Statistics

Now we have come to the end of our cruise, here are a few statistics for you to peruse

Kms                     1680

Engine hours    260.2

Fuel                    400 litres

Locks                  243

Bridges                32

Tunnels               10

Marinas  where we had to pay:    16  nights

We have 10 days of cleaning and maintenance before we fly back to Faial.  After a 3 month trip there is a lot to clean and maintain!  

Also Ian will be ordering all the bits and pieces to install a shower in the heads - at last!  Hoorray! Hopefully all the bits will arrive before we leave but the work will only be done in the autumn.  

We had a wonderful sunset tonight.  Here is a photo taken at 10.30, about 20 minutes after sunset.

Oudenburg to Diksmuide

37 kms, 1 lock, 6 mobile bridges

Our last day of cruising.  We filled up with water (seeing it is free at the pontoon in OUdenburg) and set off at 10.00.  There are 5 opening bridges in the 18km to Nieuwpoort and opening times are strictly controlled.  Boats traversing the canal must form into convoys which depart from the Passendale lock at 10.00 (and 12.00, 14.00, 16.00 and 18.00).  It takes about 15 min to get from the lock to the first bridge where we would join the convoy.  I called at about 10.05 but got no answer (left a message) but at 10.15 when no other boats arrived from the lock I called again and got an answer.  

Waiting for service at the first bridge

The bridge opened a few minutes later and we were a convoy of one!  From then on I didn’t have to call at each bridge, they were prepared as we approached with no hold-ups.

We saw a total of 3  pleasure cruisers on the canal

The cow on the roof - this means we are only 3 hours from home

Each village is decorated with flowers

Unfortunately we caused long tail-backs at the opening bridges

Even the bridges have flowers

At 12.30 we entered Sint Joris Sluis leaving the canal and entering the Ijzer River – our home river.  We always compete to see who will catch the first sight of the Ijzertoren, the 84m high tower at Diksmuide that dominates this flat countryside.  Ian won today but only because I was making lunch!

The lovely Ijzer River

Diksmuide

At 14.45 we turned into our slot at the marina.  Our neighbour, Gilbert, jumped off his boat to greet us.  It’s good to be home.

Bruges to Oudenburg

22nd June

Today was all about cruising with hire boats.  What a shambles! But let’s start at the very beginning – a very good place to start (sorry!)

20 kms, 2 locks, 7 mobile bridges

At 8.50 I called Kruispoort Central , which co-ordinates the movements  of all waterborne  craft through Bruges, and was told to be at the lift bridge at 9.00.  So we pulled in our lines and beetled off at great haste – to find a red light and nothing happening.  We tied up to the “waiting” pontoon around the corner and I called again, to let them know we had arrived,  to be told “Yes, you will get service”.  35 minutes later another pleasure cruiser arrived and the bridge opened. 

The "waiting" quay

Kruispoort towers

There are 4 windmills alongside the canal, one of them is still working 

We passed the next bridge uneventfully then had to wait a while atDamspoortsluis, the only lock in Bruges, while a big commercial going in the opposite direction entered and then exited.  

We entered and tied up with a bit of difficulty because the prop of the commercial had left a residual turbulence in the lock.  The boat behind us was a hire boat and they had great difficulty dealing with the turbulence, they got one line on a bollard but couldn’t hold it, then did a 180 to end up facing the wrong way and took an awfully long time to complete the 360 turn to face the right way.  But they were now in the middle of this big lock (it is an unusual shape, much like a D, about 50m wide) and by the time they got back to the side they were at 90 degrees to the quay!  They got a line around a bollard, pulled it in tight and fastened it off.  The driver tried to get the stern around by using the bow thruster….!  That was never going to work so they got a man ashore with a sternline and tried to pull the stern around but the bowline was so tight that was never going to work either.  Finally the penny dropped and they eased the bowline.  Hooray, they were tied up, can we get going now?  No. 

About 10 minutes later the convoy from Flandria marina arrived (this used to start off at 9.00, now it seems it must be 10.00 because they arrived at the lock at about 10.30) including another 2 hire boats. 

One put their bowline around a railing beside the lock and tied it off in a great big knot on the railing.  We were going downstream with a fall of 1.8m! Fortunately someone on board realised this and they untied the knot.  But they had chosen a spot where there is a buttress protruding from the lock wall with a metal plate on top. As the water level dropped the boat got hung up on this buttress and tilted at an alarming angle before it slid off with a mighty crash, and a big dent in the side! 

In the 15km stretch from Bruges to Passendale lock there are 2 lift bridges so  all the boats stay together in convoy, and the accepted convention is that you keep station in the line but one of the hire boats obviously got bored and tried to go faster than everyone else. He came racing past us just as the canal narrowed before one of the lift bridges.  He suddenly realised he was running out of water fast and there was a great flurry of reverse gear and bow thruster so he could duck back in line behind us.  He behaved himself in the short stretch to the next left bridge but after that he rushed off again to arrive at the lock way ahead of the rest of the convoy, where the lock keeper informed us that the lock does not open till 14.00 and it was now only 12.45.

