Jul. 15, 2009 - The End of YotBlog?

Jul. 4, 2009 - Day 6 - Back To The Marina

After entering the Veerse Meer on Tuesday evening, we decided to spend the rest of the week cruising from island to island enjoying the fabulous weather, swimming and generally relaxing, On Wednesday we went up to Kamperland Landbau Haven which has just been converted into a marina. We were visiting in order to get some shopping and found there was a brand new C1000 Supermarket within walking distance of the marina, so we stocked up on supplies for the rest of the week. The marina was so new there were hardly any boats there. It had a visitor pontoon, but we were able to moor where ever we chose,

Wednesay, we spent the night on Arneplaat, an island we have often eyed with longing, but always found to be too busy. It was all very relaxed and both Wendy & Kim went swiming off the back of the boat. The water was up to 27C! After tah Kim lit up the Bar-b-Que, but the pace of life was getting to him and he struggled to stay awake

After sailing around on Thursday just for the fun of it, we finished up at Bastiaan de Langeplaat. not inside the lagoon, as it was too busy, but we did get on the outside of one of the jetties. Again more swimming and generally doing not much.

On Friday, we headed back to our marina and spent a couple of hours giving the boat a good clean - inside and out. In the evening we headed over to the reastaurant Iets Anders, one of our favourites for Mosselen  & Chips washed down with plenty of Grolsch!

During our 6 days cruise we managed to combine a trip to Oostende with a cruise around the Veerse Meer. All in all, a brilliant week with terrific weather - North Sea fog excepted!

Jun. 30, 2009 - Day 3 - Back to the Veerse Meer

The weather forecast last night had been for sea fog, on and off, all week, but suggested today might not be too bad. So given that we didn't like the marina - noisy gravel processing plant next door and smelly toilets/showers, we decided that we would consider leaving first thing provided we could see all the buildings on the seafront and it looked as if it would be okay. So we waited for the traffic sign to indicate the all clear to exit the port.

On the way down we had played the tide, getting speeds of eight and a half knots over the ground. In order to do so on the way back and to minimise the foul tide entering the Westerschelde, we needed to leave about 05.00 hrs. Waiting for the okay to exit the harbour delayed us by about half an hour.  Nevertheless, we exited into the North Sea in clear visability, blue skies and sunshine.

An hour later we were entering the fog again, this time, really thick. At Zeebrugge we again radioed for clearance to cross the harbour entrance, but now we had to wait for a bulk carrier to exit the port and two container ships to enter. This meant circling in the thick fog, a couple of hundred meters off the western mole, bearly able to see it. We got a morale boost when we were joined by a similar sized Dutch yacht. Then the radio crackled into life and we were given the okay. Our Dutch companion gestured in our direction "full steam ahead" and we blindly charged across the entrance!

We were now considering contingency plans to spend the night in Breskens rather that try to cross the Westerschelde in the fog. But listening to the radio we heard several reports that visibility in the Westerschelde was over a kilometer and this was comforting news.

By the time we approached the Westerschelde the fog had cleared and it was turning into a really pleasant afternoon. Our early start had paid off and we still managed to keep up about 4 knots. We locked through into the Walcheren canal at about 13.00 hrs having decided to go all the way back to the Veerse Meer in one hit. We just wanted to get back to our home waters! At 17.00 hrs we were tied up on the Goudplaat.

So, we got to Oostende! Going, there was no wind and coming back what little there was, came from the North East, so we motored all the way back. Given that Emjaytoo was motored across to Vlissingen from Harwich two years ago, we still have not yet "sailed" in the North Sea. The whole experience was not particularly fun, but we coped with the appalling conditions, by doing the correct thing and keeping well out of the shipping channel and staying in shallow water. The GPS chartplotter was a saviour. Without it, we would not have been able to continue. We had, in total, four seprate chartplotters available to us. We used the main Garmin plotter, plus a Garmin handheld and a PC chart plotter. In reserve we had a PDA with it's own bluetooth GPS chartplotting software. 

Overall it was an experience that was good to gain, but neither of us will be in a hurry to do it again!

