The Big Adventure Resumes 2022
Monday 14th March...
Linda - Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello!
A very warm welcome back to each and every one of our faithful Thésée Followers out there around the globe. Both Dean and I are excitedly looking forward to the new sailing season, even though we don't have any definite plans for where we shall be heading to this year. Thésée has never been left on his own for so long before, we're a little apprehensive about what he will be looking like when we see him in a few days time.
But for now, we are in Athens. We arrived here this afternoon, rather tired after having an early flight at 7.30am. I did manage to stay awake to do some sightseeing from the plane of course. I wasn't disappointed as we flew over the Alps and it was a cracking view. I always try to work out where I am if the weather is clear, and this is a new flight route for me so it was doubly exciting. I am chief navigator as you know.
Spectacular clear views of the Alps
Northern Aegean coastline at Thessaloniki
Possibly Mount Ossa, but could be Mount Olympus?
Can anyone enlighten me on this please?
I identified this island as Skiathos
I lost count how many times I was nudged awake to look at yet another view!
It was an awful hour's queue at Athens Passport Control. Fortunately our taxi driver was still waiting for us when we came through Arrivals, and by 3pm we had been dropped off at our lovely hotel near the centre of Athens. Dean had chosen and booked the hotel for us, and WOW he chose well. Just look at this view from our rooftop restaurant!!
The number 1 view in Athens tonight
Close up of the Parthenon
Couldn't ask for more than this fantastic view
Tuesday 15th March...
Linda - I hope you're sitting comfortably, today was a 'take more than 100 photos' day. But don't worry, I've tried to reduce it to far less than that. Have you guessed? Yes, we went to the Acropolis. It's only about a 5 minute walk from the hotel. The usual entry cost is 20 euros but up to the end of March it's reduced to 10 euros per person. What a bargain that is for such a World Famous Landmark. At the top we could see across the city for miles and miles.
Theatre of Dionysis
He's pretty famous around here
Temple of Asklepios
Odeon of Herodes Atticus
Snow on the mountains
Of course, The Parthenon
A lot of visitors here today
It's been ransacked by various civilizations over the centuries
Views across to the Temple of Olympian Zeus
The Erechtheion - Dedicated to Goddess Athena
Hadrian's Arch
One more column fell over here
Tortoises live here these days
Then we had a walk through the National Gardens, there was a mini zoo in there. A lovely peaceful place away from the madness of the traffic.
Duck houses
For me, Greek Mythology has always been rather confusing. All those complicated names. Today, I have learned a lot and am beginning to get my head around all these Gods and Goddesses. Even Thésée (Theseus) is in there somewhere! Zeus was the absolute God of all Gods. A bit more knowledge for quiz nights.
Wednesday 16th March...
Linda - The breakfast in the hotel is brilliant. Absolutely loads of choice, cereals, fruits, cakes, pastries, breads, as well as the hot Englishy type stuff. It really sets us up for the day sightseeing. I've never seen so much on offer in a hotel before.
After we had eaten as much as possible, we walked over to the Acropolis Museum, where we excitedly were able to use our digital covid passes on our phones. They worked perfectly when scanned. Another bargain day here, half price only 5 euros per person. Inside the museum, the whole second floor is dedicated to a copy of the Parthenon with some of the original stones and statues. Obviously a lot is missing, but it is perfectly architected with just the right amount of information.
Can't remember who this is/was
Dean finds some archaic tools to investigate
Alexander the Great
Marble Throne
Coins
The museum is built over Roman and Byzantine ruins
You can read all about it by copying this link ....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acropolis_Museum
This museum was quite small but interesting enough. The guides were on hand to explain the contraptions and show us how some of them worked.
Enlarged copy of the World's First Computer...
Ancient Antikythera Mechanism
World's First Fire Engine
.. and this World's First Alarm Clock by Plato.
The guides showed us this in action, it was amazing
World's First Crossbow
World's First Robot, serving wine 😀
My kind of robot
From here we went to the Panathenaic Stadium, the site of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896. More info on this here...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panathenaic_Stadium
Ready for the races
Thursday 17th March...
