Adventures of Thésée: Our return to still warm and sunny Finike

Our return to still warm and sunny Finike

Thursday 13th October... Linda

'Merhaba' Thésée Followers!

The two sailors are back onboard the good ship Thésée. It was a very good return flight to Antalya with Corendon Airlines. It's the first time we have flown with them and I was apprehensive, but in fact both the flight and the crew were great. I highly recommend. En-route we flew over the Sea of Marmara and could see the Dardenelles Strait as plain as day. A first for us (and very exciting for me).

We've been back just over a week now. The weather temperature has cooled quite significantly by about 8 degrees, so it's no longer overwhelming and is now just about perfect. It was quite late in the evening when we arrived at the marina but our friends Phil and Cris were still waiting to welcome us on the pontoon.

Going to bed that night, I wondered whether I would get any sleep now that we were back in a moving bed. I shouldn't have been concerned because we both slept like a log.

Next day Dean was eager to check on how the boat batteries and new solar panels had been performing. Checking his battery monitor app on his phone, he happily reported that everything had been working super. This was great news indeed, and the batteries had reached 100 percent every day.

Checking the battery monitor app

Phil and Cris came by for a proper catch up, and to give Dean his brand new Ensign. Do you remember how excited he has been waiting to get this? He had to order it from the USA because they don't sell nylon ones anywhere else, and the last two cloth ones have faded terribly (as you know, we tried in vain to paint the cloth one a few weeks back). The story goes....Dean ordered the new ensign from the USA and had it sent to Phil's friend in the USA. The friend came to visit Phil in Turkey earlier in the year and kindly brought the ensign with him. Phil has been holding onto it now for weeks waiting for us to meet up with him again.

New ensign at at last

One job that didn't go too well was.... Dean will elaborate...I bought some new rubber buffers for the main sheet traveler. They are held onto the aluminum end stop with a 5mm machine screw, of course I had one that was seized where the salt water had got to it. I was really careful but the bugger broke off!

Here you can see me trying some heat to get the screw out. Needless to say it didn't work so I will have to drill it out when I'm in the mood!

There was a big celebration one evening because it was the day that Phil & Cris (Bora La), Ant & Cid (Impavidus), David & Caroline (Etérnité), and us two on Thésée were all together again. It's the first time we have all been together in TWO years! Last time we were all together was in Licata in Autumn 2020. That was the year we all travelled together down the west coast of Italy, the Aeolian Islands, and around Sicily.

Back together again

After a couple of days and a few trips to do shopping, Dean got back into the boat jobs routine. First up was affixing two new wheels to our sack-truck. We use this for carrying important heavy shopping like beer and wine, and other less important groceries like milk, pop, and juice. I don't know how we would have coped without this trolley, I reckon it's been the most used gadget we've ever bought.

New wheels

So, up next was to make the new anchor line snubber. We have one already but annoyingly the line has started chaffing and Dean only bought it a few months ago (when the local store near Bodrum assured us that it was the best quality!). This time we have the real deal brought with us from good old UK. We've also added an anti-chafe covering to the new line, just incase....

Laying out the old snubber line

Now the proper new line (white) alongside,

being prepared

I was a little bit under the weather for a few days with a cold, but by Saturday I was feeling much better so we went to the Saturday market in town. It's mainly fruit and veg and there are some good deals. On the one stall I couldn't believe we got a cauliflower, white cabbage, and four leeks for a total of 10 Turkish Lira (approx 50p). The most expensive items are dried apricots.

All this for the equivalent of £10 (the apricots alone were £5)

A good deal from the butcher's too.

Chicken, minced beef, and mainly lamb.

In the marina, social events are hotting up. There are a lot of boaters about with lots of nationalities. Sunday morning was the first event by the local Animal Welfare Charity, selling all sorts of boat bits, clothes and nick-nacks, along side coffee and cake too. We bought a steam cleaner, some new boat gloves and sunglasses for me, a 90 degree drill extention for Dean, plus a few other bits and bobs. Not forgetting coffee and cake of course.

At the Charity sale

One afternoon we were sitting on Thesee when Dean noticed a huge bug thing on our neighbours fender. I've never seen anything like it. I managed to get these photos looking through our port side window, so not to disturb it.

Side view of Mr Bug

Closer look

Fantastic camouflage, could be an alien

You can tell how big it was compared to the fender

Later that evening at the BBQ it was VERY busy

So just one more boat job to report on..... the fitting of our new fridge and freezer digital thermostats. Just the freezer one done for now which was a job in itself. As usual this involves pulling wires through impossible places in the hull. Dean had to remove the cooker to get in situ, as you can see from this next photo he is sitting where the cooker should be.

He finished this job off one afternoon when I had gone to Bridge Club. Yes, I'm learning how to play, but will save that for next week. The thermometer took a bit of tweaking to get it set up correctly....it's so complicated! All is now looking good, and it will enable the freezer to be more efficient and use less power, which is always a bonus. Dean had a special bracket made (thanks Gavin) to fit the digital thermometers into.

New bracket waiting to be fitted

Work in progress

Thursday 20th October...