Jun. 29, 2009 - Day 2 - Oostende

First thing it was quite foggy and so we waited 'til about 09.00 hrs before departing. Kim had worked out that we needed to be at our first waypoint on the south side of the Westerschelde for about 10.00 hrs. We then turned west and headed out down the estuary. The visibility, by now was several miles, but quite hazy. We hoped as the day wore on the haze would burn off.      It didn't!

An hour later we were in thick fog and visibility was down to about four hundred meters.

We were about half a mile outside the channel on the shoreside, keeping in shallow water. There was no wind to speak of so it was full ahead under engine. On one occaision we saw a large container ship appear out of the fog on our starboard side, about a quarter of a mile away, going in the same direction as us, but it soon disappeared again.

By 12.30 hrs we were at Zeebrugge and called up Port Traffic Control for clearance to cross the harbour entrance. This was granted straight away and we hurtled across at full spead about 200m away from the harbour entrance. It was all a bit disconcerting, but as we cleared the entrance the port controller came on the radio to inform us we were clear of the entrance and to wish us a safe passage. Obviously they had been able to see us on their radar.

By 14.30 hrs we were approaching Oostende and the fog was still just as thick. Another radio call, this time to Oostende Port Control and we were given clearance to enter. Wendy got a bit of a shock as a largish tug appeared out of the fog and entered ahead of us. As we went in, close to the western breakwater we could see nothing on our port side, having to rely on our chartplotter and visual on the starboard side only.

Then came the real shock - as we progressed in to the harbour, the fog cleared. By the time we got to the RYCO marina, about half a mile from the harbour entrance, we were in blazing sunshine.

After tying up and having a celebratory beer, we went for a walk into the city centre to inspect the Mercator Dock and Montgomery Dock, which we had chosen to pass in favour of a quieter night at RYCO. Up at the Mercator the fog was still swirling around and it was fleece weather! So back to the boat and a serious rethink of our plans to stay two nights. It has to be said that at this point we had already paid for two nights.

Jun. 28, 2009 - Day 1 - Vlissingen

Very first thing this morning it was brilliant sunshine and clear blue skies. But by 08.00 hrs it had gone all murky and horrible! We headed round to the fueling pontoon, filled up with diesel and pumped out the holding tank. There was no wind to speak of and we motored all the way up to Veere.

By the time we entered the Kanaal door Walcheren the murk had cleared and it had turned into a rather oppressive afternoon. Uneventfull passage down the canal livened up only by the tedious wait for the last bridge at Vlissingen to open!

Found our way into the the VVW Schelde marina and tied up. By this time the temperature was 26C in the shade. We went for a walk into the town and inspected the Michel De Ruyter marina with a view to stopping there on the way back.

Now back on board Emjaytoo and yes we have WiFi!. Fingers crossed for no fog/mist tomorrow morning. The forecast is for a scorcher tomorrow - with, maybe some wind in the afternoon.

Next stop - Oostende!

Jun. 26, 2009 - Will We Make It To Oostende?

Well this is it. We are off to the boat for a week's cruise and the destination is Oostende.

We are off tomorrow on the 8.00am ferry out of Dover and the plan is - Sunday, down the Veerse Meer to Veere, into the Walcheren Kanal and down to Vlissingen. Monday, out into the Westerschelde and down the coast to Oostende. Tuesday, sight seeing in Oostende. Wednesday, back up to Vlissingen. Thursday, back up to the Veerse Meer, with an overnight stop on an island, perhaps and back to the marina on Friday. Ferry back home Saturday.

The weather forecast is generally for no wind and possible thunder storms - so the whole plan is up in the air and entirely subject to weather. The fall back plan is to cruise up the Oosterschelde and go to Hellovetsluis, or something similar. Who knows?

Jun. 11, 2009 - It’s Not Always Plain Sailing!

