39:11.80N 20:11.18E

Wednesday 3rd September

Arranged to take Patty and her family to Anti Paxos for the day. Anti Paxos is a small island due south of Paxos, with a couple of outstanding bays to anchor in. They are almost Caribbean with stunning clear blue water and bleached white sand. There are a few houses on the island, but they are not occupied throughout the year.

Left Gaios as planned at 11.00am but for added excitement the seaplane choose the same moment to leave and to our complete surprise, it simply opened up its throttles and took off right beside us in the entrance! We made the short crossing to find the bays pretty packed with yachts, but as the wind was light and there was no swell we just dropped the hook on the edge of the bay and the boys all went by dinghy to the beach to play various games whilst we stayed on board and relaxed in the sun.

Sarah had prepared a wonderful lunch and finally around 4.30pm after more swimming etc. we returned to Gaios. Steve and Bunty had tried to keep our mooring slot, but failed to prevent a large Greek charter yacht from taking it. We choose to continue on into the town itself and found a mooring (very tight) directly outside Pan & Theo's restaurant. Backed in as usual and when we thanked the German family on the boat that we were alongside for their help, they said it was an absolute pleasure to have such a beautiful boat beside them! In fact we ended up having a long chat with them all and they very much put us to shame with their excellent English.

All felt a little jaded after the last couple of nights so after a few beers in the square, we had a meal out and retired for an early night.

It certainly has been a stroke of good fortune that Patty has chosen this week to come out to Paxos. Her son Will (23), daughter Jess (21) and their friend George (23) have teamed up brilliantly with Tom & Ewan so whilst we have not done any sailing to speak of, the boys have had a great time! Certainly we have eaten and partied rather more than we had planned, but it is only a week......

Photos posted on www.rhbell.com