First night on board

After what seemed like an interminable 4 months we finally arrived in Rotterdam yesterday and spent our first night aboard Njord.  Wonderful!

Well, to be truthful anything would be wonderful after the journey here.  We had so much stuff to bring to the boat to make it "home", such as bedding, curtains and  tools, that our hold baggage allowance (of only 20kg each seeing we had to fly on a small inter-island plane from our home in Faial via one of the other islands in the Azores Archipelago) was completely swallowed up and we had to bring all our clothes, books and goodness knows what more, in our cabin baggage/computer bags/handbag/ jacket pockets and wearing umpteen layers of clothes.  In total we were carrying about 15 kg each.  Each change of plane, wait in 2 airports, walk to the train station at Schipol airport, walk to the rental car office in Rotterdam, was a nightmare and by the time we got into the rental car I felt like a bag lady carrying all my worldly possessions on my back!  Not helped by the fact that the wheels on one of the big cases stopped turning!

The previous owners of Njord met us at the Watersportvereniging Ijsselmonde, where she is moored, with big hugs and some lovely gifts.  They had ordered 2 brand new batteries and taken delivery of them for us so now they are sitting on the deck waiting to be installed.

We rushed off to a supermarket to buy some basic supplies for dinner and breakfast and then got stuck in to stowing away the contents of all our bags and de-winterising all the systems on the boat, meanwhile enjoying the good old South African standby brandy and coke to celebrate our new home from home.

And relax....

We were expecting the weather to be bitterly cold but it was lovely and sunny during the day.  However, the temperature plummeted as the sun set.

By the way, we were able to watch the solar eclipse while flying at 33,000 feet.  Really impressive!

When the temperature reached 10.9C inside the boat Ian set about one of the most important jobs on the boat - firing up the diesel heater.  Fortunately there were no hiccoughs and in no time at all we were toasty and warm and it was well after midnight when we went to bed, which was supremely comfortable and really warm.