This is being posted on Thursday morning. I wrote a long blog last night then managed to lose it before it was posted – and I didn’t have the heart to start all over again.

Not that yesterday was so interesting; it was all about laundry!  I did five loads yesterday, in a machine not by hand: bedding, towels, dirty work clothes, ordinary clothes and jackets. It took the whole morning.

But I made time to go to the opposite side of the canal to take photos of Njord.

Pretty as a picture!

Now that Ian has sorted out the trim of the boat there is some extra space for water storage so he bought three 10 litre jerry cans.  He also had to buy a new multi-metre because his old one packed up.  And he installed the iBoost so that we don’t have wires trailing all over the floor.

Now that the boat is all tidy and “ship shape” I thought it was time to let you see what she looks like inside as well as outside.

The saloon: dark blue carpet gone, loose floor rug in its place - easier to clean

Looking aft to the heads (note new toilet seat) and bunk

 A different view of the saloon with newly varnished companion way

Galley

 Dinette

 Storage in the forepeak - fridge, generator, pressure washer, Ian's drone, bike batteries

Ian is getting bored – already – because he doesn’t have much left to do, so we were thinking of leaving the marina tomorrow and starting our cruise in a slow and leisurely manner with a short trip to Knokkebrug, stay there overnight, then another short trip to Fintele on Friday, a longer cruise along the Lo Canal to Veurne on Saturday, and then into France on Sunday.  But – it’s Easter Weekend, isn’t it! And many of the small canals, locks and opening bridges will not be working. So we’ll pootle along to Knoggebrug, stay the night, then come back here and wait till after the weekend to start our cruise proper.

In the afternoon Ian went to Buitenbeentje to get our bill.  We were dreading it, not really knowing what to expect, but were pleasantly surprised.  It was very reasonable.  Of course there was no labour on the bill, because Ian did it all himself, and if we had had to pay €30 per hour for the 250 hours he worked this little exercise would have cost us an extra €7500!

We cannot praise Buitenbeentje highly enough.  The boatyard is very well run and the standard of workmanship extremely high. Thijs takes care of everything personally, keeping a sharp eye on his workers, and making sure things are done to his exacting standards.  All this and their prices are extremely competitive.  We are so glad we found them.