Having caught the 4.00pm ferry Friday night, our arrival at the boat around 9.00pm was very leisurely. However Saturday morning we were faced with quite a strong easterly wind which made the exit from our berth particularly difficult. We decided to warn our rather unfriendly neighbour on a Contessa 32 that our stern might come over towards him but, as with some Belgians a year or so back, he took it as an invitation to take over, shouting instructions, which Wendy does not appreciate!  Having decided that we would go in a lull in the wind, Wendy was faced with Kim letting the bow line off and our neighbour pushing us.  To make matters worse, she had forgotten to check that the wheel was unclamped so had no steerage for a second, by which time we had been blown over to the other side.  In our neighbour’s defence, he was only trying to be helpful, but he only made matters worse and was very intimidating. He did, however, clamber over other people’s boats to fend us off and for that we were grateful. Eventually we exited the Landbouhaven but were both rather rattled so as the wind in the Veerse Meer was particularly gusty we abandoned our decision to go out into the Oosterschelde and head up to St Annaland, in favour of a more relaxing trip to Veere.

The sail up to Veere was brisk and we tied up to the visitor jetty outside the Kaai even though it was a bit bouncy. In the evening we went over to the Yacht Club and had an excellent meal – starters, main course and beers for €46.25. We didn’t sleep too well – Wendy was fretting over our departure that morning and a mild case of the “slappers” didn’t help.

Sunday we decided to head over to the Goudplaat – all of 1½ miles! Our departure from the visitor pontoon proved hairier than we would have liked, due to some lunatics in a dinghy hurtling in front of us onto the jetty just as we had let go all the lines!  Wendy was on the bow and reported that their boom missed us by inches!  There were two boats on the Goudplaat when we arrived, including a British Westerly Solway that had just come over from Eastbourne, but we soon had the place to ourselves.   Within the space of a few hours, we saw the wind go through 180 degrees twice and experienced, complete calm & torrential rain:-

May. 26, 2009 - Aground Again!

Went over for a quiet weekend with Jimbo. He didn’t want to do much sailing, just wanted to “chill” – have a bar-b-que, watch the Monaco Grand Prix, have a walk and generally take it easy. And that is exactly what we did.

Saturday morning we did some shopping in the village, got some excellent kebabs at the local butchers and some nice rolls at the bakers. We then headed off to the fuelling jetty where the holding tank pump out is located as the previous trip had left the holding tank full. In order to get close enough to the pump out point you have to go on the same bit of jetty as the boats that are refuelling. Given that it was a Saturday afternoon, of a public holiday weekend and by this time the weather was terrific, we expected quite a queue. In fact we didn’t have to wait too long and the whole process was completed quickly.

The sail up to the Haringvreter was good, full main and genoa. The water was pretty busy and we started to think that we might not be able to find any space at the main harbour/jetty we had in mind – the one we have been to previously. And indeed it was full, but about a quarter of a mile away there is a good sized jetty which is not attached to the island. This had quite a bit of space.

Presumably most people want access to the thunder boxes, bins and the nice grassy area. It suited us fine as it gave an excuse to get the tender out and to use its outboard, which had not been fired up since last year when it was serviced.

We got the Cobb out and cooked up the kebabs, just as it started to rain. The Cobb is not affected by the rain as it has a cover. The rain did produce a wonderful rainbow, though.

The rest of the evening was spent watching a film.

Sunday we had a very leisurely day, Kim had a swim (the Germans on the neighbouring boat thought he must like cold water but it was actually 17 degrees, which isn't too bad for May!)

and we played with the Man-Overboard recovery device and boarding ladder. This was a very useful exercise as Wendy attempted to get Kim back on board over the side. In a choppy sea, getting back on board via the swim platform at the back would be too dangerous as the stern of the boat would be bouncing up and down too much. The whole exercise proved to be hard work, Wendy attached the rescue/lifting strop to a spare halyard and then winched Kim up as he climbed the webbing ladder. Neither the winching nor the ladder would have worked on their own, but combined, it was just about possible for Wendy to get Kim back on.

After the exertions of all that Kim and Jim settled down to watch the Grand Prix.

Then we went over to the island in the tender (all of about 100m!) and had a pleasant walk round the island. All the time the sun shone and it was glorious! Sunday night we had a lasagne that Wendy had prepared at home and had an early night. We started to have a problem with the house battery getting low. The nav instruments were inadvertently left on over Saturday night and with the boat not motoring anywhere we had to put the engine on a couple of times to recharge the batteries.

Monday morning we headed back to our marina. Kim had made a towing strop for the tender, so instead of deflating it and putting it away we towed it all the way back.

