Deinze to Jabbeke

A long haul day, 59km, but an easy day.  We left the dock at Deinze bright and early at 8.30 (having already gone to the supermarket for bread, orange juice and wine - as one does at breakfast time! - I forgot to buy the wine yesterday).  We have had spectacular weather lately, as those of you who are following Jaqui and Clive's blog will have noticed, but those vast clear skies mean it is a bit nippy in the mornings - when we left today it was just 7C - thermal underwear for me!

We had an uneventful, but pleasant, trip down the big canals to Bruges.  In one of the narrower sections close to Bruges we passed this rather large barge, with not a lot of room to keep out of his way.

There are two lift bridges before you reach the canal through Bruges, and always before (this is our 7th time on this stretch of water) we have been held up at either one or the other for up to an hour, but this time they both opened as soon as I called.  Couldn't believe our luck.

The canal around the town of Ghent contains 7 lift bridges and 1 lock and must be done in convoy with a group of other boats.  We wondered how long we would have to wait for a convoy to form up at this time of year and when I called in I was told we would have to wait for just 30 minutes.  27 minutes later a huge commercial barge appeared, we were in his convoy!  Really lucky in one way:  every bridge/lock is ready and waiting as he approached it so it took only 1 hour (it can take 2 hours).  The down side is that we were stuck in his prop wash 

and Ian was as busy on the gear lever/throttle/bow-thruster as he used to be in his old marlin fishing days.

But we never lost touch, and never got thrown off-course.  Well done, Captain!

We were passed by another barge half way along - even more prop wash.

Along the port bank of the canal is a park with views of the ancient buildings and some windmills.

I love Bruges (Brugge).

Just before the lock we were told to pass the barge and go in first.  This is a very old D shaped lock so the barge was against the straight port side and we had to find a spot on the curved side - and there was not much to attach a rope to.  Till we saw these blue ropes.  We looped a rope around it from amidships and it worked just fine.  Here Ian is holding by hand just before we left the lock.

This container barge was waiting to go the other way - 3 high x 3 wide x 8 long = 72 containers!

Between Brugge and the Plassendale Lock the canal is lovely and leafy with flat Flanders fields on either side.

A might fine lawn-mower.

And here we have a big painting project:  The entire bridge has had scaffolding erected underneath and on both sides, and been encased in shrink-wrap plastic - just to paint a bridge.  Total cost? €940,000!!!

We were aiming for the 24 hour free mooring at the Stalhille Footbridge in Jabbeke and when we got here it was full - with 2 very big pleasure boats.  We managed to squeeze in at the end - and have to climb over the bridge railings to get ashore.

We arrived at 16.30, and had a glass of wine with cheese (brie and roquefort) and crackers to celebrate.  What a lovely day.