Bruges to near Plassendale

I have been very bad at keeping up the blog while we had guests on board and I forgot completely to mention that we had another "crisis" on Saturday.

Ian got up very early - and stepped into a pool of water.  Now, getting wet feet when you get out of bed is an indication that not all is well, but when that happens on a boat it is a potential disaster!  We were all up very smartly and as we moved around Ian quickly worked out that the water was coming in through the exhaust tube.  Both beds are on the same side and he had stored some of the cases of cider further aft before we went to bed last night. Too much weight on the same side of the boat and further aft had put the exhaust under water and it was seeping through a tiny crack in the tube into the boat.  We spent a while bailing out the aft cabin and moving heavy stuff around so the boat is in better in trim.  Then Ian tackled the split in the exhaust hose with Gun Gum and an exhaust bandage.  Fortunately we had all the stuff on board because he had examined the exhaust hose a few weeks ago, soon after we moved on board, and was not happy with it.  The problem has not recurred, but is not a permanent solution and we will replace the exhaust tube when the boat comes out of the water in the summer.

This morning we left the marina at 8.45 to traverse the city all the way around to the West side and then head towards the coast.  There are 7 very low moveable bridges, plus one lock) in the loop around the city and they do not open willy-nilly on request.  You have to form up into a convoy with other boats and the first bridge opens at 9.00, you have to be there on time, they won't wait for you!  It was rather an interesting experience if rather slow, the 4 km loop took almost 2 hours.

The old city gates and watch towers at three of the bridges:

And windmills too:

I was expecting the canal between Bruges and Ostend to be busy with commercial traffic but we saw very few big barges and more pleasure craft.  Some of the bridges were very interesting:

A double bridge

I did notice how very flat the land is here.

We thought about the battles in the Flanders Fields in the First World War.  We also saw our first red poppies.

We have stopped at a free mooring in the middle of nowhere.

Nice and peaceful - and Ian can do some noisy, dusty grinding work on the deck!