The grounding occurred as we were beating up from the Bad Hotel. We were on Starboard tack running up a line between two green buoys out on our port side. We were in effect sailing along the 5m contour. At this particular spot the bottom shoals very steeply so we had little room to play with. Kim hadn’t been watching the depth gauge and the first warning was the 2.0m alarm going off. Kim threw a tack in immediately, but too late, we grounded. There was not a lot of wind and we were sailing quite slowly – 2 knots maybe. The strange thing is that, when clearly stuck on the bottom, the depth gauge was showing 1.9m – we draw 1.5m! We whipped the sails away and started motoring astern and slowly she came out. Veerse Meer mud is very forgiving!

With three adults on board and no access to proper toilets, the holding tank was completely full again, so we decided that it would be easier to empty it before berthing the boat, rather than leaving it till the next trip over (which is in two weeks time). Monday was not a public holiday in the Netherlands (they had theirs on Friday) so we thought it would be dead easy and quiet. It wasn’t! There other boats waiting to refuel and when we did get on the jetty, we found that we needed the Havenmeister to switch the pump on and he had gone to lunch. Fortunately, he interrupted his lunch for us.

The long and short of it all was that by the time we had pumped out the tank, got back on our berth (which took two attempts), put the tender away and then done all the usual packing away things, it was getting on for 2.00pm – we were booked on the 5.00pm ferry and really should have left by 1.30pm latest! As headed back to Dunkerque the sat nav had our arrival as 4.30pm, Wendy was confident we would still make our ferry – check in time is 45 mins prior to departure. 10 kms out from Dunkerque we encountered road works and the next thing is, the Sat Nav is predicting arrival at 4.45pm! Well, we checked in and were told we were booked on the 7.00pm ferry and no we couldn’t get the 5.00pm one – we were too late. Wendy remained confident, though her confidence wavered a bit at the sight of the usual queue for UK passport control.  But we drove round to the holding area to find they were still loading. So by the skin of our teeth we caught the ferry! In fact, we were put on the lorry deck which meant that when we got to Dover we disembarked before the cars – a real result!

So, all in all, a very enjoyable weekend with better than expected weather.

We have another long one booked in two weeks time.

May. 22, 2009 - A Weekend With Jimbo

Following on from the last entry, the necessary paperwork duly arrived and at least it didn't cost anything. Whether our radio can be set to transmit the ATIS number remains to be seen.

                                           --o--

It is now Friday evening and we are on the ferry - the usual Friday night Norfolkline and Jimbo has gone to get the coffees. The weather forecast looks as if Saturday & Sunday should be cloudy and sunny with a slight chance of rain, whereas Monday could be quite wet, even with thunderstorms.

                                            --o--

The plan is to spend a quiet weekend on an island, read books, watch films, have a barbeque, watch the Grand Prix on Sunday and generally chill out (Jimbo's itinery!)

                                            --o--

May. 9, 2009 - Changes to the Radio Regulations

A few weeks ago Wendy spotted an article about changes to the European inland waterways radio requirements. A bit more research reveals that the Netherlands along with a number of other EU countries (United Kingdon excepted - of course!) signed up to some agreement called RAINWAT some years ago regarding the requirements for VHF radio on board boats within the EU inland waterways. UK as normal didn't want to "join the party" so were offered a derogation.

Well, the long and short of it all is that the derogation has ended and the UK has decided to join up to RAINWAT. So what this means is that we have to get Ofcom, who issue our Radio Licence to issue us with an ATIS number and amend our Radio Licence. Sounds like a load of bureaucratic nonsense. Anyway, apparently one can e-mail Ofcom and they send you stuff out in the post. So last night I sent off the e-mail and we will wait and see what happens.

Of more concern, was that as I was researching the issue I then find that an ATIS enabled radio is illegal in the UK (apparently) and that under RAINWAT boats in the Netherlands are supposed to  monitor two channels at the same time - Ah, Dual Watch, you say!. Well apparently not you must have two radios. That's okay, we have a second portable VHF. That won't do as, apparently in the Netherlands, our portable radio is illegal because it can receive too many channels including one of the ones we're supposed to monitor. Apparently what this means is that we should have two fixed VHF radios. I really don't believe all our neighbours in the marina have two fixed VHF radios! I suspect some of them don't even have one!

