Thursday 16th February...
Linda - Well, after last week's thrilling adventures it's time to catch up on what other things have been going on. Of course, the never ending Boat Maintenance In Exotic Places continues. Well what else is there to keep Dean occupied? Here's the goings on from the last two weeks news....
One of our after Christmas jobs is to check all of our safety equipment for the upcoming summer season. We check the life jackets for wear & tear, and ensure the light is functioning plus the inflation trigger is good to go. Our lifejackets have a PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) which sends a signal to our VHF radio and also a signal to the authorities should we fall overboard. You know all of this anyway. I probably write about it every year.
We also checked the EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicator Radio Beacon) which kind of does the same thing as the PLB's.
Part of the security checks we do is to remove the security grills that we have on our deck hatches. Dean gave them a clean and brush up, along with making sure that the locks are in working order too.
Removing a security hatch
Close up
We had to chuckle to ourselves during our spring chores..... cleaning all of the cupboards and bilges. Would you believe it? Dean was searching in the depths of the cupboard spaces and found an old bottle of lemonade. Yikes.... It was from Conad. Let me tell you, we have not shopped at a Conad store since we were in Spain in 2019! How on earth did we not know we had this. The question is, should we drink it? Have a guess.......
To drink, or not to drink?
That is the question.
Sorting out the cupboards
Deep down under the sofa
Aha, I got around to cleaning the oven too. Well it was a miserable day outside, so a good opportunity. Dean decided to inspect my work with his magnifying glass. Will my work ever be up to the expected perfection from His Majesty??
Did I miss a bit?
Nearly all of the bilges are now as clean as a whistle, and my cupboards are almost completed. If If I do a little now and again it's not so traumatic. It's surprising what you find when you delve deep. Anyway, I now have a number of jars with various food items nicely stored away.
Dean has ordered some new boat batteries. They are Victron 230 Amp hour AGM's. I do listen to him sometimes and know that AGM stands for Absorbent Glass Mat. So there. We won't get delivery of them until April though.
In the meantime he was onto another project, getting the anchor re-galvanized.
It's turned fairly rusty on the point since we purchased it in Almerimar in 2019. It's a SPADE anchor. SPADE is an acronym but sadly I have failed on this one and forgotten what it stands for. (Société de Production d'Accastillage et Divers Équipements) Anyway, I digress. We had to remove the anchor from its position on the bow of the boat. This is a tricky manoevre when the boat is in the water. Using the two spinnaker halyards tied to it, we were able to remove it from the bow without dropping it in the water, and get it onto the deck. It weighs 30 kg so not a mean feat, but Dean was able to carry it from the deck onto the pontoon. Next the hard part, lol.
This SPADE anchor comes apart, i.e. the shaft is removable. Do you think Dean could get it apart? Well no, not a chance. Even getting his hammer to it made no progress.
First attempt with the anchor
Our neighbour Kevin took pity on Dean and went to help. In fact, he probably just wondered what the hell was going on. Now two men on the job. Still no success. It seems that inside the shaft it had become saturated with sand. Obvious really. Kevin decided to hold the anchor steady whilst Dean tried to bash the shaft loose. It took a while I might tell you, and eventually it came loose. It was just a matter of loosening the sand inside with each wiggle and bash of the hammer.
Kevin comes to lend a hand with stability
We haven't got the anchor back yet though. Apparantly they have to remove the lead before they do the galvanizing, and then put the lead back in. Fingers crossed it will be a good job.
And so one day we were invited aboard a friends boat 'Lady Mayfair'. Hope and Howard are our neighbours who we do the Animal Charity Sale with. It was Howard's birthday and he had cake! Quite a few February birthdays here in the marina.
The big and terribly sad news was obviously the earthquakes here in Turkey last week. I'm sure the whole world has heard the details. It all happened about 500 miles east of where we are here in Finike, and we didn't feel a thing fortunately for us. Sadly it seems that over 30,000 people have died, a figure that is hard to comprehend. It will take years to rebuild the devastated areas involved.
Thursday 23rd February...
Linda - It's been quite chilly the last three or four weeks, and we've even had the boat's heater going as well as the electric fan heater. But this week the temperature has improved, we're getting up to about 18 degrees every day with sun and calmness. The cold northerly winds in the mornings have abated and the snow is starting to disappear from the mountain backdrop.
