Getting stuck in
Thursday 3rd November...
Linda - Whilst walking about the marina this week we came across this very large and very old heavy duty sewing machine with extra throat! (Dean's words, not mine). It's for sewing large pieces of boat canvas etc. I'm not sure if it was for sale or not, being left outside the Chandlery with a load of other old and rotting pieces of equipment, such as an old passarelle. Anyhow, it was quite a sight to see when you are not expecting it.
Talking of passarelles, Dean has been tending to our very own, which is why we were milling around the Chandlery. Our own passarelle (which Dean made before we left the UK) has an extension (also made by Mr C back in Gaeta during Covid times). This extension has started to show signs of stress, and was in need of some attention before it cracks and one of us ends up in the drink.
After some deliberations, Dean decided to reduce the length of the extension, therefore moving the stress factor to a different area. Then he varnished it a couple of times (lots of swearing). It takes more than 24 hours to dry, and unless it's completely dry after the first coat of varnish it won't rub down properly and goes all gooey and ends up in a sticky mess. The stress now being diverted from the cracked passarelle and into Dean's vocabulary, as you can imagine!
Checking the location of the possible crack
Coat of varnish going on
Friday was the start of the Republic Day celebrations, and in town we found this ginormous Turkish flag hanging from someone's balcony.
Somehow, we've found ourselves roped into helping out with a Books, CDs, and DVDs sale in support of the local Animal Welfare charity. I made a poster and we printed off a few to put up around the marina. Then we held the sale on Wednesday afternoon along with two friends Hope and Howard (who had also been roped in like us).
My poster
We set about displaying the posters on Sunday morning
Dean setting out the DVD'S on Wednesday
.... and books
Unfortunately we didn't get a lot of custom, but we still managed to raise about £50 for the Animal Welfare charity. We'll try it again in a couple of weeks time.
And as you know, it was also Halloween this week. We bought a pumpkin from the Saturday market. Strangely in Turkey they seem to use pumpkins for eating, not for carving and partying. Ha ha. Dean carved a face in it for the Sunday BBQ and I made some paper spiders and pumpkin faces.
Let the artwork commence
All done and ready to entertain
Spooky
This week we also had a water leak from the new filter that Dean only replaced a couple of weeks ago. It seems the pressure is blowing the cap skew-whiff and out of position, causing it to leak (cheap rubbish, and a long story if you remember). He's fixed it the best he can but I'm not sure how long it will last. The story of this sailing year is one leak after another. Today he has pressurised the accumulator to 2 bar, helping to keep the pressure in the system....fingers crossed it doesn't blow the filter again.
The next two photos show our bow line which holds us off the quay. Normally you have two lines, one for each side bow cleat, but here in Finike they only give you one line!. Annoyingly by having only one line this makes the boat sit slanted to the quay. We've put up with it for a couple of weeks, however Dean has now decided to attach another line to the existing bow line using a 'rolling hitch' knot. I'm afraid he had forgotten how to do this 'rolling hitch' knot, and I had to show him. Tut, tut!
The extra blue line with the 'rolling hitch' knot
This blue line is now attached to the starboard side bow cleat, giving us a line each side of the boat enabling Thesee to sit straighter.
Well, it's the start of the month, which means 'monthly maintenance' time. Everything seems to be OK, and today whilst I was at Bridge Club, Dean started on the winter maintenance jobs by replacing the oil in the Honda generator.
Old oil being removed with his super duper oil extractor
Also, he keeps busy by sharing his knowledge and expertise to other fellow yachties who are currently doing work on their own boats out of the water in the boatyard.
Linda - Ahoy there me hearties! Welcome to another weekly round up of the 'Adventures of Thesee'.
This week we started with the Friday pub night out, and even though we were sitting outside in the dark (where I can't hear properly) I had a very enjoyable evening. Although we are getting disappointed with the Pizza deliveries. They take so long to deliver that we get fed up waiting, and they're not that good a pizza anyway, so we have decided no more pizza deliveries from now on.
