Gaeta - January 2020

Gaeta - January 2020

Tuesday 7th January... Well Happy New Year to all Thésée Followers out there. We hope you all enjoyed super celebrations welcoming in the new decade with your friends and families. Over here in Gaeta, Ant & Cindy hosted us for New Year's Eve dinner. Dean & I decided to make and take gluten free chocolate cake. Dean was quite a whizz when it came to whisking the egg whites. It turned out to be quite messy in the galley when we were mixing the lot together, and we seemed to end up with so much cake mix that we had enough for two cakes! To be honest they turned out just like chocolate brownies and were quite delicious. Cindy had made a wonderful lasagne with home-made coleslaw too. So that along with the last Christmas Pudding made for quite a feast. 

Cake making in progress

Dean cleaning the bowl.... saves on washing up

Ta-dah

Bubbles to start the evening

Bring on 2020

The evening went so quickly and before we knew it 2019 was at an end and the fireworks began. It was quite amazing, and for at least twenty minutes we stood outside watching the displays all around Gaeta and along the bay to Formia and beyond. It was a real spectacle. We didn't get to bed until 2am. Next morning.... ouch bad heads.

So, let's see, what else have we been up to? We had to stock up on supplies and bought some pork chops from the butcher's. Well the butcher cut them so thick that two pork chops cost 8 Euros!! Back on Thesee, Dean proceeded to turn two pork chops into four pork chops with his fish knife..... 

The weather has been very settled since Christmas Day, with clear blue skies almost every day although it's very chilly. Top temperatures averaging about 13 degrees, with very cold mornings. There's a big motor boat next but one to us and it shields us from the sunrise, so we don't get sun on Thesee until about 10.30am each morning.

We're managing to keep ourselves occupied with new enthusiasm now that Christmas is done. It's always refreshing to start looking forward to the year's adventures. I've been doing some research on where we may be heading next, whilst Dean's been cleaning the existing solar panels and covering them with a protective layer of clear plastic. They look super duper again. He's also been scrubbing the decks which is always a big messy job.

Not much else to report really. The drinking water was contaminated over Christmas and we were advised not to use it, but gladly it seems to be fine again now. Yesterday was 'Epiphany' or 'Three King's Day' or better known as the '12th day of Christmas' so it wasn't until today that everyone was back to work as normal.

Tuesday 14th January 2020...It's me this week for a change. It's been quite a busy week with the grown-ups doing some laundry, and then hanging everything on the boat to dry in the sunny weather. We had a few new items turn up in the post from Amazon Italy which seems to work quite well. A new electric toothbrush and a wet N dry vacuum both of which I hope they don't use on me. 

 New toothbrush

New vacuum

Dad also bought a new safety knife to fit on the mast just in case he gets tied up in a line whilst working on deck. 

Safety knife at the mast

We had a nice walk on Sunday up to the hill country park place. There was so much to smell it was amazing.

 Me and Mum on the walk

Funny path on the way down

On the way back we cut through town and came across the World Ice Carving Championships...yes you did read that correctly! Anyway I'm glad they left me to catch up on some sleep, and they went off to have a look at the ice carving by themselves. 

 Yep that's right!

 Just getting started

 The Australian competitor... It's a fire fighter

 Not finished yet

Germany

 Nice effort from Poland

Team USA

Monday they had all the grab bag and safety items out and on test. EPIRP, life jackets, emergency AIS transmitters etc. I hope they put some chew bones in the grab bag for me I don't want to eat their food if we have to bail out. 

 Emergency AIS/DSC beacon test

 How it looks on the radio

Life jacket test, new lights needed

We went to a different butcher last week, also and the chops were a little more manageable. Mum made a chicken stew which they had with some nice looking Yorkshires, I just had mine in a bowl as normal...yummy.

 Told you

Had some nice sunsets also recently, I sleep outside till it's dark so I get to see them each day, I like to sleep in late in the morning so I miss the sunrise!

Moon rising over USS Mount Whitney

Tuesday 21st January... 

LINDA - I've 'taken back control' of the blog after Saffy kindly stepped in and wrote up last week's report. I always struggle to think about what we've been doing (even though i make notes) and of course there's the photos to help me out a little. 

First on my list this week is our night out with friends at Hermes Bar. We thought it was time for another get together, so off we went for dinner and a drink or two. Even though this bar is probably the nearest to us, we've been meaning to give it a try since we got here. It's kind of American style with decor to suit. My chicken and 'proper' fries were great but the others who had burgers weren't as impressed with their meals which was a bit of a shame. Still, i think we all had a good time. But the most impressive thing of the night was the selection of teas which they serve. Wow just look at this lot...

Anyone for a cuppa?

My bacardi & coke.... ooh yeah

Beer pumps on a ship's wheel

Next day was market day, and it was a good job we remembered so that we could go and buy our dried apricots. They're half price in comparison with the supermarkets. On the same trip we popped into the pet shop and bought Saffy some treats. She always has treats every night for her 'pudding'.... lucky girl. They didn't sell her worming tablets and directed us to the Pharmacy where strangely they did sell them.... at a cost though, 17 euros for two tablets. Yikes. They only cost 2 euros each in Spain. Taking advantage of being out without Saffy, we popped into the bakery shop and were tempted by two chocolate filled croissants for elevensies.

Back onboard with our croissants treat

Freshly chocolated

As you can see from Dean's croissant photo the skies were still blue. It's been really settled since Christmas Day, but that all changed about 3 days ago when the grey skies returned and the wind picked up to about 20 knots. It's been coming from the North East so it blows straight into the companion way. At 20 knots we get a bit of juddering during the gusts but it's nothing to get concerned about. One day we took a walk to the beach and it was beautiful.... obviously sheltered from the North Easterlies on the other side of the headland. Should've took our deck chairs. 

