Last blog of 2016

So finally, we are writing our last blog of the year.

It has been a fraught few months since we last published a blog, hence the rather long delay in writing this one!

We ended our last blog at a nice Marrekrite mooring close to a town called Joure.

Rubbish collection at a FREE mooring place

From there we spent a few days in the commercial harbour in Drachten – empty and free including electricity - while we waited for a day fine enough to take the wheelhouse roof off to pass under 3 low bridges on the next leg of our journey.

Drachten - another free, and empty mooring

Eventually the day dawned bright and dry and we cruised up to the first bridge, tied up to a rather rickety private mooring and lowered the roof. The people in the house opposite were fascinated and amazed and gave us the universal thumbs-up gesture.

We spent a couple of nights in Groningen on a good free mooring on the canal to the south east approach.

Groningen railway station - magnificent

We had fun going through the town with all the lift bridges and had to wait ages at one of them, while a long museumbrug ‘raft’ powered by an outboard at each end came through: the front outboard acting as their ‘bow thruster’!

Strange craft

We headed north through the Hoge Zuidval up as far as the Lauwwersoog inland lake, which is about as far north you can get in Holland and had a windy lunch stop on the edge of a jachthaven there. We decided, though, not to spend the night in this extremely uncomfortable spot, cost notwithstanding, and found a good sheltered mooring on an island further south.

Lauwwersoog - windy lunch spot

Lovely Zoutcamp

When we got to Dokkum we decided to stay on the chargeable town quay and pay. Unfortunately, we said our boat was 18m and were charged for ‘18m and more’, rather than ‘17.99m and less’ – a stiff €24, rather than €11.70. We thought that was a bit mean, so we only stayed the one night, but Dokkum was a nice place and well worth the lengthy diversion north - 3 pictures follow.

At Leeuwarden we had been told by our friends George and Suzanna Snijder that we would be able to use the historic harbour and to contact Robert the harbourmaster for permission. A great mooring for €5 a night and the young lady in the barge behind us let us plug into her electricity supply after some sweet talk by Alex.

Leeuwarden bridge and leaning tower

We stayed for 4 nights! We took the train back to Vreeswijk to pick up the car which we dropped off at SRF in Harlingen. Leeuwarden is a nice town with interesting things to do and see. On one of our days there the town was holding a festival all along the side of the canal with shows and live performances everywhere. And great fun!

Outdoor performance artistes at the Festival - brilliant!

At last the weather had cheered up and we found an idyllic mooring in the country for our last night before heading to SRF for the lift out.

Harlingen tall ships

The lift went without a hitch and after jet washing her hull RICCALL was lowered gently onto her supports for the rest of the work to begin.

Gentle manoeuvring

We had decided, among other things, that we ought to get the TRIVW certification for RICCALL because although this is generally only required for boats over 20m, there is a caveat that shorter boats whose overall dimensions (in metres) when multiplied together come to over 100, would also need the TRIVW. Ours comes to 126 so even though it’s probably unlikely that we would ever be questioned about it, we decided to get the certificate, because at this stage older ships have less onerous demands on them provided the certificate is gained before the end of 2018. Thereafter, all ships requiring certification will have to comply fully, so if RICCALL was found to need the TRIVW after 2019 she wouldn’t be able to comply and would probably have to be scrapped.

We contacted Peter Voerman who can carry out the necessary surveys and issue a TRIVW certificate.

We also asked SRF for a quote for modifying the stern to reduce our severe prop walk and also to make the rudder a bit more efficient.

The quote for this work seemed acceptable, and involved cutting out the vertical support for the skeg, reinforcing said skeg with horizontal bars on either side, creating a quarter tunnel over the propeller and adding a bit to the front edge of the rudder.

While all that was going on, Peter Voerman turned up to do the hull survey and certification.

He found a couple of rivets that needed welding and said that the turn of the bilge on the port side would need to be overplated at some point in the next 3 to 4 years. We decided to have it done there and then as we had confidence in SRF and then wouldn’t have to worry about it for the rest of our lives!

Peter mentioned a couple of other minor things to do on the hull and a few acquisitions to allow him to give us the TRIVW (reflective life-ring, 150mm high ENI number installed on the rear of the wheelhouse, 3 x 6kg fire extinguishers, ‘no flame’ signs near fuel fillers, ‘wear ear protectors’ in engine room etc etc – so nothing too onerous. Hopefully then, when we have sent him the photographic evidence of all those things, we will have our TRIVW certification. Whoopee!