Linda - The day we've been waiting for for sooooooooooo long. It's Thésée Day. So we checked out of the hotel at 10am, with plenty of time to get a taxi to the train station. I have to recommend our hotel to anyone thinking of visiting Athens. It's called the Niche Hotel Athens. The location is perfect, right on the doorstep of all the main attractions. The staff super professional, food fantastic, and of course that view of the Parthenon from the top floor restaurant.
At the train station it was rather mindboggling.... as some things are like that here in Greece. You never seem to be able to get all of the infomation. We had planned to get the 11.36am train to Aigio (with a change at Kiato). The ticket office lady said there was not an 11.36am train and would only sell us a ticket for one hour later at 12.36pm. Hey ho, what can you do apart from accept it? With a bit of investigation by Dean talking to the information office, and me stalking a passenger on the platform (who Dean overheard saying she was going to Aigio), and a train INDEED actually arriving at 11.36am, we hesitatingly got on it along with everyone else.
Fortunately the train did take us to Kiato, where we boarded the second train to Aigio. The boatyard had arranged a taxi to pick us up, and it was waiting when we arrived. At the boatyard we excitedly made our way to Thesee. Once on board we could see that Thesee was looking great. Inside was just as we left him, I didn't even have any dusting to do. Outside is a little dusty on the decks, but on the whole we are extremely pleased to find him in such good condition being left alone all winter.
Guarding ALL the luggage waiting for the train to Aigio
The weather has been great for these few days in Athens, Tomorrow, cold and windy for the weekend.
Friday 18th March...
Linda - Here is our celebratory arrival drinks photo from last night, in our very special Thesee glasses. These glasses have Thesee's name engraved on them, and have been with us all the way since we left the UK in 2018, a gift to us from my 3 FAB school friends 💖💖💖
Yamas !
Well, this morning was real chilly. Not having had to wear a woolly hat for days now, it was time to put it back on. The cold winds are blowing for the next three days, and the temperature has plummeted. Looks like Dean's hard work on the hull will have to wait a bit.
So, instead we walked to the supermarket. It's a Lidl, yippee, that means Cheddar Cheese. It was a 30 minute walk to get there though, and Dean had asked the boatyard to call us a taxi to get back with all our goodies. Everything the boatyard have arranged for us has worked perfectly, and the taxi arrived in only about 5 minutes. Good job as it was freezing.
As we were putting away all the groceries, I was horrified to find a lone plum in the cupboard. Yes, it's been here on Thesee since we left in October. Yikes and double yikes! Incredibly, the poor lonely plum hardly looked bad at all. It was in such good condition that Dean decided to eat it!
Linda - It was a day of sorting ourselves out, and finding a place for all the new boaty things that we brought back with us. One of my new items was a quilt cover set. Nice to have a new look to the forward cabin.
Dean decided to crack on with some jobs. He flushed both the water tanks through, as he had left them with a chlorine substance over the winter. Next he made a start on burnishing the copper coat on Thesee's bottom. To me and (some of) you, that means rubbing it down to try and get the copper showing through again. The copper helps to stop the growth when the boat is in the water. It's a horrible job. I tried to help once (a couple of years ago), and hated it. Dean uses his power tools and it's still a horrible job. However, he's made a start on it.
Lastly, an indoor job.... changing the shaft seal. This is a seal that goes around the propellor shaft behind the engine to keep water out. I managed to help a little by holding an Allen key and a tiny spanner. Dean was in one aft cabin, and I was in the other. It's the only way to get to it. The shaft has to be slid back about 6 inches to get the seal on.
The new seal in place around the propellor shaft
Outside view, mid job
Close up
Sunday 20th March...
Linda - It's so cold I'm wearing about 5 layers at the moment. Looks like it should warm up from Wednesday onwards.
After fitting the new shaft seal yesterday, Dean realigned the engine. When we are back in the water, he will realign it again.
