Why are we (still) waiting? Or are we?

Thursday 11th May...

Linda - Well, you'll never guess who popped in for a celebratory Coronation drink this week. Fortunately we had already decked the halls and got the paper cups out. You think the visitors would have had enough to keep them occupied this weekend!

I'm sorry...... Who did you say you were?

And so 'Why are we (still) waiting?' indeed. Yes, still stuck in Finike, just can't seem to get the motivation for setting sail. Thesee has been here so long, I believe the technical term is called Dock Rot. But we did finally get a calm morning to wash the decks and get the main sail up before the usual southerly afternoon winds. Once again, we got the reefing lines twisted 😏, and had to sort them out before we could drop the sail back down. Our lazy bag has now been altered and a new zip added so that we can actually get the new sail to fit into it. So we are pretty much ready to get on our way.

Scouting around for things to do, Dean was back fiddling with the fridge once more. He decided to pull some of the wires out from behind the fridge and check the connections. One of which was somewhat corroded. It was a horrible job pulling the wires out, there's such a small space to work in, almost impossible. But he got it sorted in the end, as he always does. 

One of the fridge connections after being cleaned

The mainsail now tucked away nicely into the lazy bag

Finishing touches

Tuesday night Dean noticed that our friend David on Eternite was moored out in the anchorage. We took a walk along the breakwater to get a closer look. In fact there were four boats at anchor, and it was a very calm evening.

Eternite is the tiny white dot in the middle

There's lots of turtles appearing again too

Well, we didn't get the new batteries which were on order since February! The old ones will have to make do for now. Dean gave them a trial run and turned the Battery Charger off on our main switchboard. This means the batteries are only being charged by the solar panels, and not by mains electric. I think. It's so confusing, maybe I'll get my head around it one day. As long as the Skipper knows what's going on, then it's good enough for me. These next two photos show the nitty gritty of what's going on. In this instance the solar panels were producing 327 Watts, this is great news. The batteries run down somewhat overnight because they have to keep the fridge and freezer running. But each morning after the solar panels kick in again, the batteries have been fully charged and back to 100% by 9.30am.

Dean monitors the figures on his Mobile App

Daily performance graph

Yesterday was our Wedding Anniversary! We took a short walk around the marina and along the other breakwater. There's a lovely array of flowers near the shower block, and I got camera happy.

Today we blew up the dinghy, in readiness for a departure. We've been victualling, laundry is all done, and we are all set. With a bit of luck (and effort) we may be blogging from a different location next week!

Dean has an electric inflator pump which he uses to blow up the dinghy. It's a godsend, it makes the job SOOOOOO much easier. In no time at all the dinghy is pumped up, but he always finishes off the last bit with the foot pump. Then he tests the pressure with his gauge. He was telling me all about 'Bar' and 'psi', and relating it to tyre pressures to give me a better understanding. Quite interesting really. He checked the 'self draining valve diaphragm' at the back of the dinghy. This lets any water flow out of the back of the dinghy, but not come in. It had perished quite badly. Guess what? He had a spare waiting to be fitted! How organised is my Mr C?

The pressure gauge

The perished valve, and the new one, side by side

Definately seen better days

Monday 15th May...

Linda - The wait is over! Today we left Finike for good! But first, to finish off what we did the last few days since last Thursday...

I finished off my Birthday jigsaw 💜

Our neighbour gave us some left over veg,

including this siamese cucumber 😂

Dean fitted the speed log into Thesee's hull.

He has to do a very quick change to stop lots of water coming in.

Also, in putting everything away safely we noticed the

fan heater was clogged up with LOTS fluff 

All nice and clean now

....and it's been pretty warm, 35.5 degrees under the sprayhood

So, we've now started our 6th season of the Adventures of Thésée. We shall once again commit ourselves to blogging EVERY day for all you lovely Thésée Followers. 

The next blog post will be called '6th Season commences'