| | Company Schokker eventually started working on our boat a little later than expected and on top of that, the job is going to take more time and won’t be ready this week. So we stayed another weekend in Volendam.
Last week I equipped the door with a netting and wood-stain. Fred picked up some parts we ordered earlier, like fuel filters.
Friday we went to the open door day of the Rotterdam Traffic Centre. We were welcomed warmly and they gave us an extended presentation how things work in the renewed office/building. Very interesting and educational to see the “other “ side of people you normally only talk to through the VHF Radio. They explained us a lot about the ins and outs in the modernized Maasvlakte. They also gave us some useful tips. We will have to do regularly with this Centre in the future, when we will be in the City Marina www.citymarinarotterdam.nl. After lunch we drove to two more water sports shops to buy, amongst other things, a vane for the danbuoy, an outside grill for the cockpit, two bilge pumps, filler, supertape (always comes in handy), an outdoor showerbag and a ‘comfort seat’ for me. This last item I wanted very much. One gets a little bit older, no? and the muscles much more stiff… This cushion has many different positions, from straight up to lying down, can be used anywhere and is easy to transport. Fred didn’t find it necessary for himself, so he has to sit and watch me being comfortable! Saturday and Sunday back to the boat, still in Volendam. We have been brooding some time over how to heat up the boat. A diesel heater would be an option. For this we have to adjust quite a lot, like installing a pipe and provide the wall with a plate. Fred found – on the net – a heater that runs on kerosene, that you can put anywhere and where you can put a pan on top. That seemed ideal to us! On our way to the boat, we passed by a small shop, De Pittenspecialist www.pittenspecialist.nl in Amsterdam, a shop that sells these kind of heaters. And there it turned out that the one we had chosen was not as well suited for us as we hoped, because you had to have a least 1 metre round about, So alas! After consultation with the owner, we came up with another one, the KERO 241.
You can use this one against a wall as well as free standing, it also uses kerosene and doesn’t need a chimney pipe, just needs enough ventilation. The perfect solution for us! And it showed, because it was pretty chilly on the boat and with this heater it was comfortably warm in no time. We go on with cleaning, tidying and doing chores, like extending an electric wire to the switch board for the tv, cleaning out the storage boxes under the saloon bench, pumping up the fenders, cleaning part of the railing at the back, shackle attached with block, replaced the grill in the cockpit etc.
We had been a pair of very busy bees. On Monday Schokker called us to say the boat was nearly ready for departure. The furling Genoa container was fixed, which was quite a job in hindsight. But anyway, everything was put together again and we will have to wait and see if it is going to work. The new detachable cutter stay is put fairly high in the mast, which has the advantage that if anything happens with the forestay, there is a bigger chance that the mast just stays up. A disadvantage may be that the length of the stay is longer and might be in the way when he is attached to the foot railing. This too has to be tried and tested and if not good, we will find another solution for this. The radar, that didn’t work anyway, has been removed from the mast. All in all, Schokker has been at work! Tuesday was the Coronation Day of Willem-Alexander and that is why we, in view of the expected bustle, went back to the boat on Monday evening. We put up the Genoa, which was tricky due to the strong wind. Queens Day went by quietly, apart from a ‘slight’ collision with a motor boat. I was sitting in the sun, when a motor boat crashed into our boat. Fortunately, our railing was tougher and the damage done was limited to a cracked grill on his boat. Really, some people should be banned from the water! Before we left on Wednesday morning, we went to a shop with camping supplies, www.esvocampingshop.com to buy a mat to put under our matrass on the boat. What the climacteric change can do to you! The ‘hot flushes’ provide litres and litres of humidity every night and need to be drained. The holes in the plates under the matrass were not enough. After some internet surfing I found a company in Volendam. The mat, called Akwamat, is a humidity regulating, breathing and elastic under matrass, fabricated from natural and sustainable material.
So this was the ideal solution for us, or for me! Armed with a big roll of very light material, we go back to the boat. Time to leave! We leave Volendam behind and set sail for Spaarndam, where Pegasus will be hoisted out of the water. We sail in the direction of the Oranje Sluizen (Locks) in Amsterdam and encounter a lot of boats that have joined in the House of Orange festivities yesterday. It is always fun to sail straight through Amsterdam. We see the ‘remains’ of the festivities of Coronation Day everywhere. Stages are taken down and the city is swept clean. We sail along quietly and it is past 15:00 as we arrive at the bridge of the N202, Noordzeekanaalweg. The side channel C, Spaarndam. We sail on up to Watersportsclub IJmond, where we berth at the passers-by-pier, since the next bridge, in the highway A9, opens at 20:00. We enjoy the sun and eat al fresco. Around 19:30 we leave for the bridge. After the bridge there is only the big lock of Spaarndam, where we have to pay € 3,50 before being locked. Almost immediately after the lock we are at our destination, shipyard De Rietpol www.rietpol.nl.
With a bit of bungling we berthed at the passers-by-pier (we had to berth at higher shore? and the wind was pretty strong), but with the help of a ‘neighbour’ we succeeded. When we were finally at coffee we felt how tired we were from this long day. We also had had quite a bit of sun, to look at us…Although I say ‘quite a bit’…that is putting it mildly. I bore resemblance to a ripe tomato, while Fred just had a nice brown tan on his face. We passed the night on the boat and the next morning made an appointment with the yard when they could hoist the boat from the water. Turned out to be Friday, i.e. tomorrow! Last Monday we already had driven my car to Spaarndam and so we drove back to Volendam to pick up Fred’s car. After that we were home at 12:00, tired but contended.
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