Adventures of Thésée: Twixmas

Thursday 29th December...

Linda - I have to admit that the last few weeks have been quite disorderly with our photos and blog write ups. Once all the holidaying and partying are over I intend to get myself back into some kind of organised fashion. Meanwhile, this mix up continues and I came across this photo of me playing darts recently in our small clubhouse in the marina. Dean and I had to play against each other as no-one else was about, and I'm afraid to say we were both useless! Good job there was no-one around to see our miserable attempts at getting a double.

It's the taking part that counts 😂

Another Dean job that I have been meaning to mention was one that made us very happy. Our two inbuilt cockpit speakers had deteriorated in colour and turned into a horrible dirty creamy beige. Clever Mr C decided he would try and restore them with some white paint. He's got the painting bug at the moment. Well, you must agree that the finished job looks tremendous, and exceeded all our expectations by far.

The newly painted speakers

Wow

It's been a bit of an odd jobs week, plus we made some lists of jobs for the New Year. I'm a little ahead of myself this year, so I decided to get our 'Grab Bag' out and check the contents. This is one of the yearly jobs, and it's just a matter of course really. The Grab Bag contains equipment we would need should we ever have to abandon ship, and it sits there in the aft cabin ready to just 'Grab' in an emergency.

Dean has now used up his specifically non synthetic engine oil. A mineral oil. He bought an 18 litre can back in Gaeta and it has lasted for 3 yearly oil changes. After some research he found a place in town that sells the exact oil, so he went to buy another 18 litre can for the future. He likes to have spare everything, you never know when you will need it... and can't get it. The man in the shop actually gave him a lift back to the marina with it!

The special engine oil 15W-40

The weather has been very pleasant, sunny and warm in the daytime, around 19 degrees, but chilly at night, and in the mornings the north breeze blows off the snowy mountains. Thesee is facing south which means the breeze blows straight into our companion way, but we have a home-made cover to help keep the cold out.

Christmas morning arrived and Santa brought me a bottle of my favourite. He's good to me. For Christmas Lunch it had been arranged for around 30 of us to dine in our clubhouse. Our friends Tina and Mark organised it and we were all allocated something to make. When we turned up at 1pm it was in full swing and we had to get another table as all the places were already taken. Two other friends organised a Secret Santa and those of us who took a present could choose a present. We picked numbers out of a hat and then went up one at a time in order. The twist was that when it was your turn you could either choose a wrapped present, or you could take one of the presents that anyone before you had opened. So basically, it was good to be last to choose! It's was very entertaining. The present that I opened was a DVD about sailing in New Zealand that our other friends Kay and Lane had in fact made themselves! It was a great afternoon, and Dean even went to fetch more wine from the boat as we were there for so long.

Santa's been

Where the cold north breeze comes from

Christmas Morning.

Our social club ready for Christmas Lunch...

...before everyone arrived

Just getting started

My Secret Santa gift... not so secret

Having fun with little cutie Millie Moo and her Aunty Sarah

Well Dean has been on a mission. Now we have our new super duper new sails he's embarked on a project to wash, scrub, and condition all (and I mean ALL) of Thesee's sheet and halyard lines. He has also been re-arranging the lines as they came down inside the mast and through the deck into the cams. It's been a puzzle at times with the lines inside the mast, and has caused him to lose sleep, but we think that all is now OK and he's happy. There are still a few lines to be washed and softened, but he is nearly at the end of it.

Starboard cams with lines clean, neat, and orderly

Port side

Well, we had a very unexpected visitor in the marina this week. A SEAL.....

We heard that he had been spotted, and the same day our friend's boat had a mysterious dark splash stain on the side of the hull. Nobody could work out what or where the stain came from but the marina has CCTV and when they reviewed it they found out that the stain was in fact caused by SQUID INK 😮.

It is only to be assumed that the seal was hunting a squid and in the kerfuffle the squid sprayed the ink and it ended up on our friends boat. Unfortunately so far the stain has been impossible to remove.

Next day the seal (and we assume the same one) spent the day at the stern of Thesee. We were first made aware that it was around because we could hear it breathing when it surfaced for air. Both Dean and I took it in turns to lie on Thesee's sugar scoop and wait for the seal to surface underneath the pontoon. We got some good photos, and in fact the one time the seal was so close to me I could have touched it. It was so big and close that I couldn't get the whole seal on camera.

The seal surfacing underneath the pontoon

Too big and close this time for the camera

Slightly further away now

This one a good view

The tail end

And finally, this week brought a first for me since we bought Thesee 8 years ago.........

I WENT UP THE MAST

So, Dean went up first to untie the lazy bag lines and drop them down for washing. Then once he had finished I went up. I was eager to do the whole thing but afraid that untying the lazy lines knots would be too difficult, one handed as well.

Dean on the second spreader releasing the lazy lines

And now my turn, on the first spreader. I wasn't scared at all, but didn't want to go any higher in case I couldn't get back down again. Maybe next time.

Really

Last bits and bobs now for this year.... Finally I found a calendar for the New Year. Not quite the same choice that you get in the UK, in fact no choice at all. It's Ataturk or nothing.