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!