Sunny, but a cool breeze
today. Max temperature was 13C (outside)
and with the breeze a lot colder than that.
We noticed something about
the commercial barges while on the mooring in the laybye - they don't like
pleasure cruisers! Not all, most of
them were really good, but some of them made a show of slowing down when they
passed us, so as not make a big wake, but just as their propeller got in line
with our boat they shoved the throttle forward to create a huge turbulence, but
once past us they backed off! One of
them even detoured off his course to pass as close to us as he dared. I bet it was one of those b******s that
created the huge surge that pulled Elle's stakes out of the ground a couple of
days ago.
On the way Ian sanded off all
the seeds and bugs feet and we were ready to paint when we arrived here. The second coat really didn't take long.
By 10.30 we were back at the
Jachthjaven Het ge Vaer, a couple of kilometres along the canal.
We discovered they have a
washing machine and dryer here - €2 to wash and €3 to dry. Bargain!
Lynn had already put a load in the washer at 9.00 this morning but she
didn't understand the instructions and 2.5 hours late it still going round and
round! Then there was a power failure,
someone tripped something and the whole club was without power.
We went off by bicycle to Turnhout, some 10km away along
the towpath, in the hope of finding a solution to our internet problem. Unfortunately, we got the same story: we can recharge our phone card for €15 but we
only get 250Mb of data.
Shaun came to the
rescue. They have taken out a contract
which includes 3 cards, one for phone plus 1Gb data, and the other two are 2 Gb
data only. So Shaun has given us one of
those SIM cards. Very kind, and much
appreciated!
I got an email from Jaqui,
recently arrived in Holland saying she has bought a data only card: €25 for 7
Gb - it makes me want to weep, and reminded me of the excellent deal we got
from Lebara when we were there.
OK, so back from the search
for internet data, the power was still out so Ian went in search of Someone Who
Knows What Cooks. The Harbour Master was
not here but his wife was and between her, Ian and a long term resident they
found the problem. At last at 3.30 I
could get my washing in. This was a load
of sheets that we need to use again tonight and I was getting desperate about
getting it dried in time.
In between the washing
routine, we emptied the water tanks and refilled them chock a block full making
note of the readings on the water gauge so we will always know how much water
we have. In the process we discovered
that the breather pipe to the water tank was blocked! Now that Ian has cleared it a little, not
very satisfactorily, we have managed to get 195 litres into the tank that we
thought held 160 litres!
The odometer on Ian's bike
tells us he has ridden almost 100km since we got it at Maasbracht nearly 3
weeks ago. These electric bikes are just
wonderful It is just like a scooter, turn on the key, twist the throttle and
off you go, no pedalling required, no gears, except the normal bicycle gears
operated by hand. Of course if you pedal
the battery lasts longer but we did a 20km trip today and it is still more than
half full.
No pics today!
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