We will have to ask around when we are next over. Which by the way is in two weeks time (Bank Holiday Weekend). James is coming down for a long weekend and we will go over on Friday evening and come back Monday evening. A quiet weekend is planned - Haringvreter for two nights with lots of chilling!

May. 7, 2009 - Teamwork

Having originally planned to have a long 4 day Bank Holiday weekend, we ended up postponing our departure to the Saturday morning after Kim had to cancel Friday’s holiday due to work commitments. In order to get the best out of the Saturday we took the 6.00am ferry to Dunkerque. That meant getting up at 4.00am!  Didn’t seem like quite such a good idea when the alarm went, but worth it in the end!

Having got the boat sorted, we headed round to the fuelling jetty to have a go at pumping out the holding tank. But there were too many boats there, so we abandoned the idea and set off towards Veere - destination Middelburg.

The weather was cloudy with some spells of sunshine and a reasonable breeze – 10 to 14 knots. After an hour or so of short tacking down the Veerse Meer, we gave up and put the engine on. The tacking was fun for a while, but was hard work and with a VMG of only 1.5 knots, too slow.

Had the lock at Veere to ourselves and motored down the canal to Middelburg in glorious sunshine, albeit a bit chilly. Arrived at Middelburg to find the Spijker Brug open and the Havenmeester calling us through to the inner harbour with the choice of rafting alongside or going between piles. Since we were expecting to go alongside the Havenmeester’s jetty we had all our fenders down, so a hasty switch in plan was instigated and following some athletic leaping about the boat by Kim and skilled helming by Wendy we neatly slid between a set of vacant piles with only inches to spare. Whilst rafting up can be fun and sociable, it is definitely more private to be on your own.

After a quick walk around we returned to the boat for a nice meal and an early night. Well, by this time we had been up 18 hours.

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Sunday morning was a very leisurely affair as we did not have to rush off anywhere. After breakfast we went for a longer walk around Middelburg. It started off quite cloudy, but by lunchtime had brightened up considerably. Wendy has acquired a new photographic interest – Dutch Front Doors and took loads of photographs. Well Middelburg does have a lot of front doors!

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 We had looked at the pilot book to see what time the Spijker Brug opened and it said every hour on the half hour, but with a five hour gap between 11.30am and 4.30pm. However, having watched it open a couple of times after the supposed gap we wrongly assumed that the pilot book was inaccurate. Anyway, we slipped out of the box expecting the bridge to open at 3.30pm, only to be disappointed. Fortunately quite a few boats had left during the morning openings, so we were able to go alongside the visitor jetty whilst we waited for the next opening. Which occurred at 3.15pm!

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Back up the canal to Veere and straight into the lock with no waiting around. This is the lock we had a lot of trouble with last year on our previous trip to Middelburg. We always like to go port side to in the lock, but when heading back into the Veerse Meer there is a horrible offset in the lock on the port side. So we had decided that in future we would always go on the starboard side. On this occasion there was only one other yacht in the lock – on the starboard side and right in the middle of the wall leaving only the port side vacant (it is a small lock!), unless of course you raft up to the boat already in there! Which was precisely what we did and it made for a very easy exit.

We then headed down to the Haringvreter for an overnighter. This is the biggest island in the Veerse Meer and Kim visited it last year with the boys. There were only three other boats there, so it was very quiet. We had a really nice long walk and saw the horses and the deer, later watching an oyster catcher and crested grebe fishing their supper from the shallow water around the island.

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First thing next morning there was no wind and the water looked like glass, with brilliant sunshine making for a superb photo opportunity.  Coincidentally, we have both quite independently chosen this shot as our wallpapers.

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The wind then filled in and we had a really good downwind sail back to the marina. After all the brilliant teamwork and excellent boat handling by Wendy, our arrival at our finger berth was not so clever, but you can’t have it all your own way and at least we didn’t hit anything – it just wasn’t very clever. Wendy did the turn into the berth expecting the wind to swing the bow round, but it didn't so we landed up at 45 degrees.  It's all very different this year as there is now a boat in the space next to us so not all of our old "tricks" work, but with sailing there are always lessons to be learned for the future!  Next time Wendy is going to treat it as going between piles and - hopefully - all will be well.

