Saturday 5th September - Lakka Harbour, Paxos

Soundtrack: A cock crows somewhere on the hill above us as we squeeze in among the throng of anchored boats to drop our hook in the sand of Lakka harbour. The raucous sound tells us the night is coming to an end and we have made a safe landfall in Greece. Leighton cracks open a beer and Cathy polishes off a portion of leftover gnocchi before we turn in to catch up on some sleep.

High Point: Greece has been our goal for this year. Since leaving Ayamonte, we’ve had to keep on the move to Get There. Well……There is now Here. We have arrived! Now we can stop moving and start taking it easy. In the dawn light, we can see green hills sloping steeply down to the water’s edge on all sides which remind us of the Dart. The wind carries with it the scent of pine trees, which we first smelled some way out at sea. Sitting in the cockpit we wonder what’s taken us so long.

Low Point: A long, slow passage from Siracusa to Paxos. It takes us 66 hours - from mid-morning on Wednesday to the early hours of today - to cover a distance of 280 miles. There can’t be too many modes of transport since the demise of the horse and cart that are actually quite so slow.

Passage notes:
There’s not much to write home about a passage where you motor most of the way. The wind was never more than 10 knots, the apparent wind much less than that. Makarma isn’t built like a Bavaria which can zip along nicely in 8-10 knots of breeze. With that weight of wind we struggle to get 4 knots out of her with the wind on the quarter, and even less if it’s astern. That’s fine for a daysail, but not great if you’ve got 280 miles to cover. Mostly the wind came from the southwest, dead astern, so there was nothing for it but to motor. We managed to sail the first day and night, and after that it was only for a few hours on and off to give ourselves and the donk a break. We trickled along at 1200 revs to keep the engine, the cabin and us from overheating.

"George" the autohelm seized up and stopped working approximately 140 miles out at sea. At 14.26 tonnes Makarma is a very heavy boat to steer by hand when under engine power. Hand steering without wind for two days would be almost impossible - certainly exhausting. While there was a bit of daylight left we decided to take George apart and engage in a bit of "cockpit maintenance" - Cathy steered while George was completely stripped to his basic components, all his essentials cleaned and re-greased. After some effort we managed to get him unseized and working again. (And without losing any of his many bits over the side).

On the plus side, we had a full moon for company, the sea was mostly calm, the shipping light and we slept and ate well. Leighton is the first to see the lighthouse on Lakka Point through binoculars at 00:21 on Saturday, some 20 miles out. It is a moment to savour, and we hug each other to celebrate. We are coming to the end of the longest passage we’ve undertaken on our own, and we’re on the point of reaching our goal for this year. What more can you want?

We anticipate entering Lakka harbour in the dark is going to be straightforward enough. The approach is in deep water and there are port and starboard hand lights. In reality we see what looks like a radio mast in the entrance until we realise it’s the mast of a superyacht that’s anchored in the fairway with a line astern to the shore. Why does it have a red anchor light - who knows? And our chartplotting software is some way off the mark as it’s showing us on the land. Only a trifle rattled, we eyeball our way by moonlight in among the other boats at anchor to drop our hook without incident.

Leighton’s note: We have been known to have big arguments when it comes to anchoring at the end of a trip, which we call “anchor drama”. However despite the chartplotter putting us completely off course, despite the harbour being lit only by moonlight and despite some very expensive yachts anchored with no lights at all, Cathy did a superb job of steering us into the harbour and doing what can only be described as a handbreak turn into a perfect anchoring position between two boats, resulting in a completely harmonious end to the passage!

Lakka - first impressions
It’s mid morning by the time we emerge into the cockpit to take in our surroundings. Immediately a dinghy comes alongside. It’s Anna from a neighbouring yacht, asking if we have the order of flags in which to dress a boat overall - “because you look like the people who might.” She’s right too, we have the Reeds that she’s looking for! It turns out the reason she and Phil (and Nelson the dog) want to put flags on their elegant ketch is to celebrate the marriage of the owners of the local taverna Harbour Lights next week. We’ve not been here five minutes and it’s as if we’ve stepped into a scene from Mamma Mia!

Lakka is on the northern tip of the island of Paxos. The harbour entrance looks towards Corfu, just 8 miles away to the north. The harbour itself is picture postcard pretty - everything you imagine a Greek island village should look like. There’s a waterfront quay with small fishing caiques and speedboats moored bows-to. Tavernas cluster along the quay, their shady terraces looking very inviting. Away from the quay, scrub vegetation tumbles over rocks to the water’s edge, except where a couple of pebble beaches shelve steeply down to the water. Lakka is rightly acclaimed for the distinctively deep turquoise colour of its water, which promises excellent snorkelling. About 30 yachts are anchored here. That strikes us as a lot, but apparently at the height of the season you can get anything up to 80. We’re pleased to hear the crowds are easing off now we’re in September.

There’s excellent shelter, no mosquitoes, a free wifi service provided by Paxos municipality (haven’t got it to work yet!), a bookswap library, and a good selection of shops ashore (we have yet to sample the olives for which the island is renowned). We’re supposed to go directly to a port of entry to get checked in and issued with a cruising log. But we think we’ll stay here for a day or two - Anna tells us the rules aren’t rigidly enforced.