Day 353 and 354: 2nd and 3rd of June - Gaios and Vonitsa

Saturday

After a leisurely scrambled egg breakfast Esmé announced she would like to play on the beach with her friends. I was somewhat sceptical as I couldn't see them anywhere but thought it would be a good opportunity for her to practice swimming. I grabbed on of our inflatable noodles to help her as it was quite a way to the beach, and then we both climbed down the ladder for some morning exercise. Unbelievably by the time we got to the beach her friends had arrived and were talking about hiring a kayak which Esmé could join them on so I headed back to the boat, by which time  AJ was comatose in the forepeak enjoying the free wifi. After a while AJ spotted E on the kayak and so opted to join in the fun with the boys by taking the dinghy ashore and for a good while the boys played together practicing dropping the dinghy anchor.

All too soon it was time for us to leave. The previous day Esme's friends' Mum had told us about some Greek Dancing they were going to see in Gaios, and the girls were keen for Esmé to come along. Also a friend of mine, Katie, from my breastfeeding days was on Paxos and would be in Gaios that night so we had a double reason to head there for the night.

As we motored out of Mongonisi we saw the most enormous cruise ship. Boats seemed to be coming and going delivering passengers ashore and Patrick remarked that it would take a long long time to take all the passengers of that big ship. As we got closer I saw that the ship was called "The World". A quick Google reminded me that this was a private ship with 165 apartments which could be bought by private individuals.... that huge ship only had about 400 passengers maximum! What I found really cool about it was the owners of the apartments on board get to choose the ship's itinerary by vote. They've been to the Arctic and Antarctic as well as loads of other cool places!



It wasn't long before we were scouting out a mooring place in Gaios, finding one right by the square and only needing a couple of attempts for the stern to mooring due to a bit of a cross wind. Gaios looked lovely and Esmé and I headed out to do some shopping leaving the boys on board.

On our return we found Patrick next door pulling their plumbing apart trying to figure out why they had a freshwater leak. He was pleased to see me as he had figured out that the connection to the fresh water pump had been sat in the leaked puddle of water and thought that I might be able to reconnect it and work miracles. Electrics is very clearly my department on board Laurin. Not because I am particularly knowledgeable, rather that Patrick prefers plumbing! Patrick had already pulled off the sodden insulating tape to find broken connections so I checked that there was still power getting to the pump (yes) and connected it to see if it worked (no). To be fair that is about the extent of my electrical ability but our new friends seemed to know even less than me and were very happy that at least they could tell the syndicate manager of their boat that they needed a new water pump. I guess it might have been fixable but we usually take the approach of buying a replacement "whatever" and then trying to repair the old one as a spare.

Once back on board Laurin I had a lovely shower with some of our precious water and then got changed ready to hunt for the place where the Greek Dancing was to be... "Genesis near the green man, along from the village square". Luckily before we left, Katie's husband's Aunt and Uncle dropped by to say hello and that Katie was on her way to see us, and they were able to point us in the direction of "Genesis". By the time we had got ourselves organised and off the boat Katie had turned up and we had a lovely catch up before both families went our separate ways for dinner.

We walked along the quayside to Genesis and quickly saw that it looked absolutely lovely. Patrick and I exchanged a look and brief words, quickly deciding that we might have to blow our budget a little tonight in order to allow the kids to follow up the friendships they had made the previous day. However when I asked about the Greek Dancing the waitress looked completely confused and said there wasn't any tonight. There was also no sign of the children's friends. We sadly started to walk back to town, telling the kids we'd have some lovely (cheap) Gyros instead, when we bumped into the boys of the families they had made friends with. They told us their parents were in the Blue Dolphin Bar and that they were having a bit of free time in the town. AJ and E looked longingly at us so we let them head off with the boys, under strict instructions to stay together. As we were approaching the Blue Dolphin we saw one of the girls who we stopped and chatted to. I then realised that I might not recognise the Mum I spoke to on the beach the previous day. We were all wearing swim stuff and people look different with clothes on! The girl pointed them out and Patrick and I continued on our way. As I approached I wasn't sure... I didn't recognise any of them... It felt very odd going up to a group of strangers asking if I had met them on the beach the previous day. At first they looked confused and then realised that they had seen our kids playing together, the lady I had spoken to the previous day wasn't there. Anyway they invited us to join them and very kindly bought us drinks after which they quizzed us on our life, and about collision regs as they had hired a little motor boat earlier that day and were unsure what side of the "road" they should drive on!



We all walked up to the restaurant and we got to know these guys a little better. Craig and his family have a house on the Island and were hosting their friends this holiday. Craig obviously knew the owner of Genesis and was a regular, in fact I think he is known as the "British Ambassador to Paxos"! No sooner had we arrived than tables were moved around and the kids were sat all together on one table and adults on another.













Very soon we were all chatting, the wine was flowing and Craig was insisting on very generously buying our meal, which felt extremely awkward but decidedly more acceptable the more we drank!






I was still unsure where this Greek Dancing was going to come from as the waitresses brought out amazingly delicious food. However it seemed to matter less as the evening went on as the kids were having a great time playing with their friends. Miraculously though, once the kids had been fed main courses and ice cream, music started and two lovely ladies danced for the kids, eventually getting them to join in before they all sat down again and lights were dimmed for yet more dancing in a circle of fire! The kids were mesmerised.

All too soon the evening drew to a close, however just as we were beginning to say our goodbyes Katie appeared with sweets for the kids which were very much appreciated!

The night was absolutely wonderful and may well be one of the highlights of the trip. I always say that the most memorable times we have are those which are completely unplanned and are made special by the people we randomly meet. Craig and his friends were so generous, inviting us into their friendship group for the night and buying us dinner. He even offered to let us use his house on the island for a few days! I'm hoping that at some point we can repay his generosity but if not we will definitely "pay it forward"!


Sunday

The morning after the night before wasn't quite so great. I was feeling a little delicate but we needed to be off in good time as we were heading towards Preveza and it was due to get quite windy later in the day, so by 8:30 we were already on our way. We motor sailed the first half of the journey and then suddenly their was wind and it turned into a lovely sail, however as we approached Preveza it started to get a bit lumpy with some confused seas so we decided to take the sails down some way before the channel into Preveza.

We first looked at the Town Quay but there wasn't much space and I was decidedly unsure about actually being able to moor Laurin in this much wind... by now it was a good Force 5, so we decided to take a look at the anchorage behind the marina. As we approached it, neither of us felt particularly comfortable. It was pretty exposed and although there were some areas of shallow water, the depths were all over the place and you'd only need to drag a short distance to be in 8m instead of 2m! We made the decision to carry on to Vonitsa where we were due to meet other kid boats tomorrow, hoping for a better protected anchorage. An hour or so later in building winds, we arrived at Vonitsa, snuck behind a little island along with a number of other boats, and dropped the hook. It was much calmer and such a peaceful little place; we were pleased we had pushed on.

After a beer and dinner I took the kids to the island in the dinghy while Patrick washed up. The kids clearly thought it was reminiscent of Wildcat Island from Swallows and Amazons and were soon to be heard making owl hooting noises as they ran through the woodland. A magical ending to a long day.