Oudenburg to Nieuwpoort

The penultimate leg of our Spring cruise is along the Plassendale-Nieuwpoort Canal.  Definitely not the most enjoyable.  It was sizzling hot, I didn’t know what to do with myself or where to sit to get out of the heat.  To put it mildly I can’t handle the heat and I was in a foul mood.

18 kms, 5 lift bridges, 1 lock

There are 5 lift bridges in an 18km stretch and there is a lot of road and water traffic; so the water traffic is formed into convoys at the first bridge  at the Nieuwpoort end and at the lock at the Plassendale end at specific times.  In the mornings the first opening at Plassendale Lock is at 10.00 – we entered the canal on Wednesday so would pick up the convoy at the first bridge after the lock.   

I called the control centre and we were told to be at the bridge at 10.00.  So we were, in glaring sunshine with not a breath of wind, but it didn’t open till 10.15 even though no other boats joined our convoy of one.    At the third bridge we waited nearly 10 minutes before I called in to be told to “be patient”.  10 minutes later the bridge opened.   At the third bridge our patience ran out after 30 minutes of waiting, so I called yet again, expecting to be shouted at again, but it was a different voice.  He had no idea we were waiting – obviously a change of shift seeing it was after 12.00 by this time!  By that time I was hot, bothered, fed up with inefficient lock keepers and totally out of sorts!  The first few times we used this canal the bridges were operated by a team of lock keepers who went from one bridge to the next with the convoy and it took just 2 hours to complete the full 20 kms.   Now it is automated and today it took us 3 and half hours!

This horse was not happy about our boat...

...but with a bit of encouragement from its rider he trotted past happily

There are lots of really small little houses alongside the canal, homes of the canal workers in by-gone days

My favourite "fat bottom" cows (Belgian Blues)

No, it's not a hippo, it's a cow

A wonky roof!

The Red Devils Motorcycle Club 

Just love this little sculpture

A fisherman - how much stuff does one fisherman need?

We are tied up  in VVW Westhoek marina,€12 per night, not including anything. But that’s OK, we don’t need water or electricity and there are great showers which are operated by a SEP key and work out to about 50c if you don’t stand for ages under the water just for the enjoyment of it.   Most important, we can get rid of engine oil here, refuel at a reasonable price, buy a new gas bottle (which ran out last night - perfect timing) and throw away our rubbish (it is not easy to get rid of rubbish in Belgium).  So Ian has just done an engine oil change (and vacuumed the dust out the bilges: very happy no black oily stuff anywhere).  I was just comatose till it got cooler and I decided I did want to live after all.

Nieuwpoort to Diksmuide

The final leg of our cruise – and my last post.

16 kms,1 lift bridge

This morning we bought fuel and changed the empty gas bottle for a full one, then we set off for Diksmuide at 9.45.   It was a lot cooler after some rain during the night and still pretty much overcast.  We were enjoying the old familiar scenery when we heard a crunching sound as we went under a bridge – we had forgotten about the iBoost antenna on the extended pole!  The pole (our 140 Euro Robship mooring pole) was bent in half and we were convinced that the iBoost must be toast – but in fact it was just fine.  Still Ian was really unhappy about the pole.  

Maybe half an hour later I spotted a fender floating in the reeds alongside the canal so moved in to take a closer look and Ian manoeuvred the boat so I could hook it with the boat hook and heave it on board.  It was pretty mucky, obviously been floating around for some time, but in excellent condition, and it is huge: 90cm long with 35cm diameter.  We have been in need of a really big fender a good few times so we were delighted with our find.

Meanwhile 2 hire boats had come up behind us, going much faster than us as usual, so Ian pulled over to let them pass.  Then they slowed right down in front of us and pulled alongside each other so they could have a conversation!  Punters!

A few more pics of our last day on the water:

De Ijzervaarders - our club moorings

At 11.45 we pulled into our own slot in the marina.  Home.

We now have 3 days of cleaning and maintenance and on Wednesday we say goodbye to Njord and head back to Faial

Some statistics from our 67 day cruise:

1481 kms

240 engine hours

360 litres of fuel

343 locks plus the Strepy-Thieu lift

44 lift bridges

10 tunnels

We paid at 18 marinas (total 185 euros)

Spent 57 euros in laundries

A work day

A free mooring with free electricity and free water – that means a place to stop for 24 hours to do some work.

Before it got hot, and even before Ian woke up,  I started cleaning  the deck and hull.  It really needed it!

The wooden hatch cover over the entrance to the boat needed some tlc.  Ian took it all apart and used the hot air gun to strip umpteen layers of varnish off the wooden bits, and I scraped varnish off the hinges.  You know, there is something therapeutic about scraping varnish off metal bits, akin to weeding a flower bed. 

And that was it!

Moerbrugge to Oudenburg

It was cool again today, not quite a cool as yesterday which never got much above 21 degrees, but pleasant enough out of the sun.