Linda - It's been a quiet week but we've managed to keep ourselves occupied. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at 9am is Keep Fit and then Yoga. We've decided to join in with all the goings on this winter, plus it gets us out of bed in the mornings instead of lazing about drinking coffee and browsing our phones. Also two afternoons a week I've been going to Bridge Club. I've been three times now and I think I'm getting the hang of it, even though it's quite nerve-wracking. There's so much to think about.... bidding, playing your hand, and remembering what cards have already been played.

Dean spent one of my absent afternoons fitting the new digital thermostat to the fridge. It was a bit of a pain pulling the wires through the boat as always, but he got there in the end (as always again).

Awaiting the fridge thermostat

Boat in bits for wire threading

The trick for wire threading....

affix wire to a piece of string, and pull through the gaps

Just like this

Job done, but need to set the parameters now

The digital thermostats positioned nice and neatly

All has been going to plan but today for some reason it's all gone haywire. Dean switched the engine on (first time in about 6 weeks) and the alternator was only charging intermittently. Another job to sort out.

Head in the engine, trying to

solve today's charging issues

One morning we took a walk into town with Phil and Cristina. We went for coffee, a beach promenade walk, and then for lunch at the local eatery. We were a bit later than usual and they only had kebabs left, but they tasted good anyway. We saw two big turtles in the entrance to the river again. We found out the turtle laying season is now finished (May to October) and all the signs on the beach have been removed.

With Cristina on the beach promenade

Friday night was the usual get together at the 'Red Lion'. Quite a few new arrivals this week so new people with new stories. Some of the new arrivals were on the Black Sea Rally this summer.

The weather has been quite iffy with a few cloudy days, rain, and some thunder last weekend. Today was lovely though, really calm and warm again. Sunday's BBQ started at 5pm this week as the nights are drawing in rapidly. This week I made Chocolate Brownies to take as a sharer. Yummy.

Outside the Red Lion in the marina

After the rainy days, Dean washed the decks and filled the water tanks. Today we went for a little walk about and came across this VW Beetle tucked away in a side street. It was in super condition (another picture for you Gavin!)

Thursday 27th October...

Linda - Saturday was the usual market day in town, so along we went in search of fruit and veg. Just outside the marina we came across a snoozing dog on the pavement. I think the animals here are camera shy because as soon as my camera appears they run off or look the other way. They are all strays but never bother anyone because they get fed regularly.

The snoozing dog, now not snoozing

Just before he decided to run off

It was another pleasant walk along the canal. We noticed how murky the water was after the recent rainfalls.

Still sunny in late October

At the market we bought LOADS of nice fruit and veg, in fact we filled our large backpack and had to use the normal one too. Just look at this lot before the tedious task of unwrapping it all, then washing and drying, wrapping items individually with foil or cling film, and then finding space in the fridge for it all. I couldn't get the massive romaine lettuce and massive cauliflower in. Dean also treated me to some new purple keep fit legging 50 Turkish Lira (£2.50). They have a Nike logo (obviously fake because everything is here!).

We'd been fortunate to bump into our friends Juliet and David who guided us to the best cheese stall, in search of the nearest thing to cheddar cheese that you can get here.

Almost cheddar but slightly different taste

A different cheese we purchased,

not opened yet though

We've tried this one too, not too bad

I like to take photos of food we buy. If we like it I know what to re-stock, otherwise I would have no idea as a lot of words all look the same. But I do know that Peyniri means cheese.

There's been a number of perfectly clear days this week which enabled us to get a great view of the surrounding hills and mountains beyond.

I attempted a Victoria Sponge for our sharing dish at Sunday's BBQ, using some of the strawberries which we bought, as an additional filling to the jam and buttercream icing. Unfortunately my sponge didn't rise very much, but by the time I finished the whole thing it didn't look too bad. I remembered to take a photo this week.

The filling

The finished product

One afternoon we took a walk into town, noticing that the Turkish flags were flying aloft everywhere along the roads and in the marina. Turns out that this coming Saturday it is 'Republic Day'. Republic Day commemorates the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey on 29th October 1923. Copy and Paste this link below for more info. Maybe we shall see some fireworks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_Day_(Turkey)

Spotting the flags bunting in the marina

Cat hotel in town, room for 6

There has been loads of roadworks going on since we arrived in Finike. This week we had been told that the tarmac was being laid. Excitedly we went to have a look expecting a lovely newly laid tarmac road..... NO...... they had only laid tarmac down the centre of the road! 😨. Was it really worth it??

We've found a nice reasonably priced red wine that we like a lot at 90 TL (approx £4), and have purchase a few (well, quite a few) bottles. It's called Leyla and has a pretty label too. No wonder we like it, it's a Cabernet Sauvignon! To celebrate our excitement we got out our special gift from Yasi and Alan in Canada..... a special wine pouring kit with all the implements.

Perfect pouring

Leyla, our new obsession!

I've never seen a warning like this before.

Don't drink if pregnant.

In between the keep fit and yoga days we decided to walk up the long set of steps outside the marina and along to a cafe called 'Orange' that we've been meaning to try. Unfortunately when we go there it was all shut down for renovations. So we just had a little explore in the other direction.