We were fully aware of the lock operating times and I’m sure the hire boats are informed seeing their base is on this canal!

In the middle of the convoy waiting for a bridge

Mr Impatient

Waiting in Passendale lock as the convoy from the opposite direction passes through

We have stopped at the free pontoon at Oudenburg, which also has free water and electricity.  A man from the boat behind came to take our lines and said “Are you going back to Diksmuide?”  He is a member of the club there and recognised us.  Is that nice?

We spent some time cleaning the hull and the fenders, and intended to do the deck too, but, well, never got round to it! 

Bruges

We decided to spend another day in Bruges.  It was rather late when we arrived yesterday and by the time I got to the Church of Our Lady, which houses a Michelangelo statue, it was closed.  I was disappointed not to see it, even though I saw it when we were here 3 years ago.

The weather forecast for today was cold and windy, max 15C and gusting 50km/hr.  OK, Ian said, let's stay.  

So I decided to go out early, before all the tourist hoards had descended, and it was well worth it.

There is an old disused lock at the end of the Coupure marina, leading to the canals that run through the town

Around every corner there there is another photo op

Yet another

The old Fish market

A fish restaurant at the fish market with an interesting statue

A sculpture above a doorway

The view from Rozenhoedkaai, with the belfry in the background

The entrance to the Gruutenhus Museum, unfortunately closed for renovation, next to Onze-Liewe-Vrouwekerk  

Spires and towers

Inside Onze-Liewe-Vrouwekerk (Church of Our Lady)

This painting on the ceiling was only recently found and restored in 2014, believed to date from 1290 (I think) 

Also recently restored, this murals in this chapel had been painted over with blue paint.  This reminds me of the murals on the church in Aire-sur-la-Lys

Not sure what this is, it looks ancient

The tomb of Charles the Bold

This is a piece of tapestry, with incredibly minute stitches

And this is what I came to see:  Michelangelo's Madonna, looking ever so sad, holding onto the hand of her child.

On my way back from my rambles I found a laundry just a block away from the marina so that's where I went this afternoon.  While there I got chatting to a man who is a Director (or something) of the College of Europe.  I looked it up when I got back.  It is a post-graduate university established in 1949 by a group of statesmen including Winston Churchill as "an institute where university graduates from many different European countries could study and live together in preparation for careers related to European cooperation and integration." The gentleman I met was very interesting, he goes to Portugal 3 times a year to choose students for the scholarship programme and this year they have chosen a 23 year old girl from the Azores, but he couldn't remember which island.

Deinze to Brugge

46 kms, 5 mobile bridges

The lift bridge before the quay at Deinze opens at 7.00 in the morning and at 10 to 7 there was a barge ready and waiting, drifting back and forth, engine and bow thruster going from time to time.  Promptly at 7 the bridge started to open and the barge came through.  Between 8 and 8.30 the bridge does not open because there is a school close by and we debated whether to leave before 8 or after 8.30.  We chose the latter because the supermarket right next to the bridge opens at 8.00 and I decided to get some fresh veggies.

The 40 kms from Deinze to the outskirts of Bruges (or Brugge in Flemish) are not the most interesting.  There are no locks, no lift bridges, it is big and wide, and rather featureless.

Entertainment is provided by the commercial barges, and we saw lots of them today.

This barge put up his blue board which means "pass on my starboard side", normally barges pass port to port  He was heading for a quay on opposite side of the canal..  

At a particularly narrow section we saw a barge coming towards us around a corner.  Discretion was the better part of valour and we back-tracked about 200m to a wider section and waited for him to pass.  There was another following close behind.

We heard them talking to a third barge which loomed up behind us, going fast, so we let him go by too.

6 km or so from Bruges the lift bridges begin.  There are strict rules and regulation for pleasure cruisers, the bridges are not just opened up willy-nilly just because you ask to go through.  It is possible to wait an hour for service (and this has happened to us in the past).  We were lucky to tag onto the coat-tails of a commercial barge a couple of kms from the first bridge but he was travelling really fast (pic above).  Ian gave it maximum wellie and we managed to make it through 2 bridges but by the third bridge he was too far ahead and we saw the bridge close in front of us.  We had to wait 45 minutes before another commercial came along and we finally tied up in the Coupure marina at 15.15. 

After a lengthy chat to the harbour master who recognised us from Diksmuide (and gave us a 50% discount for a one night stay, even though it is only supposed to apply for a 2 night stay), I went for a walk in my favourite city.  Yes, it even beats Paris.  However, I have to admit that is much more enjoyable in the early spring when there are not too many tourists.
While I was out doing the tourist trail, Ian had a much more important job to do.  We had caught something on our propellor and all day we could feel a slight vibration at certain revs and the boat didn't reverse as well as usual.  Fortunately we have the inspection coffer above the propeller but that means emptying everything out of the aft locker to get to it.  Also the propellor is only just within arm's reach and you have to be a contortionist to get to it.  He found plastic wrapped around the propellor, strong industrial shrink-wrap stuff.
Here are me pic: