to which I responded with a chuckle, “Have you ever been to Lakka before?” because it was pretty much empty and there is no such thing as a channel...in Lakka you pack in like sardines. Marina and I attempted to explain this to the back of her head until she said, "We no longer wish to continue dialogue with you” in her lofty British accent. It was pretty funny. I wonder what she thinks about rush hour … people all over the road … what are they doing?
We sat on board, swimming and sunning for an hour or two watching the wankering up close. It is amazing the difference between the way people can handle their boats and the level of anxiety they feel in tight situations. Looking at our log we’re on something like night number 600 on Tara so we have a fair amount of experience dropping anchor and we still screw it up now and then. I remember being in Croatia and the guy telling us not to drop our anchor close behind him … now we’d just go ahead and do it … “we’ll move if we have to” … or “where do you think the boat is going to go?” I feel sorry for people that feel such anxiety as I know it can make your holidays less enjoyable.
Anyway, Marina and I headed into town and dropped off our garbage and recycling, seeing a couple of kittens in horrible shape – eyes were closed shut with some type of infection and looking terribly scrawny. There wasn’t really much we could do about it. It’s hard to think that perhaps it would be better if they had not been born. It doesn't look like the same “sterilize, clip the ear, vaccinate and care for” the cats society is working here in Lakka anymore. It is interesting that since the economy has improved we have seen far more feral cats and we have also seen lots of dogs – something I don’t recall from 4 or 5 years ago.
We carried on with a walk to get some exercise and steps. You do begin to feel a bit pot-bound on a boat after a while and I think we’re all in need of some exercise and perhaps something new to do. The days are all mushing together and I cannot think of the last time I was counting down the days and they seemed to be going too slowly … weird. Perhaps this is the Karmic universe telling us that it may be time to move on … hard to say.
We carried on up a very long hill in Paxos up to a turnoff to a bay called Longos. We passed a quarry on the right where they harvest the characteristic white rock that most buildings, streets and stone-walls are made out of. The stone work here is beautiful and it works well for here, though both Marina and I like the look of granite more. We got to our 10,000 steps the hard way … in 35 degree heat, though we were uphill for the half and downhill for the back half … actually I only got 9796 steps … damn. We ended up having dinner in the same spot because they have a brick oven for Pizza and we like that. Our waiter, George, was very chatty – he has spent winters elsewhere but seems to like Paxos – working from May to October and then lamenting about not having work the rest of the year. It’s hard to say whether that would be good or not … maybe I’ll try it and see what happens … I guess the problem for us is that the cost structure never changes – so those 6 months won’t have any sushi, Starbucks or aviation in them … so I guess we’ll keep working.
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