Knokkebrug to Veurne

Pics of Ian flying his drone yesterday evening

I was in trouble today because I didn’t wake Ian up early.  I got involved with sorting out the stills he edited from his video last night and uploading to the blog and didn’t realise how late it got.  He woke up at 9.30!  As he got up in great hurry I went out on deck there was a man standing on the towpath.  He asked where we were going so I said, well, we would like to go through the bridge and onto Fintele and Veurne.  Turned out he was the bridge/lock keeper for this canal and agreed to open up the bridge right away.  So off we set at 9.45.  Lots of photos to follow – get ready….

BIG branch of wood trapped at the “wagsteger” (dock where you wait till the man comes to open the bridge)

The first mobile bridge of this cruise: Knokkebrug

The Ijzer River is a wetland breeding area in the winter when the fields on one side of the canal flood.  The other side is protected by a dyke.

Entering Fintele Lock

Oh dear, we have a problem.  There is a mobile bridge across the entrance to the lock but after we had entered the booms could not be lifted.  This lock has been mechanised since last summer when the bridge keeper had to open/close all the lock gates and bridge paraphernalia by hand.   The gremlins have not been sorted out yet.

We waited for about 20 mins in the lock while the lock keeper had an animated conversation on his mobile phone.  This is a funny lock with sloping sides and a fixed pontoon.

Action at last – even though the booms at the bridge were still firmly stuck in the down position and the postman had to reverse and take another route around.

Gate on one side is opening, the lock keeper walks all the way around to open the gate on the other side. 

The lovely, narrow, windy Lo Canal

2nd mobile bridge today:  Kellenaarsbrug

3^rd bridge - Lobrug

We have not seen any female ducks, only the drakes; presumably the ducks are sitting on eggs – its’s that time of year!

But why has this funny little bird built her nest in such a vulnerable place

Aha, we not the only crazies cruising in March

Lovely old building at Alveringem with pink doors and shutters 

Last summer when we passed this way the canal was beautiful with overhanging trees, lovely to look at, not so easy to negotiate and always a risk of dead branches falling into the canal.  During the winter a lot of work has been done on the canal, including chopping down many of the trees.  I guess it has to be done from time to time.

4^th mobile bridge – Millebrug

Look at this array of solar panels - Ian is ever so envious

5^th mobile bridge, Korte Wildebrug, was opened long before we got there

6^th mobile bridge, Rozebrug

One of the other bridges had a red light but the bride keeper waved us through before it went green, the others had no lights and we passed through them as soon as they were high enough.  This one had a red light and again we passed underneath it as soon as it was high enough.  Just 200m further on there is a lock (no rise and fall so left open) which we entered but there was a mobile foot bridge at the other end.   No bridge keeper.  We tied up in the lock and wondered what to do, then the bridge man arrived and explained, very politely, that the sensors detected a boat under the bridge before the light turned green and that throws everything into disarray and it had taken him some time to reset it all.  So now you know why you should wait for the green light.  Anyway, with all that excitement I forgot to take a photo of the 7^th and last mobile bridge.

Our mooring at Veurne.

Knokkebrug from the air

Yesterday evening the wind dropped completely and Ian got out his drone for the first time in many many months. 

There used to be a fort on this spot, built by Louis XIV in 1678 with a moat around it. 

The lines of the moat can still be seen in the modern day landscape.

Here are some stills taken from the video Ian filmed.

A poster with information about the fort 

Cruising at last - Day 1

Diksmuide to Knokkebrug

Finally – we have started our cruise.  The weather is still not great.  We woke up to the rain pouring down but the wind had dropped somewhat and the forecast said the rain would clear later.   We needed some things from the shop but didn’t want to take the bicycles off the boat so I went by foot (it’s only about 500m away) and carried home the lighter essentials (bread, milk, cold meats and veggies) while Ian filled the water tanks,  then he went to get the heavier essentials (box of wine, bottle of rum and 2l bottle of coke).  The havenmeester came to read our electricity metre and we were on our way.  We stopped briefly at Buitenbeentje to pick up some epoxy paint, rollers and brushes (for painting the deck when the weather is warmer).

A crane (or a heron; crane I think) – the first one we have seen this year.

Rather forbidding weather, squalls all around us (at 1.30 when we tied up the temperature was just 7.6C)

We have noticed an interesting pattern with the cormorants.  They fly alongside the boat 

drop onto the water just ahead

then dive under as we draw level and surface about 2 or 3 boat lengths behind the boat.  We presume the passage of the boat disturbs the fish.  Who knew cormorants were so clever as to use boats as a tool to catch fish!

The sun came out and smiled on us as we approached Knokkebrug.

Not long after tying up we had a squall of hail.  Good timing.

The river is running very strongly after days of rain.  Here is Njord, tied to the pontoon, with a bow wave.

Turbulence in the stream running through the bridge.

In his wanderings Ian found his swan friend from last week, sitting on a nest.

This house lies on the Ieper Canal with no direct access from the road.  

Instead they have a hand cranked ferry 

And a rather quirky letter box

Later I went for a walk; there was a car parked in the road opposite the house and the ferry was on the other side. 

Here she is – our lovely little home.

 We both like this pic

OK, today was a public holiday; everything was closed, including the supermarket – which means Ian does not have enough wine for tonight!  Bad planning.  But I thought he had an unopened box, turns out he opened it a few days ago.  By the way, a box here is 3 litres not 5 litres.

Last night Ian entertained himself by whittling a flag pole to fit into the flag pole holder on the bow to hold our new yacht club burgee.  And here it is, the Ijzervaarders or Portus Dixmuda burgee

The weather was awful today. The wind started howling in the middle of the night.  The boat healed over and moved around quite a lot within the restrictions of the mooring lines.  But that was bareable.  The bad bit was that the wind direction caused the boat to move away from the pontoon so that the fenders were hanging free and the one right by our bed was dancing around madly in the wind and banging into the hull.  No sleep!  Every time I started dropping off a gust would blow through and start the fender slamming around again!  Humpphhh!

The offending fender

At about 8 it started raining so Ian didn’t bother to get up.  Grabbed his tablet and spent an hour in the warm comfy bed watching I don’t know what.

After the rain stopped I took a walk to check if any supermarkets were open (to buy some wine) but they weren’t and while I was away Ian met the man who is on “havenmeester” (harbour master) duty this week.   For the last few years he has spent 4 to 5 months of the year in France and knows the area we are planning to go to very well. He told Ian to bring his charts this afternoon so we could go through them together.  What a mine of information!  We spent 2 hours with him and he gave lots of tips and information on the locks and mooring places.  Turns out that there are now almost no places you can get free electricity anymore.  It seems this is due to abuse by visiting boats who tie up for the whole winter. Free water is still available in some places.

Again I spent a few hours route planning but when I got back from out meeting with the havenmeester I redid my notes!

Ian spent some time cleaning the engine room (yuck, lots of grease in hard to get at places) and then installed a heat temperature alarm (I think) for the engine.  Rather a complicated procedure.   He bought all the components separately for €11 and put it together himself. Off the shelf it would have cost €150. 

He has been moaning about the temperature of his red wine since we moved onto the boat.  Well, put it this way: I don’t bother to put my rose wine in the fridge.  And red wine is not quite palatable at the same temperature as rose wine.