As it was Sunday he didn't want to annoy the locals by using power tools, so he spent the afternoon painting some acid rust killer on the rust on the keel. Once it had dried off he put on two-pack primer. He's already bruised and stiff from yesterday's jobs, so a more gentle approach today.
We've met a German couple who are also here on their boat in the boatyard. They're very friendly, maybe we shall get to know them a bit better once we are all finished hiding from the cold.
Monday 21st March...
Linda - It's the first day of Spring, but it doesn't feel like that here. The backdrop to Aigio is the Panachaiko Mountain Range, and we can see the snowy mountain tops from the boat. I'll try and get a better photo in the coming days when the skies should be clearer.
There's more info and photos if you copy and paste this link...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panachaiko
It was another industrious day for Dean, more burnishing the copper coat. He's really getting on with it (that won't surprise you). It's not going quite to plan as he's getting through the sanding discs quickly and has had to order some more. He's been ordering some goods recently from a supplier in Athens and they are very efficient with quick delivery times, so the new sanding discs should arrive tomorrow. Dean's also painted another coat of two-pack primer on the keel.
You can see the brown copper showing through
where Dean has sanded
I went for a shower today here in the boatyard. It's VERY basic and not exactly what a girl needs. In fact not at all what a girl needs. Even the shower rail fell down.
We decided to go out for dinner. As usual we walked down to our favourite taverna, but it was closed. So we walked on further along the seafront to try and find another which has been recommended to us. We're not sure if we found it or not, but we did end up in a nice little authentic place though. I've just googled it and it's called 'Eprepe'. I had to work that out as the signs were all in Greek at the restaurant.
Food was very good and the wine was 4 euro for a bottle (and it was the best wine we've tasted since we got here too!)
Tuesday 22nd March...
Linda - Not much deviation from the normal work for Dean today, although it was quite sunny. The hull burnishing is coming along slowly. I can't do anything to help at the moment, so I'm studying charts, routes, and anchorages for the season. A bit of stalking the boats that are already out and about.
There were better views of the mountains today. Lots of snow up there.
Snow all the way across the mountains behind
Later on we walked into town for a few bits and bobs. The shops close all afternoon for siesta, and the streets were deserted at first. We did find a couple of new supermarkets open, one was excellent and had a vast range of Dean's coffee capsules to choose from. Plus my honey nut cornflakes.
The main reason for going was to get some more paintbrushes for the keel primer. Dean is getting through them fast. We also found and bought a new more economical fan heater for the boat, once the shops started opening after siesta time. The shop owners are so helpful and most speak very good English fortunately. When Dean exclaimed 'the fan heater is 40 QUID', the shop owner said 'no, not QUID.... Euros!' 😀
The new fan heater, even matches the decor
Wednesday 23rd & Thursday 24th March...
Linda - Not a lot to write about over the past two days. Work wise, it's just been more of the same for Dean, but he has almost finished burnishing Thesee's bottom which is very good news.
Weather wise, it's been warming up slowly with much more sunshine. With the blue skies we can see that the snow on the mountain slopes has begun to recede.
Fingers crossed we shall be able to launch Thesee around the beginning of April, so only one more week to get everything ready for the off.
Linda - Thesee's bottom is finally fully burnished, as you can see from the photos the brown copper coat is showing though nicely once again. It's been a horrible job. I'm not sure if Dean is more pleased that it's completed, or me?
So, it was straight onto the next job, teak cleaning and deck scrubbing. The teak has come up lovely don't you think?
Teak before
Teak after
Teak looking great
It's Sunday right now, and Dean is on his hands and knees scrubbing away on deck. He uses some special cleaner that brings it up sparkling white. It's a lot of effort but well worth the end result. Dean has been working non stop all week, and he hasn't even got to polishing the hull yet. His fingertips are suffering from all this industrialism.
However, he did find a little spare time last night. We walked to the local bar on the seafront with our new German friends. It was a lovely calm sunny day/evening and perfect for sitting outside having a beer.
Monday 28th & Tuesday 29th March...