26 kms, 9 lift bridges, 1lock

Today was all about lift bridges – 9 of them.   We did the “doortocht” through Bruges, my favourite city, pity we didn’t stop there this year.  
First off was Steenbrugge bridge which does not open between 7.30 and 8.30 when road traffic is at its peak, so the water traffic queues up instead.  Promptly at 8.30 the bridge opened and 2 barges came through from the other side, one of them was a very tight squeeze.

Urrrm, I'm not sure about this

Just 3kms later we had to wait at the Katelijnpoort bridge while a convoy formed: 2 pleasure boats and a commercial barge. 

The barge coming through Katelijnpoort swing bridge

After the second bridge, Gentpoort, 

we were joined by 2 more pleasure boats which came out of the Coupure marina.

The third bridge is at the magnificent Kruispoort.  

A few more pics from the wonderful Bruges

Two of the pleasure boats and the barge left the convoy after the lock and turned into the Boudewijn canal so it was just us and a Le Boat charter boat that continued to Scheepsdale bridge. There we had to wait almost half an hour for a pleasure boat coming from the opposite direction so they would not have to open the bridge twice in half an hour.  Just after the bridge there is a good dock with shopping area close by and we always stop there to get some essentials.  We have not bought any groceries for a few days so the essentials that were running  low included bread,  fruit juice, fresh meat and wine.

Half an hour later we were on our way again 

We were delighted to pass some boats from our club at Diksmuide which are going to Deinze for the long weekend.  They recognised us first and there was much hooting and waving.  We saw Kafijotolo and Hygeia first, both underway, then Orfelia moored at Stallhille bridge

Waiting for the bridge to open, Orfelia is on the far right

We stopped and a had a quick chat to Willie and Francine on Orfelia as we waited for the bridge to open.  At Oudenburg another convoy with 3 or 4 Diksmuide boats passed us including Pol on Sea Breeze

Many more boats will be going later in the week.

So here we are at Oudenburg, a free pontoon with free water and electricity.!   

Oudenaarde to Moerbrugge

This is what happened yesterday - no internet last night.

69 kms, 2 locks, 1 lift bridge - 9 hours

A long day today and it started off really well with the weather forecast being correct – much cooler, cloudy and even a little breeze.  It was even cool enough for jeans and a sweater - my kind of weather, I was a happy bunny today.  On the subject of happy bunnies:

these 3 were playing next to our boat early this morning

At 8.00 we left the marina at Oudenaarde heading for the first lock just 500m downstream.  There was already a commercial waiting to enter but fortunately we are small enough to share the lock with him.  The commercial, Rio 4, had left us in its wake  shortly after leaving the first lock but when we arrived at the second  lock, 11km away,  there it was queued up and waiting . Rabbit and  hare!  We entered the second lock in formation just as we had an hour or so earlier.

It was a long old slog today, almost 70  kms.  The first section in the Schelde river is attractive, 

The stately Schelde River

The lycra lads were out in force

and rode past us waiting for to enter a lock

The crossroads as the Schelde meets the Ringvaart:  north to Ghent, west to Antwerp, east to Bruges

but then you turn onto the Ringvaart around Ghent, which is the pits (all 11 kms of it).

The only interesting thing on the Ringvaart - the massive CocaColafactory

Then you turn onto the canal which connects Ghent with Oostende at the coast.  A long old slog of 301 kms.  The first 12 kms or so is rather boring but then it improves in leaps and bounds. There must have been a rally for traditional Dutch boats (Ian thinks it was at Oostende) 

A barge having to negotiate his way past 3 pleasure boats

Boring!

Much better

There are lots of irises on the banks of the canals now

At 17.00 we tied up at the quay downstream of the lift bridge at Moerbrugge, where we have stayed twice before and know that half the quay is reserved for pleasure craft.  A 38m barge, converted to a houseboat, was tied in the pleasure craft section, and there were various  commercial boats in the other section but there was plenty of room for us to tie up in the designated place.  Not 2 hours later a commercial came by with much communication taking place between them and the barge in front of us (in the pleasure craft section) but they were already waiting to go through the bridge.  However, the chap they were communicating with on the shore was from the big barge ahead of us and he came marching down  to us and demanded that we leave  because a commercial boat wanted to tie up there because we are just “passantes” (pleasure craft) and can only stay after 22.00.  What a load of bollocks.  So, Ian said to him, you are a passante  - why don’t you move?  He had a lot more to say and stalked off in high dudgeon.  Ian was so pissed off with this blatant attempt at intimidation that he took a photo of them and told them that we are reporting him to the VPF.  I have sent a report to our club president and he can decide if it's necessary to take it further.  I'm sure he saw the British flag and thought we would not know the rules and regs.

To make things worse he has a car there, but no crane to lift it onto the deck so he must be staying for longer than the permitted 24 hours.