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Our final destination for today is the village of Gaios, halfway down the eastern coast of Paxos.

Aurelia is going well in a good breeze so we decide to call in at Lakka on the north coast and anchor in the bay for lunch. This will give us a chance to show Anne and Gary one of the prettiest little places in the Ionian.

Lakka bay is almost circular, and always seems to suggest a volcanic caldera to me, especially as it has a shallow hump right in the middle.

The bottom is white sand and on a sunny day the water turns a vivid blue.

The village itself is quite small but has a fair length of quay which is left clear by the local fishermen so it is usually easy to fiind a berth.

Anyway today we are going to move on, but the empty stretch of quay seems to suggest itself to a chance to let the novice members of the crew have a go at parking the boat.

“We will do an approach, drop the hook and back her in to show you how, and then come out again and lift the anchor then you can both have a go”

Approach the quay, turn well out, slow astern (but not too slow), quarter turn of the wheel to the left when looking aft to counteract the prop walk and keep her straight, “let go” three or four length out , neutral and a touch of forward to stop her, easy OK.

Nice approach if I say so myself, but it really confused the taverna owner who came out to take our lines when we didn’t throw them and simply went back out again.

So now its Anne’s turn so I let Tony do the instructing bit, and he seems to be of the “need speed for control” club,  Anne’s first approach ends with a sudden burst of full ahead to avoid the quay, so I suggest that Gary and I go forward and do the anchor bit, and whilst doing it tell him “you need enough speed to get steerage but not full astern”..

Another full astern , full ahead approach and the taverna owner has now realised what we are up to.

Gary takes over and its is nice gentle approach, you wouldn’t think that it is only his fifth day on a yacht..

Anyway time to carry on to Gaios, and we pullout for the last time leaving the taverna guy to realise that there is no hope of trade from us today.