I thought we had retired...

Allen and Jean at Cafe di Paris.

 It's been a hectic old week this week, I ache in places which I didn't know existed.

We started last Friday by taking Allen and Jean to Patras where we both spent the evening before sending them off from Araxos airport back to Pathos in Cyprus.  We had a good last night culminating with a fish supper at our usual restaurant there.  It was great to have you two guys to stay but now the real work begins!

New shock absorbed passerelle.

Repaired in mast furling and new rope.

 As you will know if you read the blog a couple of weeks ago we had some "shake down" issues with Lesanda whilst we were out sailing with Allen and Jean.  Mainly the toilet and the in mast furling of the mainsail.  To solve this problem I waited for our guests to depart and started to look firstly at the toilet problem, or rather the holding tank.  For those who don't know about boats, most yachts out here have a holding tank for keeping the contents of the toilet whilst in harbour and not polluting the water you are sat in.  Ours started pushing this through the air vent.  Allen and I did unblock it when we were out but the problem subsequently resurfaced so to speak.  I have not put any photos as it's not such a palatable subject but to cut a long story short when we left the boat in spring after my stroke the sea cocks were turned off and the residue inside the tank had set like concrete.  It looked for all the world like crisp bread as I prized it from th tank sides.  This had been flaking off and blocked all the pipes so it all needed cleaning out.  Not for the faint hearted but it now seems to be fine, I shall be replacing all the pipework when we haul out in spring.

Winter cover back in place.

The problem with the in mast furling was two fold, firstly the rope used to actually furl the sail had swelled slightly with crystals of salt and with general use so I have replaced that.  Also the section of the sail which is fastened to the foil inside the mast although very tight was not tight enough.  I winched the up-haul for the sail to get this as tight as humanly possible which has made it work very much better.  I can now pull it in and out without the use of any winches even in my weakened condition.

Freezer in it's new permanent place in the fore cabin. 

We have also moved the freezer into the fore cabin which meant removing the aluminium extrusion from the door frame this gave us one millimetre to play with in getting it in, better than having one millimetre short.  This now gives us all the cockpit to play in again.  The winter cover has replaced the bimini so we are snug again although the weather as yet is more akin to a great summer day in the UK.  All the steel work has been polished and Sandra has washed all the extra stuff we needed for our guests as well as packing away the summer cloths and reinstating the winter wardrobe.  Today we have done nowt, bliss...