Apr. 13, 2009 - Easter Weekend

With a wide variety of forecasts for this weekend, we weren't quite sure what to expect but as it turned out, we were really lucky.  On arriving on Friday, Wendy and the boys went up to the supermarket to get some victuals while Kim started to sort things out on board.  We decided it was all a bit too late to head off to Goes on Friday, so settled for an early-ish start on Saturday.  After waiting nearly an hour on the fuelling pontoon (never interrupt a Dutchman's lunch!), we set off through the lock and out into the "big water" of the Oosterschelde.  It was Stew's first experience of a lock and having primed him about bollards and how to get the rope on, he was presented with a ring and landed up in a semi-boat hook fight with Kim but it all went well in the end.  The weather was gorgeous and we were unbelievably sailing in T-shirts.  Managed a  brief spell under genoa only before turning up into the canal towards Goes.

The journey up the canal was lovely, with Stewart clicking away on his camera.  The plan had been to stock up on food for the Easter weekend from the C1000 supermarket, but when we got there it had become an Aldi and some other shop and, like every other shop we could see, was already shut.  So we decided to make the best of what we had on board for the rest of the weekend. 

Goes was as lovely as ever but a mental note was made not to go there again on a Saturday night as it was very noisy into the early hours and well beyond!

We made a surprisingly early start on the Sunday and left at 10 to 9, with a number of other boats, ready for the 9 am bridge opening.  However, we tied up on the pontoon just the other side for a breakfast break and then tagged onto the end of the next batch at 10am.  The weather was not as warm but was still ok and the extra wind was welcome, resulting in an excellent sail out in the Oosterschelde with both main and genoa and a good angle of heel.  Tom spent most of the time down below writing and reading, so has presumably inherited his mother's lack of seasickness!   The main excitement was Wendy's mis-reading of the chartplotter and Kim's instruction to go "between the red and green buoys" (which the Oosterschelde is full of!), but any real incident was quikcly averted.

Once back in the Veerse Meer, we carried on up to Zandkreekplaat and again had an excellent sail, with lots of short tacking.  Our arrival on the deserted pontoon was interesting as there was a strong wind blowing us off and Kim's excellent idea of using a centre spring was somewhat thwarted by having to have too many turns on the pontoon ring which then locked, keeping us too far off.  However, we eventually got tied up at a good distance in and had a lovely peaceful stay, watching the geese and other birds. 

We watched one of Stew's films in the evening and Tom inadvertently summed up the effects of all the fresh air by saying, at 9.25, that he was "glad he'd stayed up late to watch the film"!.

Monday morning was a bit of a shock with a real pea souper outside.  It cleared a bit by the time we left, though, and we motor-sailed back to the marina, by which time the sun was shining again. Two hours later we were packed up and in the car.  All in all another successful weekend and hopefully the first of many this season.

Apr. 10, 2009 - Busy Ferry

Got away from home on time - 7.00am for an 8.00am ferry. When we got to Dover the whole place was heaving. NorfolkLine had messed up our booking again and by the time we got on the ferry we were about the last car to be squeezed onto the car deck. There were loads of cars behind us and one has to wonder if they all got on.

Fortunately, we had not planned to have breakfast on board - it all gets a bit expensive when there are four of you, so the fact that the restaurant was packed didn't matter. We struggled to find somewhere to sit and ended up by the "children's club" with an excessively loud american play leader.

All in all, the crossing is one of the most unpleasant - it is now 9.10am and we still have an hour or more before we dissembark.

The weather forecast still looks pretty unsettled, but at least it's not likely to snow!

Apr. 8, 2009 - Weather For The Weekend

	Woensdag 08-04-2009	Donderdag 09-04-2009	Vrijdag 10-04-2009	Zaterdag 11-04-2009	Zondag 12-04-2009	Maandag 13-04-2009
Max.  temperatuur	13	17	18	18	15	13
Min.  temperatuur	7	7	7	6	9	6
Ochtend
Middag
Avond
Windrichting  Windkracht	6-4	5-2	5-2	1-2	4-2	1-2
Neerslag mm	3	0	0	0	0-1	0

Mar. 29, 2009 - No Snow!

