Storms in the offing...

After a few days of ill tempered weather Sandra was feeling rather fed up with life in the marina.  We where we were getting bashed by the boat next door whose lines were a little slack.  She is a Portuguese yacht and is much larger than us, so therefore when she swung about she met us with only our fenders between us, and moved us much more than we would have normally moved in the wind (which was recorded at around 50 knots here in the marina).  The Portuguese vessel is unattended but is being looked after by a marine company in the owners absence, until yesterday we had not seen them ever come and look at it though.  We asked the marina staff if they could contact the company and get someone to come and tighten her up a bit to make our lives a little more comfy and low and behold in the afternoon three guys turned up and did exactly that by adding another lazy line to her bows and generally tightening things up. 

Two "lazy lines" on both mine and next door boats.

And two stern lines at each side too.

We thought this was a good thing so Today I have added a spare lazy line to our boat and also doubled up the stern lines to make Sandra feel more secure.  Not that we were unsafe or anything but if you think things are wrong you will never settle.  Anyway we are now belt, braces and an additional bit of "massey harry band" around the middle.

On Monday we went to Ioannina with Alison and Peter from the Katoghi restaurant to get us a new telly (Christmas box to each other) and some decorations for the boat, and also for Pete & Alison's restaurant.  With a little judicious packing it all went in the little clio's boot, not an easy feat!  So yesterday we decorated the boat ready for the festive season.  The set of lights we bought lasted all of four hours before going tits up!!!  So now we will have to buy some more, don't get your lights from Jumbo every one.  You may just be able to see the blue lights around the gantry in the photo, these we have had for at least twelve years and despite one or two being out and a couple of the boxes which go over the lights being lost, they are still working fine, a testament to British standards maybe.

Last night we we went to the movie night at Porto to watch "The Bourne Legacy" an excellent film although I did have doubts about it when it didn't have Matt Damon in it!  As a pre show film Sharky brought along a short film of the Red Devils parachute display team of which he and Kev were both part of (back in the day!)  It was superb with all of the footage taken by the teams own cameraman.  It just goes to show how messed up these squady's really are when they will do things like that.  All hail Kevan and Sharky!