Over the next couple for weeks SRF carried out all the work over the prop and on the rudder while Alex and Louise stripped off the paint on the saloon roof and repainted it all with two pack epoxy. Alex also replaced the water pump on the engine and repacked the stern gland packing (SRF refurbished the prop shaft bearings as well.)

What SRF did

We joined our chums, Paul and Diane, for 3 nights in an Airbnb flat in Harlingen, to give us some respite from boat-yard living (good suggestion P and D) and entertained Mary and Martin and George and Suzannah for supper on board one evening.

SRF painted the underside and we did from the waterline up to deck level. One of the other joys of the strap lift-out came when RICCALL was put back in the straps, lifted and the places that had been on the supports could be painted as well before she went back in the water.

Now we had the return trip to our mooring in Bruges to tackle and complete, within a couple of weeks or so.

This is so unlike our usual style, as it meant long days and very brief stops for lunch, if any.

As we reversed out of the straps at SRF Alex immediately noticed that the prop walk had all but disappeared but in due course when we got into the shallower canals we discovered the downsides of the prop tunnel. Basically, in shallow water, the prop was being starved of water creating cavitation and the need for many more revs from the engine to create the same stopping, starting and turning effects compared to before the tunnel was fitted.

At one particularly sharp bend we ended up on the ‘wrong’ side of the canal at the bottom of somebody’s garden because we just couldn’t make the turn. The houseowner who was in the garden doing a bit of weeding, was somewhat surprised but we explained that we had just had work done and it was taking some getting used to the change!

At another point we accidentally missed a sign marking a village canal bypass which had been made, and found ourselves going right through the middle of the village. A sign indicated we were too big to pass and we were given conflicting advice as to whether we could get through or not. Finally a woman barge owner came out to us and said yes we definitely could, but the bridge keeper would accompany us. So, very, very slowly with about a foot clearance on either side, we made our way along the sinuous canal through the village with the bridge keeper giving us encouragement and advice. We ended up with a bit of vegetation on the decks but avoided contact all the way through. A bit tense, with the mods to the steering to cope with.

A bit tight through Warga!

Then we were back on familiar territory, travelling back through Ozzenzijl and Blokzijl and then another night on Eekt Island and on round the back of Flevoland Island, eventually through the southern end of the Markemeer and into Muiden. After another long day we moored at the lock in Vreeswijk.

Sailing tjalks

We decided to give the Biesbosch another chance on our route south and, armed with a chart the rescue police had given us 8 years ago, an up to date chart of the area AND our PC Navigo we set off on the prescribed route, checking charts and depth readings as we went. All went well for the first hour then Woomph! we went aground. Fortunately we were going very slowly so were able to reverse off and try a different course further towards where we hoped the deeper channel was, but no, aground again. So Alex said ‘Right, that’s it: we go right back to where we started and take the longer route which we know is OK because we did it 8 years ago’. One of the beauties of PC Navigo is that it shows you where you have been as well as where to go, so we were able to retrace our route along exactly the same track as we had used coming in. Even so, we touched bottom a couple of times on the way back (maybe the very small tide was on the way out!) but got over no trouble.

A peaceful mooring - the night before we went aground!!

So then we were into the Volkerak and moored for the night at Steenbergsche Vliet, on a ‘no mooring’ sign, but who cares? Just Antwerp and the Scheldt River to contend with now before an easy trip along the Ghent bypass canal and on into Flandriahaven in Bruges.

Antwerp docks are amazing but we had the usual tense wait with another 9 ships at the Royersluis before getting out onto a choppy Sea Scheldt.

We overnighted at Dendermonde where the lock keeper again gave us the incorrect time to leave the following day! but we sussed it out ourslves with the help of Dick and Lynne on SUZANNA who were moored behind us and were going to be travelling with us the next day.

However, we were informed by the lockkeeper when we got to the lock that the river upstream had been ‘closed’ for dredging and we would have to wait for another hour or so. This meant that when it finally reopened there were about 12 barges queued up also trying to go upriver, so one by one we had to let them pass us as we all headed for Ghent.

The que;u;e behind us up the Scheldt!

Once arrived at Bruges, harbourmaster Patrick tried to moor us at the very end of the moorings close to where we had been last winter but this time alonside the quay. Not enough depth! So we ended up swapping places with Laura Marie - a much shallower-draughted boat - and mooring outside Anthonia. A nice spot and Jeremy and Carol are lovely neighbours.

So what did we do in 2016? 1691 Kilometres 101 locks 199 bridges