Linda - Monday was a very dull cloudy day. We read on the news that Athens was clouded in dust that had come from the Sahara, and it's coming to get us too during this week. Great! Dean only scrubbed the deck yesterday. It was surreal weather in a way due to complete stillness all day. Not an ounce of wind. I left Dean doing boaty stuff, and walked up into town with the big backpack to get some shopping from our new found supermarket. I wore my super duper FFP2 covid mask (which is required in Greece, but not really as they don't follow their own rules). I didn't want any of that nasty Sahara dust getting into my lungs. Walking along the seafront the sea was absolutely flat calm, not a single ripple of a wave on the beach. The perfect 'this is the life' anchoring conditions. In fact it reminded me of one my of favourite ever anchorages back in Playa Trench, Majorca in 2019.
When I returned it was raining. I found Dean just finishing a layer of coppercoat on Thesee's bottom, and he was affixing tape above it to stop the rain from trickling down onto the paint, and washing it away. I cheered him up when I emptied the shopping bag and gave him a lovely fresh chocolate doughnut for lunch.
The rain continued all afternoon. Dean did an inside job. He flushed the engine with an anti salt solution (similar to what we did to the outboard last October in Trizonia). I'll try to explain what is going on in this photo....
He bought a submersible pump last year in Messolonghi for this job. He placed an old container below the engine, filled it with the aforementioned anti salt solution. The orange bit you can see is the pump sucking the water up the yellow hose, the water goes around the engine, and back down the clear (brown) tube and into the container, and so on and so forth. We left it running for a good while. There wasn't much muck come out of it, so we assume that the engine is already pretty clean.
Dean took this second photo of the goings on at the back of the engine. I'm sorry that it's blurry, but he can't be good at everything. I think he should leave the snaps to me.
In order to do the job he had to remove the impeller. He gave it a once over and found it was damaged, as this photo shows. There was a split in in. But don't worry, we have spares for spares here on the good ship Thesee, and it was soon (well not that soon) replaced with a new one.
On to today and as expected the Sahara dust arrived on the deck. It had been raining first thing.
Well that deck didn't stay clean for long
Mucky sand
By 10am the rain stopped and the sun came out. Thankfully, as there was hull polishing to be started. We were hoping to relaunch on Friday, but that doesn't look likely now, plus there is more rain coming and that stops the polishing. However, Dean has today managed to polish and wax the front half of the port side hull.
What a difference
So shiny you can see yourself
Half and half
3pm is time to down the power tools, so he decided to repair some some damage to the big white Beneteau seahorse decal.
Time for one more photo of the sahara dust covered hatches
Wednesday 30th & Thursday 31st March...
Linda - More of the same stuff going on. Dean finished polishing and waxing the port side, and then made a start on the starboard side. The scaffold platform that he had been using was too high to get in between the closely parked boats. He was able to get hold of a lower platform which was much better and it had a 12 inch thick polystyrene layer on top to stand on. It's sounds crazy standing on polystyrene, but it really is sturdy enough and much better than balancing on a plank as before.
The white seahorse decal on this side needed a lot more TLC than the other side, because there was a big scratch down the middle. I have no idea how that happened. Anyway, it looks fab again now.
While he was up there at the bow he decided to clean and polish the bow roller too. He'll soon have Thesee looking ship shape once more.
As Dean gradually moved down the boat passing the windows with his polisher machine, I thought I would get some photos of him from inside looking out. He likes to give me hand signals through the windows when he wants a coffee!
Oh! How could I forget to mention that last night we had an earthquake. Well, Dean told me so as I slept through it, but he felt the shake. It was about 1.45am. I've found out it happened about 10 miles north east of here, just on the north coast of the Gulf. It registered 3.5 on the Richter Scale. The taxi driver was telling us that it's good to have regular tremors otherwise it would all build up into a big quake.
Polishing Update: Half of the starboard side is complete, mainly because Dean was out there until almost 8pm last night.
I will start a new Blog post tomorrow as it will be April.
The next post will be called Final Countdown to relaunch next week.
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