Well what do we find to do all week? In Dean's case he's had what turned into a long winded job of varnishing the cockpit table. Believe me, this has been going on for about three weeks now. So he has been building up the thin layers of varnish one by one, and rubbing down in between. I think he put 10 layers on in total. It's not finished yet, now he has started polishing it too.
I found more treasures in the bilge. This week it was half a bag of sugar, yet again purchased in Conad supermarket back in Spain, three years ago. And, in answer to last week's question, yes Dean did drink the lemonade.
Old sugar find
Dean washed Thesee's deck with some new shampoo that he bought recently. He was very pleased with the result.and says that the deck is sparkling, so I took a couple of photos....
Onto the next job, battery boxes. I really can't keep up with what is new news or old news. Anyhow, we are getting new batteries which will be bigger than the old ones. And so, Dean has to make the boxes bigger for the new batteries. He's been pondering on the best way to do it for a while. He decided to remove the black plastic boxes and cut them in half, to be re-positioned when the new batteries arrive. We have to make sure that the boxes are sturdy and fixed in properly to stop the batteries from moving about when we're on the go.
Black battery box removed, chance for a bilge clean
Cutting the battery boxes in half.
The neighbours must wonder what he'll get up to next.
Re-positioning the boxes
Exciting news of the week is the return of our newly galvanized anchor. And how lovely it looks too. But first before re-fitting it, Dean mixed up some resin and poured it on top of the lead inside the point. Just a bit of a precaution really incase the lead should come loose.... i think.
Before the shank is re-attached
Doesn't it look good?
Checking where to put the resin
That's the resin, in there
Now back in place on Thesee's bow roller
It took a bit of steady manoevering to get it back in place without dropping it in the water, or damaging the side of the boat.
Oh, and yesterday with did the Animal Charity Book Sale again, this was our best ever sales day £70 raised for the marina cats vet treatments.
Tonight we had pancakes, better late than never.
Thursday 2nd March...
Linda - We finally went on the bus to Kumluca last Friday. Honestly, we've been talking about it for AGES. There was no keep fit class on because some of the ladies went off on a jolly day trip to Kas, therefore we had the opportunity of an unusual free day to do as we please.
Armed with a shopping list of items that we can't find in Finike, we hopped on the bus for the 11 mile journey costing us about 75p per person one way. Bargain. First time we've been on a bus in Turkey.
On the bus,
not sleeping, just on his phone!
The bus
On arrival we (eventually) found a coffee shop. Our hopes of buying loads of goodies were soon dashed once we realised that the town was in fact a dump, with nothing to offer except the outdoor market which was fabulous. Sadly, we hadn't come here for fruit and veg. We did come across the obligatory Wedding Gown shop though.... as you do.
Fancy gowns
Keeping spirits up at the Coffee Shop
It was nice decor
Walking through the market
Moving on, the cockpit table saga continued when Dean tried to polish the port side leaf. To cut a long story short, it went all gluey and gummy. He wasn't a happy bunny I tell you. BMIEP again. I had to leave him to it and went to Bridge Club. Over the week he has rubbed it down with a multitude of degrees of sandpaper and has finally got it polished and looking respectable. It's now the talk of the pontoon, with people commenting that he would polish the boat away, and that we have the shiniest table in the whole marina.
Mr C told me off for saying it looks great. I admit it has a couple of blemishes here and there, and it's not the perfect result he would have liked.
Bad side
Good side
We missed the keep fit class on Monday because we didn't know it was on until the last minute. So by Wednesday we hadn't done any keep fit for a whole week. Disgraceful I hear you say!
Well, Wednesday's keep fit was run by our friend Sarah. She plays 70's and 80's music, it's just like being at a dance class, bonus. Well, maybe not..... It was a warm, calm, and sunny morning. OMG we were knackered by the end, and maybe even sunburnt too 😅. I had to go and rest in the shade. And next morning OMG again we were aching. Serves us right for missing a whole week's exercise.
March has arrived.... White Rabbits. Monthly Maintenance time. And this also includes checking on our friends Phil & Cristina's boat.
Dean spent a day removing Thesee's compasses and inspecting the chain and cables for the steering mechanism. After some finer adjustments and lubrication all has been satisfactory, and the compasses were returned to the binacles with some minor swinging adjustments. (He just dictated that to me! lol)
Starboard side compass out
Close up of the binacle
Compass
Today he has been repairing a few stitches on the staysail. I think he may be running out of jobs soon??
He's a star isn't he?