A sucessfull weekend without any snow. Infact without any rain apart from overnight Friday/Saturday. Friday night was very cold, but otherwise okay.

It took most of Saturday to get all the gear loaded on board and put away, then we went over to the Marina Office and paid the second installment of the year's fee. We won't talk about the Euro/Sterling exchange rate save to say OUCH!

In the evening we got the TV back up & working and settled down to a nice meal - steak & salad, washed down with some red wine and followed by some cheese.

The job that had not been done on Saturday was bending the sails on. These had been taken home over the winter for cleaning and protection from the elements. Sunday was a bright and sunny day and although there was a bit of a breeze coming over the stern (not the best direction for sorting the sails), we managed to get them bent on and the boat is now "ready to go". So all in all a sucessfull weekend.

The next visit is in two weeks time when we are taking the boys(Tom & Stewart) over at Easter. Hopefully a more sucessful time than last Easter provided we don't let Tom carry the car keys!

Mar. 27, 2009 - WiFi on the Ferry

Having discovered, at the end of last year, that Norfolkline have free WiFi, we are now able to post entries to the blog whilst travelling over to the boat and back again. So here we are - 6.30pm Friday evening and Kim's just had a curry and we should be in Dunkerque for 8.00pm.

The car is loaded up with most of the gear that was brought home for the winter and the weekend is planned as a "sort the boat out" trip. Kim has plans for a trip up to Zandkreek Plaat, but Wendy thinks it will be too cold/too windy and the water level in the Veerse Meer may be too low to get on the pontoon.

There will be lots to do tomorrow without actually going anywhere. Both the main sail and genoa need putting back on, the TV needs putting back and the aft cabin cupboard door needs freeing as the catch jammed last time we were over in January. It may require drilling out, but hopefully a squirt of WD40 will do yhe trick.

Mar. 23, 2009 - Checking Out The Life Jackets

The winter lay up is nearly over. We are booked on the ferry this Friday evening and will be taking all the kit stored at home over the winter, back to the boat.

We have been testing/servicing the life jackets over the weekend. Sounds complicated, but simply means manually blowing them up and leaving them to make sure they don't deflate.

The weather forecast is looking a bit mixed for the weekend, which is a shame, because we have had some brilliant weather recently. In fact yesterday we had a bar-b-que! It will probably be the only one of the year.

Feb. 1, 2009 - At Least We Didn't Have Any Snow -

Well, not until we got back home!

We arrived at the marina about lunch time and after getting the sleeping bags & pillows on board, firing up the fan-heater and having a cup of tea, we decided it was far too cold to spend the night on board. The boat was covered in ice, we had no water (due to having all the systems winterised) and the thought of walking back to a freezing cold boat, later that night, after a restaurant meal did not appeal. So we jumped in the car and drove round to a nearby hotel at Wissenkerke.

Having checked in, we drove over to Zierikzee, had a walk around the town and harbour, stopped off to have apple pie and coffee before returning to the hotel where we enjoyed an excellent meal, a few beers, a wonderfully warm room, a good night's sleep, a piping hot shower the next morning and a good breakfast!

We then drove back to the marina, removed our unused sleeping bags & pillows from the boat and headed home.

There was no snow until we arrived at Folkestone. We had a good weekend, checked out the boat, which was the main thing.

Overall -

The sun shone,

It was very quiet,

And it was bloody cold!!

Jan. 29, 2009 - Mad or what?

We are heading over to the boat this weekend to check that everything's ok.  We've been watching the forecast and for the last few days it has been for sunshine, light winds and temperatures a few degrees either side of zero.  Fine, wrap up warm, take the thermals, should be lovely. 

Now with less than 48 hours to go, Wallie's weather site (the local one we always trust!) is showing sun on Saturday, max. temp 3 degrees, winds force 5 increasing to 7, from the east.  Sunday daytime max zero degrees and .... you've guessed it, more b****y snow!!!

Jan. 14, 2009 - Montage 2008

It's very hard to pick photos which sum up a whole year - and even harder to make them fit onto an A4 sheet without any gaps! - but I've tried: