Gaeta - March 2020

Gaeta - March 2020

Tuesday 3rd March... LINDA

A new month, and and our stay here in Gaeta is getting ever closer to departure. Time for me to start getting stuck in to some proper research for Thesee's 2020 adventure. Dean had a couple of deliveries this week, a new hosepipe and a set of new valves for the fenders. 

Here he is looking pleased with his purchases

He also took the responsibility of making pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. I think he's really enjoying himself, don't you?

I was busy in the galley one day too.... 

Just a few fairy cakes this time

Robin on Windarra has a rental car this week, and she kindly took Cindy & myself to the big Lidl supermarket in Formia. What a treat! A real supermarket. I managed to stock up on some important items like Mars Bars and Snickers. After our shopping trip we were going to stop off for a girlie lunch in Formia, but the parking was choc-a-bloc so we ended up going back to the marina. It wasn't long after we got back when a forces helicopter circled right above us and landed on USS Mount Whitney. We noticed the ship had lowered all the barriers.

Getting closer to us

A good view here

That's a close up

 Clear for landing

We're doing our best to keep busy, more in-depth deck scrubbing for Dean on his hands and knees. He's using some super duper magic potion to get the mysterious black marks off and it's working pretty well, although not perfect enough for Mr C. Whilst he was cleaning he found a small broken 'O' ring lying on deck. That gave him something to ponder over for a while, but he soon realised that it had come from one of the fixings on the hatch vents. Luckily Mr Spares has some 'O' rings in reserve and so he replaced them all. 

Jayne (the lady who looks after us in the marina) came one day with a plant for us. It's an Aloe Vera plant and she grows them herself. Let's hope we can keep this one alive. 

So on Sunday night we went out to the Dutch pub for a drink and a socialise with Ian next door. The weather was pretty horrid and we were all glad to get off the rock&rolling boats for a few hours. Mind you, it wasn't as bad as the episode we had back in November.

We were due to get the sails back on Monday but we asked to delay their return as the weather was looking wet and windy, so they're coming tomorrow now. Fingers crossed we will be able to get them back on in one day, and not have to cart them downstairs. They're so heavy.

That brings us on to today and we decided to have a laundry day. We've been waiting to wash all the cushion covers and were able to do half the job today along with the usual laundry load. It's quite a faff getting the covers off and on, hence we don't do it very often. Even though they are still in good condition we thought it a perfect opportunity whilst we have access to a decent washing machine. Here you can see Dean sitting in between some of the freshly laundered soft furnishings....even some covers drying off in the front cabin too. 

Like i said, i've started to do some planning for this year's Summer season. We are hoping to move on around the end of March, and before the Easter weekend fills up all the anchorages with local boats. Our plan is to head south from here, anchoring as much as the weather allows. Coast hopping, we'll make our way to the Messina strait and then round Italy's toe and across to the Ionian Sea. To sail in Greek waters you need to pay a cruising tax, so that's one of the items i need to get sorted out in due course. We think we will head to the Corfu area first and then re-assess where to go from there.

Tuesday 10th March... 

DEAN... Well as you can see the sails are back from the sail loft..yippeee. We have had all the sails cleaned and a couple of repairs here and there. I also had some low friction cars fitted to the mainsail and we also changed two of the battens as they were a little short.

Sorting out the battens on the main sail

One of the new low friction cars

More battens

Need to sort out the reefing lines

New lazy bag shackles

Fitting the staysail

Staysail going well

Staysail done

Genoa shackle seized with zip tie

Genoa strop to adjust the height

Going up

We fitted some more tell-tails on the way up

All done

Mainsail reefing lines

With new low friction rings fitted

LINDA... Sunday was a lovely calm day so we ventured out for a short walk to the beach but only looked at it and then came back. There was a boat anchored outside the marina it was perfectly still and calm, so inviting. That was until about 6pm when a horrible squall came through for an hour or so with high wind and rain. We wondered if the boat was still there at anchor, or maybe he was in the marina by then. 

The small anchored sailboat 

You can see the weather coming

Sunbathing bird on the vacant pontoon

Spring flowers 

Yes it's definately looking like rain over there

DEAN - I also decided to check the tappets on the engine this week as they have never been done as far as we know. Quite a job according to the workshop manual. I asked one of the Facebook groups, which are usually rubbish with a lot of negative and useless comments and in the end decided to go for it. After all I have done the same job to a Triumph Bonneville twice whilst in the Isle of Man.

Rocker box injector oil seals

Top of the engine removed, 16 valve head

Where to start

In the end the job went well and was completed in two hours, no oil leaks on testing. My Triumph doesn't leak either! In anticipation of moving on soon I noticed that the price of diesel has dropped so took the opportunity to fill up some containers.

 Lazarette storage below the cockpit area

I hope I've not overdone it with the weight: 120 litres of diesel, 50 litres of water, 20 litres of engine oil and all the other rubbish which gets stored in there including the dinghy and outboard engine at the moment.

LINDA... What else have we been doing? Well we're trying to stock up on supplies ready for when we move on in the next few weeks...

Our new self filling bottles for Pepe's local wine

Chocolate wafer rolls, hair dye, and dog bones

Unfortunately it seems we shall have to start using our supplies now that the whole of Italy is in 'lockdown'. I hope we can live on wine and chocolate? Seriously though, considering all the media reports of hysteria and panic, we're all fine. We can still come and go as we please, in fact we consider being on the boat is the best place to be so let's start on that wine.....

