Setting off for 2016

Well, we’re off again!  The new season has started, but look at our brilliant mooring in Bruges for the winter:

and our preparations for warmth for the coming months!

One whole load to be divided between AURIGNY and RICCALL

 our share now neatly stacked on the rear deck

but time must sometimes be put aside for reflection - Remembrance Day in Bruges

Between the end of the last cruising season and the beginning of this, we were absolutely determined to find a house somewhere nearer to Dover to help with our regular trips back and forth.  Our current house in Co Durham is a 5¹/₂-6 hour journey from Dover and in any case, we know no-one there or indeed in the north any more.

So at first we set a distance limit of 3 hours from Dover and decided it had to be south of the Dartford Crossing (a real-time thirsty bottleneck even with the new auto charge system). We realised that it was easier and cheaper to look from Bruges rather than from our northern outpost and narrowed our search area to Kent which we visited on several day trips from Calais.

Towards the end of February we at last found not one, but two houses that fitted the bill.  We made offers on both and the one we ‘sort of’ preferred was rejected but the other was accepted.  Each had various items on our wish list, but neither had them all!

We needed a quick exchange before the end of March, as were considering summer letting and would therefore be landlords and have to pay a whopping extra £10k stamp duty.

So we decided to carry out our own searches to save time and got into a wobble about planning permission for a wooden structure which had been built in the back garden of the house. We discussed it and decided we just couldn’t take the risk that the ‘lodge’ might be discovered by the authorities and have to be demolished.   This would mean that the whole raison d’etre for buying that house would be lost.

2 hours later, out of the blue, the estate agent rang about the earlier house and asked if we were still interested as the other offer had fallen through.  So we sort of changed horses (or houses) in mid-race.  But as the first house was a lot cheaper we don’t think we will bother to summer let and the stamp duty is thus a lot less.

So instead, when we have made a few changes to the house layout, we will offer it at a peppercorn rate to any of our friends as a stop-off before or after a channel crossing: this partly as an act of helpfulness to friends and partly so that it doesn’t stand empty for months on end.

So house searching is finally (we hope) at an end.

                                   

                                 The ferry having help from a tug in gale force conditions - Dover

We spent Christmas and New Year in Bruges with cousins Mary and Martin joining us for Christmas, and we joined friends Chris and Diana on ESME for New Year’s Eve – lovely meal followed by watching the town’s firework display, and of course spent time looking at Bruges in its winter finery:

We didn't only LOOK at Bruges' ice rink - we spent time on it too!

The following day was the ‘7^th International Paper Boat Race’ open to all boaters from the Bruges ports, Coupure and Flandria. 

The rules were simple; construction only from A4 sheets of paper (as many as you liked) and as much Sellotape as you needed (other brands of sticky tape are available!).

Alex decided on a raft-like structure and produced the ‘KONSTIKI’; Peter and Nicci of AURIGNY (our neighbouring boat in Flandria) made a beautiful looking Viking ship called FILANDRIA(!).  Chris on ESME had constructed a phenomenal ship with watertight box-section compartments and a huge yellow sail, and others had constructed everything in between (one boat just produced a big multi-coloured paper ball with dozens of hexagonal segments.)

Alex's brave little effort!

Most of the competitors lined up

 At 12pm the boats were launched into the Coupure and the first to get the 50m or so to the floating Xmas tree would be the winner.

ESME shot off into the lead but half way along slid between two barges and got into the doldrums.  Meanwhile KONSITKI, after a poor start, was making her way steadily along the centre of the waterway.

It is allowed in the rules to assist a boat back into the channel but the gentleman who ‘helped’ ESME’s boat back to the centre line also gave it a huge push towards the finishing post, which meant that it overtook KONSITKI, which had taken the lead by this time.  ESME’s boat won the race by about 2ft! 

KONSTIKI about to perform her rear-guard action as ESME heads into the doldrums!

Alex was gutted, but Lo!  The scrutineer had seen the push and ESME was disqualified, so KONSTIKI became the winner and the holder of the ‘silver’ cup for 2016.  What a hoot!  And next winter we can see it’s going to be paper darts at dawn if we are not all very careful.

All in all, we have had an enjoyable and sociable winter in Bruges as several of our old friends were also moored with us and we have made several more new friends.  The Flandria Yachthaven has a good clubhouse which is also open to the public, and does a range of very tasty meals.  The beer and wine are very reasonably priced, the staff friendly and the food and company good.  What more could you ask?

Apart from Mary and Martin. pictured above with us on Blakenberg beach on Christmas Day, we have also had Rob and Amy and Alice and Bea to stay with us, hopefully to enjoy the delights of Bruges – though the weather could have been better for both visits.  Others threatened to visit but for one reason or another cried off.

Throughout the winter Alex has been constructing things for RICCALL; blue board, water filtration system, AIS B radio receiver and upgrading the navigation system and at the same time doing much the same for several other boats moored with us at Flandria.  So no rest for the wicked there then!  In fact, some of the work for Riccall never did get finished, damn it!

So our plan now is to drift gently around the northern Belgium canals for a few weeks until we get the new house bought and sorted out, then we’ll be able to carry on with our earlier plan, which is to cruise up to Friesland in north eastern Holland before going into dry dock in mid September for the usual bottom scrubbing and painting! And other minor modifications, not to mention looking for any damage that might have been caused, by last year’s shenanigans, to the bottom