| | In all likelihood this will be the last weekend we pass in Volendam as we hope that Schokker will be ready this week with repairing the jib and placing the detachable forestay. On the way to Volendam we passed by the house of Steven and Mylène ( my oldest son and his girlfriend). They recently shacked up together in Amsterdam and they always can use some more stuff. We had four chairs that would come in handy for them. Last week we made the floor parts to size and varnished them. We took some extra wood with us to make supporting bars. Two weeks ago we established that one of the cleats was detached. After inspection it turned out that one of the bolts had completely broken off. Fred has rebored the cleat and gave it a new screw thread. We readjusted the cleat on the quarterdeck, provided with a supporting bar below deck. Another job accomplished!
Because it was too cold ( we never stopped putting 50ct coins in the power pole to keep up our electric heaters), we continued with the new floor parts inside. The floor part near the galley is one of the trickiest to put in, so we decided to do a few small adjustments to a little hatch there. We are getting more and more creative in finding solutions. For instance, I wanted a lockable dust bin on the inside of the cupboard under the sink, instead of the waste bag that’s there now, attached on a hook. An annoyance that should easily be resolved, I thought. Surfed around the internet for suitable bins, but no luck there. Too big, too small, too expensive. The solution turned out to be closer to home! In the past the local authority gave out little green bins to be used in the house. And this had exactly the right size for the cupboard ( with a little adjustment). Sometimes it’s shrewd to save things…. In the course of the afternoon we checked into an aquatics shop in Volendam. We found out that we were short of one fender, only the rope was hanging there… improperly adjusted ( maybe you should learn to use the right knots, eh Fred?:))We bought two new fenders and made a line with the right knots. Saturday evening was fish-and-chips-time.
Sunday we worked some more on the floor and disassembled the cabinet doors. They go home for and adjustment with gauze to take better care of the ventilation of the fridge compressor. In the afternoon, when the sun came through, we started cleaning the outside of the boat. Fred threw himself on cleaning the deck and I cleaned the tubes of the bimini. Before we put on the new bimini, I want to remove as much of the rusty sports as possible. Quite a job, but the deck as well as the tubes looked much better at the end of the day. Before we went home we shift the boat, so that Schokker could start right away on Monday.
Unfortunately we could not park the car in the marina to put all our things in. The road was closed to traffic, because there was a cycling race passing the dike (in the midst of all the tourists, mind you). What never ceased to amaze us was the amount of tourists that came in by bus or by boat. Several gigantic boats ( of the type :”a trip along the Rhine..”), where flocks of people erupt, walking behind “lady with umbrella” to visit Volendam. We even saw a foreign bride-and-groom taking their pictures on the dike. It is also very busy with police cars and ambulances, we noticed. And we thought Volendam was a village…NOT!
Another weekend passed by with still more chores done.
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