Well prepared for the apocalypse

Saffy looks like a Womble 😃

Tuesday 17th March...Well not much to report from here this week, we're still in lock down following the media pandemic..morons! We managed to do a bit of washing before they locked us out of the laundry, it was quite a blustery day. I spotted some of the items being blown off the washing line and in my eagerness to leap on deck and save them I fell up the companion way steps...ooch. I managed to stitch up the wound myself in the end.

You can hardly see the stitches the're that neat

Resting my almost broken leg

Luckily there was no blood spilt on the clean decks and very little swearing (not). A bit of electrical tape and a tissue and things are as good as new.

Had some nice clouds this week

The weather is not quite summer yet but has improved quite a bit so we decided to have a BBQ on the dock side. Plenty of seagulls flying about trying to see whats going on.

Chicken I think

Seagull, tastes like chicken

Considering there's a lock down and no boats are to be let into European countries (Italy) this monster arrived for a quick top up. I guess money talks, the diesel pump was running for over half an hour!

Fill it up please

ROE

Roe is 47 meters long and weighs 495 tonnes en-route from Nice to somewhere hot I would imagine.  

Talking of hot things. Look what someone made to go with the BBQ Chicken. Uum...

Nice Yorkshires darling

More from our lock down in paradise next week.


Tuesday 24th March... 
LINDA - Hello Everybody, and welcome to this week's blog edition. Well what a different world we live in this week, compared to how this month's blog started. Just three weeks ago we were writing about our summer plans and how we would be leaving here soon! We've been 'locked down' proper for two weeks now, but it's really not too bad and we are keeping busy and well. 

We've only been out of the marina once and that was to go to the local supermarket. Here's our essential purchases... Whisky, Brandy, Rum, Beer, Coke.... 

Might last us a short while

One of the things we thought of to keep busy was sketching our favourite cartoon character. Can you guess which sketch is mine and which is Dean's?

So by now you will all be in 'lockdown' like us. Well if you're not, you will be soon. We've been very good here, obeying all the rules and regulations. What do you think Dean is up to in the next photo?

Did you guess? Are we two metres apart? Yes, social distancing is the phrase of the moment. Good job Dean has his tape measure to keep us apart. 

On Saturday night we took part in an online quiz which was organised by one of the bars we used to frequent last year in Almerimar. It was real good fun and we had a whole night's entertainment which was a change from watching films.

Dean's job of the week was cleaning Thesee's teak toe and hand rails. I got told off for not taking a photo of all this work that was going on. Still they have come up lovely again. It's only been 5 months since he did them last time, but the rails on the starboard side were starting to look grimy. We think it's partly to do with the sun always being on the port side of the boat in this position in the marina. 

Next is one of my other hobbies..... embroidery (my birthday present). I just do a bit at a time, but it's quite colourful so far don't you think?

Not a great deal to talk about this week i'm afraid. The last two photos taken today are:

1. The mucky toilet inlet filter. Dean spent some time cleaning it today... he get's all the nice jobs... not!

2. My second homemade pudding of the week. Pineapple upside down cake. It's sooooooooooo yummy! Plus i made another Lemon Meringue Pie the other day.

Think that's about it for now. So long until next week! 


Tuesday 31st March... 
LINDA - Last blog of the month folks, and week 3 of isolation for us. We're trying to keep focused on the important things in life like Rum, and Coke. During our lapses we sometimes get time to play Rummikub and stick things to our heads...

See... i'm not lying...

Saffy prefers to leave us to our own devices and completely ignores us. Huh! Some best man's friend you are Saffy dog!

Ooh we had a storm for 36 hours too, that blew some of the cobwebs away. We heard a noise during the night and turns out that the wind had unfurled someone's genoa sail nearby. What a shame, by the time the marineros brought it under control it was ripped to shreds. This was the state of it next morning. Buying a new sail is the last thing some poor owner needs in this current state of affairs.

We also had a surprise when the wind got underneath the passarrelle and blew it right up in the air. Here's Dean trying to put things right. 

So we ended up with snow on the mountains too...

.... and this was what the marina's Italian flag ended up looking like...

Shopping is being done by Dean at the moment, that's why he keeps coming back with bags of alcohol, lol. We're only allowed to go in the shops one at a time and have to carry a declaration letter to state why and where we are going. So i'm taking it easy and staying home whilst Dean be's the dutiful husband. 

Co-incidentally, these days Saffy's walks entail a walk inside the marina. Her eyesight and hearing is very bad now, and she keeps getting a fright when she sees shadows. Poor thing, a walk around the marina is just about her limit then she wants to get back on board.

Saturday we did a virtual pop quiz with friends from back home. It was real fun but we missed half the questions with the dodgy internet, so our excuse for losing..... i'm sure of it??

Today, was a very nice sunny day. Dean has been reading up about the rigging just lately and so he decided to go up the mast again to do some close inspections on the standing rigging.... i.e that's the steel wires that hold the mast in place! He also produced this heavy weight (chum) from somewhere in that aft cabin he calls his workshop. He was using it today to calculate whether the mast was in the correct position.... or something like that. Checking the Rake! Also, he's relaxed the backstay slightly. I had to help with this procedure so if the mast falls off it'll probably definitely be my fault.

Here's the chum

... in action Quick drop it now, it's your only chance 

Getting ready to adjust the backstay

10 turns

Now up the mast  

An unusual front view of the work going on up there

That's it from the Thésée gang this week. Hoping we can soon be on our way south for more adventures.

The next blog post will be called Gaeta - April 2020