For a change we went out on Saturday night too. Some new friends invited to join them at a local restaurant. In fact there were about ten of us there in the end. I must say the restaurant service was a bit haphazard. They only had one menu between the ten of us, and the selection of food on offer was minimal. They sat us in a dark corner of the room, and we had to use our phone torches to read the menu until they decided they should turn the lights up! No prices on the menu either, but our friends had been there numerous times it seems, so we trusted what was going on.
To be honest, it all turned out better than I had expected. The food portions were quite small but my chicken shish was tasty, and they served my white wine in a lovely big wine glass too. There was a band playing later making conversation impossible, so most of our friends left and we were the last to depart after a while.
Dean has been looking to buy some appropriate material to make new covers for our existing life safety equipment. It's been impossible trying to find anything that would do the job. But one day Dean was over in the boatyard helping a fellow yachtie, when he noticed in the yard shop they had the almost exact unused devices for sale, and they are in fact brand new. Just needed a clean up after sitting there for so long I imagine. He bought them both for 50 euro, a considerable saving. They are the same kind of thing as what we already have but a different manufacturer and colour. No need to buy any material now.
One safety device is the normal horseshoe floating ring. The other is a float in a bag on a very long piece of floating line (attached to the boat)which you just throw off the back and then encircle the man overboard so as to capture him in the loop.... if you follow my drift.
The two new safety devices
The next photo is of an Aloe Vera plant. Not just any old Aloe Vera plant, this one has come all the way from Gaeta, Italy. It was a gift to us by the marina staff back in the winter of 2019/20. It travelled with us throughout Sicily and Croatia and then into Greece. When we left Greece to go back to UK for winter 2021/22 we asked Phil and Cris on Bora La to look after it. Now we have been reunited with them in Finike and they have gone home for this winter, we now have regained custody of the lovely beauty. And it has a new little offspring too, which has been potted separately by Cristina 💚
It was a quick visit to the market on Saturday and then for Sunday's BBQ I made strawberry and marshmallows on sticks. We had a fair amount of rain Sunday night and then overnight we had a thunder storm come through which lasted until about 8am Monday morning. We could see snow on the mountain tops on Monday but it didn't last and by Tuesday it had disappeared.
Found this monument en-route to the market
BBQ sharing dish
The rest of the week has been taken up with sails. First we took the staysail down, lumped it to the sail washing area in the marina, then Dean gave it a good scrubbing before hanging it up to dry.
The staysail about to come down
We are trying to get a rigging check organised, but as always it's all up in the air and no-one knows if it will happen or not. However, in the meantime, Dean managed to remove two corroded stubborn screws from the staysail roller furler. It took quite a while and a lot of determination to get them out using his impact driver and hammer.
The screws in the staysail roller furler.
Just look at that stormy sky!
More of the roller furler
Laying the staysail out ready for scrubbing
The sail looks tiny here
Eventually we got it raised
to dry out for the rest of the day
The day after we finished with the staysail and it was back onboard, we took the genoa down. The genoa is much much bigger than the staysail as you can see from the next photo. When it's unfurled it comes back way beyond the mast.
The unfurled genoa
Looking up at the genoa from the deck
We dropped it down and flaked it onto the side of the deck whilst Dean set about removing yet more corroded and stubborn screws, this time from the main genoa furler. Believe me it took a while to get the screws out.
Dean pulling down the last part of the genoa
Meanwhile, fishing boats returning from the fish farm
We raised the furler so that Dean could get to see
and check the rigging underneath
Close up of the genoa rigging
Earlier this week we got news of a planned walk which is tomorrow, and this morning we secured places in the minibus. Then we called in on some more friends who have just arrived for the winter. The last time we saw them was in Nidri, Greece. After getting back to Thesee we just about had enough time to put the genoa back up and roll it away before the afternoon winds picked up. It's been quite a busy week!
The next blog post will be called 'SPECIAL EDITION - At last we go Turkish Rambling'
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