I listened for the sound of rain on the roof as I lay in bed but there was none. The forecast predicted with 100% certainty there would be rain between five and six. At 05:30 there was still none although I could see some drops blowing in the wind in the reception camera. At 05:45 the rain started to fall gently and settled down to more serious effort at six. I gave up reading the news and went back to sleep until 07:30 when I got up and prepared the dogs for a walk.
The sky was still dark grey and there was occasional fine rain. Fortunately, I wore my long coat as it started to rain quite hard as we were heading up the beach towards the river after we’d toured the Promontory only once. I turned back as I saw little point in continuing and the dogs getting drenched. At least they had a good walk the previous evening.
I dried them off before putting them in the van. I went for a walk around the camping to ensure everything was working especially the bathroom boiler. With no sunshine, I’ve had to put on the thermosyphono (water heater) so Erica and Janne have hot water since their bathroom is connected to the two tanks on the workshop roof. Unlike us happy campers, they probably feel it’s necessary to jump into the shower twice a day.
I fed all of the animals then realised I needed to produce Doggy Dinners for later. Luckily, I had sufficient ingredients to make up another three-day batch. I fed myself and ate breakfast with Luis and Oskar outside until it became too cold to remain. I retreated inside with the other five dogs and stayed there most of the morning except for the occasional excursion to see off Jorma and Kirsti as they left for Agios Nikolaos. At that point, it was sunny so at least the first part of their journey was enjoyable. My PV managed to produce 2.8kWh during that short interval. It is enough to offset the DDs and this evening’s cooking too. Had I not have been so profligate with the fan heater the last couple of nights the battery would be a lot more than 30% capacity.
There were a couple of brighter spells but no other real sunny intervals. The wind got up so now we were able to enjoy rain, cold AND wind!
I did another tour of the camping where I discovered the boiler had had a touch of the vapours and the hot water was now just over 20ºC in the main bathrooms. Not that I suspect there were too many queues for the showers. I reset the boiler and waited for it to run for a few moments then turned on the water heater for Janne and Erica to ensure they had hot water in their caravan.
I’d forgotten the DD’s were unprocessed and still in the pot so dealt with that and put on some rice for the dogs. I planned to take the dogs for a walk as Isabella has had only one walk today so is beside herself. With cold, wind and yet more rain, I really was not up for it.
It’s been amusing watching Isabella’s antics as she was in and out each time I went through the door and ‘helped’ whilst I discovered why there was no Grid Power to my inverter. I wanted the power on just in case the battery voltage went too low otherwise it drops the load and everything goes off! With the grid connected, it’s programmed to switch over to Grid then disconnect the battery until there’s sufficient solar to charge it back up. It will switch back to solar/battery mode once the battery is charged up to a predetermined voltage.
I was expecting Sandra and Sonja to return on Thursday but they found themselves sitting in their van together due to the rotten weather so decided to drive back to Grammeno early. If you’re going to sit in your vehicle at least be somewhere you feel comfortable. They appear to have enjoyed their tour of the island but we didn’t talk for too long as the weather was so miserable. They kindly brought me some oranges and bananas from Petrakis as I’ve not been shopping for days so have run out of many things. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better so I’ll get a load of shopping when I see the dentist for my crown.
Isabella has found herself on the floor near Luis who is at my feet. This is really not appropriate for a dog of her importance yet she cannot put too much pressure on the others as I’m present to arbitrate if required. I’ve watched her try to inveigle her way into a space on one of the seats. The Fluffy Brothers are taking up one side and Skinny and Obi the other. Fido and Obi are next to me so protected by my influence. Charlie made it perfectly plain there was absolutely no room between him and Oskar, at least not for Isabella anyway. Skinny was more restrained however still adamant. Obi and Fido just snuggled a little closer to me. She’s resigned to being on the floor but not even on the blanket where Luis is spread out. The fan heater is not on due to the low battery but the gas heater is. No doubt, when I go out to collect my supper from the pot, there will be changes to the doggy configuration.
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