Exciting times in the marina....

Well how about that?    We actually got electricity and water on our dock. This is living! I have been able to store away the Honda generator which has provided us with electricity since we have been here and I ran a hose to the boat to fill a water tank.  Luxury....

The other night was also exciting...a storm came through and our wind speed instrument registered a high gust of 58 knots, at 3am. Mostly it was around 35-45 knots. This was at the top of the mast. It did not feel like that speed on deck but it was dam windy.  This is the highest wind speed we have ever had on the boat. Luckily it was in a marina!

Today is our last day in here. We fly to London tomorrow morning.

Rouse onboard!

Nearly 4 weeks have passed since we arrived in Karpaz Gate Marina and the time has flown by. We are busy getting ready to leave Sunflower early on Thursday morning to head to London for 3 weeks before carrying on to Newfoundland.

Despite the promises when we arrived that the power would be reconnected 'in a few days', still no electricity and therefore no water! The electricity isn't so much of a problem as we can run the generator, but we have pickled the watermaker so are relying on what is in the tanks. The boat was extremely salty after our trip here so after a week we went 'on the wall'! The sea wall still has power, it's the pontoons which don't, so we hosed the boat down and got off the several tons of salt crystals and filled both tanks.

Afterwards we went on to what is now our permanent dock. This is a Med moor tie, which means the boat is tied stern to the dock, rather than having a finger pier alongside. Not quiet as easy as stepping off the side, a plank (or if you are fancy a 'passerelle) is required to bridge the gap between the back of the boat and the dock. Only problem is we don't have plank! So we have done a deal with another boat to swap a spare part for an unwanted plank. Only snagette is we have to locate said part! We know it's here somewhere, just can't seem to find it right now. So I may be trapped on board for a while!

Our "new" donated plank

The last couple of Friday nights we have had fish and chips at a local restaurant. Bobby, a nice cockney bloke from Hackney came and picked us up (for free) he and his wife own half the restaurant, even though he's a roofer by trade! The place was heaving, and the aroma of vinegar strong in the air! The food was nice if not spectacular, fish sizes half of what we'd been getting in London, but still plenty big enough and it was very nice. The fish and chips and a couple of diet cokes was about $25, cheaper than the marina restaurant, but no big bargain. There were loads of English people there, not all cruisers, apparently there is a large expat community here. We met 2 very nice English couples who are both on boats here. We had a nice evening and Bobby brought us back a couple of hours later.

We started to run out of food about 10 days ago. I had slightly underestimated our requirements! As we will be leaving the fridge turned off while we are away, I didn't want to leave any perishables behind. So we have been on cheese rations, luckily I discovered a couple of packets of bacon I didn't know I had, at the bottom of the freezer, but things still became a bit dire!! So we had go to the shops!

The red number plate indicates a rental car

We rented a car for 3 days and went for a bit of an explore. We were restricted to the Northern part of the island and not allowed to cross the 'green line' into the Greek part. Apparently it is possible but you have to pay extra insurance. We will probably do it when we return. We visited Famagusta, the Turkish part of Nicosia and returned to Girne where we had checked in as it has the only chandlery on the northern part of the island. We found several very nice supermarkets and stocked up for the remainder of our visit.

The day after our car rental ended I was putting our groceries away and found what I thought was a carton of wine leaking. However upon further inspection it wasn't just one carton and they weren't spontaneously leaking, they had been bitten into! Crikey we had a critter on board!

At this point the Captain was dispatched to make further inquires as the Admiral didn't want anything jumping out at her! The news wasn't good. As well as the wine cartons, teeth had chewed a big hole in the very strong plastic lid of a 2 litre bottle of Sangria, as well as a carton of fruit juice which has been laying across the top of our electric toaster. Juice has run all through it, so we threw it away. Then Alan discovered the tell tale droppings, we had a RAT on board. Alan kept calling it a mouse, but judging from the size of the droppings it was a rat sized mouse! Maybe a 'rouse'!  More casualties in the store room were packets of flour and biscuits. So we then tore the boat apart looking for signs of where else it had been and dreading discovering a nest somewhere. However it seemed Ratty had restricted his partying to the store room, and judging by the very modest droppings, hadn't stayed very long. That night we sealed off the store room with paper, so he would have to tear it to get out, and left some food scraps on top of some scrunched up carrier bags so he would make a noise. We didn't sleep well that night! But next morning no sign of Ratty. Next night we did the same thing and still nothing. By now the entire marina knew about our intruder and a cruiser with a car kindly bought a rat trap for us. As yet we haven't had to use it. The marina have a pest man come around every week and there are traps everywhere. We decided ours must have been so drunk he fell off the mooring lines when he tried to get off the boat (at least that's what I keep telling myself!)

A week on and still no sign of Ratty. We will leave poison in the cockpit while we are away and we have also pulled the boat much further away from the dock. (plank definitely required now!)So we will just keep our fingers crossed that we don't have any unwanted squatters while we are away:)