Travelling again

It has been almost one month since the last blog, time flies when having fun! We were on our way to Groningen when I put the last post.

Except the first few days in town we were all the time at the quay with Willem de Vries. Last Friday we left with one last look at the Martini tower.

On the map above you can see our scheduled (because no guarantee that we actually do so) route to Zwolle, where we want to be June 18.

The period at the quay Du Bois, we spent useful. Partly by doing work ourself, partly by being there when Willem and his associates worked and partly because we spend time in Amsterdam while the ship was left at a safe place.

In the period that we were in Friesland an accident happened to a ship that regularly pasted us by.On of the spudpoles fell down, while travelling, because the cable broke, with the result of a ruptured pipe. Later we heard more of stories like this.

It scared us enough to take measures and now both the front and rear spudpole have a locking pin we put in when the pile is high (we have to take out before lowering the poles, something we both have already forgotten, at least once).At the back pole a provision is made that secures the cable over the pulley, so we avoid trouble as previously described (May 27).

The leakage in our bedroom is resolved, it was caused by a leaky weld, the steering has been improved and the upper bearing of the rudder stock renewed, a major task.

The weather was very hot and therefore it was difficult to paint. Never the less  I was, early morning and late at night, able to do some so, save the building around the anchor windlass, everything now has its final colour (bollards and upper round at the back are black, the very front upper structure is now red and the decks are gray). We also have windows in the windscreen on the butt, so we have a back view when steering inside.


For the sharp viewers some of it is to be seen on this picture (taken at the North Willemskanaal).

While in Amsterdam we moved our last things from the apartment, Steven now shares the it with a friend and we have no longer a house on shore. It is for a period of one year and than we again. This summer we sail, next winter we are in Haarlem which is close enough to Amsterdam.


We also picked up the painting from 't Majeur, made for us by our friend Henk van Loon. It is beautiful and who wants to see it has to come and look for a picture of it does not reflect what it is.

Henk stayed with us for a day and sat on the shore painting, the result of that day gave us an idea of the design, once at home he finished it.
It was a surprise to us how beautiful it has become.
We know the style of Henk and like it very much, see his website, but a picture of something so personal has an extra dimension.

Before we left Groningen, I have made a vegetable garden on the deck.

We are now known as the flower boat because there are many flowering plants on deck, not usual on such a ship but fun. When we sold home and garden in Naarden I found it a relief that I no longer  had to work so hard to keep the garden nice. Yet now, after a while I miss being involved with soil, seeds and plants but now I have the solution.

Small, user friendly with a maximum yield, that we can eat all yourself without having to throw away. Lettuce, radishes, herbs, broccoli and more. Sixteen different species in a square foot garden, planted last week and already everything is coming up, I'll keep you posted.

So now I am every evening on the deck, happily watering my garden and flowers and am very satisfied.

From Groningen, we went by the North Willemskanaal, a route that is not inferior to beautiful canals in France. Not for the first time in recent months that we had noted that our own country has such beautiful places. We stayed two days, near the A28, from our place you could see it but it was barely audible and it seemed like we were in another world than that of the motorway 50 meters above us.

When we moored on this site Michel dropped a set of keys in the water between shore and ship.

He dregged with a basket on a stick, but had no luck. Fortunately there was a curious bypasser and he went home to fetch a strong magnet. After a long while angling Michel, who has more patience than me for this kind of thing, pulled up the keys. As you can guess one of our first purchase is to be a strong magnet (if the horse has bolted .....)



Since I started this blog our route has changed indeed en now we are in Diever. Where we wanted to turn right, to go along al least part of the Turfroute, the bridge keeper told us it was not possible.
We planned the route with maps and PC Navigo and figured we were not to big and if we lowered the sunroof could pass under the 3.7m bridge. We were half way through the bridge, turning right in a small canal trough a small bridge, not an easy manoeuvre, as I said to the man that maybe we would be back in two days. He told me than that we had no possibility to turn, once we were through the bridge. Michel and I decided there and than that we would go all the way to Heerenveen and moved a bit further on in the bridge. At that moment the man said that it would also be impossible to continue because last winter they had bild a new lifting bridge near Oosterwolde and made a mistake so it doesn't come up higher than 3m and we can't come lower than 3.1m. No map shows this bridge an PC Navigo doesn't know.
So, while there was a whole fleet of little boats waiting to pas the bridge, cars waiting to cross the bridge, we had to back out the way we came in, an even more nasty manoeuvre. If I had not talked to the man he would not have said a thing and we would have had to go backwards all the way from Oosterwolde.
Here we are now, in a straight line south from Assen to Meppel.

So far our story, now we are back en route we have more to tell and I will blog more regular.