This is Hotel Serapo down on the beachfront

Well last week Saffy told you about the World Ice Art Championships here in Gaeta. This weekend it turned out to be the Wood Carver's event. Not as exciting as cutting ice but still something to look at. Seems not so many people are into Wood Sculpting as the place was basically deserted. 

Always something going on in Gaeta

The making of Siamese Twins

Another sculpture in progress

Er, yes all a bit wierd

So, onto the boring bits.... i mean the boys toys. The big delivery of the week was the faulty solar panels arriving back from Spain. They wouldn't send them back unless Dean paid 15 euros. Quite a cheek really after all the hassle we've had with the company. Not to mention the useless warranty. In no time at all Dean couldn't help himself by getting straight to work repairing the surfaces.

It keeps him out of trouble

Eyes down, look in

One of the panels after the new surface layer has been applied

Looking good

Here's the other one

Good Job Dean

Ant came round to lend a helping hand with his Victron Energy Bluetooth Transmitter devices which link the solar panel perfomance to the Ipad. Dean was so excited to monitor the output at the touch of a button he went ahead and ordered three bluetooth devices for himself. One each for the Solar Panel MPPT controllers, and one for the Battery Monitor. Now we can monitor the monitor. What's it like to have everything Dean?

Bluetooth trio

Performance monitoring on the Ipad

There was just one last job to complete and that was to add six new eyelets to the rear bimini cover. That's the part that holds the new Italian Solar Panels (are you keeping up with me?). The reason behind this job is so that if we get caught in a sudden big blow like we did in the Mar Menor last June, we can easily put the main bimini away without having to remove the rear bimini (you know, the one that holds the Italian Solar Panels). Then we can tie up the excess bimini (through the eyelets) so it doesn't blow itself into oblivion. So that's enough talk about Solar Panels. 

In the process of fitting the bimini eyelets

Job done

Onto chocolate and the supplies are looking rather desperate tonight....

We'll be wasting away at this rate

Tuesday 28th January... 

LINDA - Weather reports not too bad over the last seven days. Temperature highs of around 13 degrees. Calm but changeable, with a very wet weekend keeping us well and truly indoors. So much so that we didn't even venture out to the Violin Concert in the Yacht Club, which was a shame as we were looking forward to it. 

The first photos taken this week were of a crane which appeared to be on the breakwater behind our row of boats. On closer inspection we found the crane was actually on a boat, and it was loading the big cement blocks that had been made here on the breakwater a few weeks ago. 

Thursday was National Pie Day (that's in the UK not Italy!). We decided to have a get together with Ant & Cid and eat pie.....only with a twist. We were feeling adventurous and made a Lemon Meringue PIE from scratch. Never done that before! It's taken a few weeks going through the thought processes and making sure we had a recipe and all the ingredients etc including 6 lemons and a proper crinkly cake tin (which we had to go out, find, and buy). It turned out rather well don't you think?

Stage 1 - Pastry made and blind-baked - yikes

Stage 2 - Ooh just look at that beautiful lemon filling 

Could eat it right there and then

Stage 3 - Dean (the expert egg whites mixer) 

has done a fantastic job making the meringue

Stage 4 - Ta Da - Fit for a King

Think we need less meringue next time though

Awaiting Ant & Cid's arrival

Been slaving all day in the galley

Yay - Happy Pie Day

 Pie Galore

DEAN - I’ve been losing a bit of enthusiasm recently what with the rain, wind and cold weather. Anyway, it picked up a bit the other day so I decided to have a look at servicing the winches. Apart from having a lot of small droppable moving parts it’s not difficult but I haven’t done them for four years so there was quite a bit of dirt inside. Mainly dried on grease which all had to be washed off. I eventually managed to find the best method and it all went OK. 

There are quite a number of needle roller bearings that have to be cleaned and inspected and re-assembled with a little grease, all of the winches are two speed so have two sets of double pawls in each, these were all in good condition, I cleaned these and used some light oil to lubricate. There are lots of packing washers and shims but thankfully most of these and the other parts only fit one way so re-assembly is not too bad. A back breaking job as the rear two winches are low down so a lot of bending over takes place but all back together and working fine now. Quite envious when I see another boat with lots of nice big shiny winches but kind of glad we only have the four on Thésée. Here's the winch photos... and there's even more than the Lemon Meringue...

Starboard side manual winch 

Under the sprayhood

.... and now the Port side winch

before..

..and after

Close up - Newly cleaned, greased and almost finished

It's quite a beast

Starboard side completed

Foreman Saffy checking the work

Now this one is the Starboard side aft winch

Wow.... where's it all gone Dean?

 Here it is - Crikey !!

I’ve been waiting for the chandlery here to get hold of a spare water pump impeller for me. I ordered it way before Christmas and although they managed to get hold of one after a couple of weeks I made them send it back as it had no extractor threads. The trouble with the internet is that you can find out pretty much anything you need and a quick search some time ago lead me to an extractor for the impeller. The water pump on Thésée is located behind the front of the engine and is a bugger to get at. I have to remove the back of the cupboard under the kitchen sink and reach in from there. The impeller extractor is also handy for holding the replacement when fitting. Anyway long story to short, after being told that the extractor type was not available in Italy I managed to find one in Naples, along with the engine oil I’ve been looking for which is also not available in Italy… BS. They both arrived last week. One spare (threaded impeller) with O ring and screws and 20 litres of engine oil.

.... and here it is, the new impeller 

Can you see the 'important' threads on the inside?

The next blog post will be entitled Gaeta - February 2020