Total Disarray

Waiting

A bit of a frustrating day today.  We had decided not to leave today, but the early morning till midday was lovely.  So here we stayed at the marina feeling increasingly frustrated at our decision.  But about lunch time the wind picked up, the rain set in and the temperature plummeted. 

We spent the morning

a) learning to use our new Robship Hook and Moor device, needs a bit of getting used to but what a wonderful invention,

b) cleaning out a few more lockers (Ian),

c) (me) just general cleaning of places I have not been able to access till now,

d) fighting with Ian's new smart phone to install the Lebara SIM card.  This has gone on for a few days but eventually today I phoned a help line and finally got it sorted.  It was not Lebara's problem - it was finger trouble on an unfamiliar device!

We have discovered that we have some lockers on this boat that are big enough to hide a family of refugee stowaways.  And they contained a myriad of bits and pieces, some useful, others not so much!  For instance, 4 boat hooks, 4 hammers, 8 paint scrapers, a beach umbrella, 12 funnels of various sizes, and way too much more to go into details.  Another load of stuff for the skip! (We're keeping the umbrella, might be useful in summer).

Meanwhile we both had problems with our laptops.  Ian has a GPS dongle which he has used before but when he connected it today it sent his computer haywire, the curser was racing all over the desktop, opening and closing pages and rearranging the icons.  Seems to be a virus so the dongle has been binned and the computer reset.  Still not quite right though and a bit of a worry

My laptop has broken a hinge between the keyboard and monitor.  Not good either, and I spent the afternoon transferring all my data to Ian's laptop in case the wires between the two break completely  I think I might have to revert to pen and paper to keep track of important stuff!

We hope to leave tomorrow, even though the weather forecast is not that good.

Last chores

25/3

I spoke too soon!  Remember, yesterday I said the weather had been quite nice?  Well, today it was quite awful.  Not as cold as it has been in the early mornings but that is because it was heavily overcast and raining.  Didn't let up all day and the max outdoor temp was 7C.  Funny that I found it essential to do 2 loads of laundry which meant spending a couple of hours in the warm "wasserette"!  I got an email from Chrissie reminding me that this time last year they were in Amsterdam and it was 20C!

But, before I forget, here are the pics from last night's sing-along.

The bar at Watersportvereniging Ijsselmonde

The choir

In full voice - giving it stick!

One of the soloists

The star of the show.  85 years old and full of life!

Percussion clogs

So what else did we do today?  First of all we had to get rid of the 2 huge (50kg each) batteries that we have replaced.  We drove to a Kwik Fit place we saw yesterday and asked them if they would like to take them off our hands.  Fortunately they said yes, so that was one item ticked off the list.

Next was to exchange our empty gas cylinder for a new one (I have been lighting the burners on the stove when I get up in the morning to heat the cabin and use up the last dregs in the gas bottle before getting a new one - and it ran out this morning.  How's that for meticulous planning!).  However, we ran into more road works, and decided to take a detour to another shop we knew on the way, just to confuse Mrs. GPS.  You know, I am amazed at how patient she is.  She never gets frustrated  or shouts "You, stupid b******, I told you to turn right!" 

Then back to the boat with the gas, a quick cup of coffee, and it was time to return the rental car.

This afternoon, while I was doing the laundry ;o), Ian cleaned the deck in the freezing breeze and pouring rain.  And he doesn't even have sailing boots - we haven't been able to find any for his size 49 (UK 14) feet.  My hero, that was supposed to be my job today.

I took my laptop to the laundry to while away the time  and discovered two important things.  Firstly, that my nephew Steven and his wife Lynn became first time parents this morning to a daughter called Ava.  Wonderful.

Secondly, that tomorrow the weather is going to be even colder, rainier and windier than it was today.  And there we were, all ready to break our ties with Rotterdam and start the cruising life!  So Ian and I had some serious discussions and have decided to postpone our departure till Friday, when it will be cold and windy but not raining.

I wonder what we'll do tomorrow.  I'm sure there is already a long list being written in Ian's brain!

Getting there

I'm smiling!  Apart from very chilly early mornings, the weather has actually been quite nice.  No wind, and only  a few hours of rain a couple of days ago. 

Ian is getting very frustrated with electrical/battery boaty type problems. We spent the whole morning driving from shop to shop from one end of Rotterdam to the other in search of bits and pieces.  Since then he has had his head down in the engine room. 

I spent the afternoon - warm and sunny, only 2 layers of clothing! - cleaning the outside of the boat.  On the North facing side (the boat has not moved for 3 years) there is lots of green mildew/mossy stuff in the nooks and crannies.  Cleans out quite easily seeing it is damp.  Have only just scratched the surface.

This evening is social night at the club, so we went socialising.  What a wonderful evening.  This club has a choir of 22 male voices accompanied by 3 piano accordions, a guitar and a  percussionist, which, on a charity basis, goes to sing at Old Age Homes, etc.  They sing mainly traditional sea chantey type stuff plus a few modern golden oldies (Mull of Kintyre, Sloop John B) and one opera piece, The Hebrew Slaves Chorus from Nabucco by Verdi.  So enjoyable.  I joined in whole heartedly and at the end of the evening they told me I must join them next week.  Pity we won't be here. 

Took lots of photos, but I will have to go through them and add them tomorrow.

Shopping for groceries

It was cold this morning, only 5C inside the boat at 8.00 but there was almost no wind.  We got all togged up in winter woollies and headed off the supermarkets.  Started at Lidl where we found the bulk of store cupboard necessities, and what we didn't find there we got at Dirks, right next door.  Ian left me to do the shopping while he went off to find a spare fan belt and oil filter for the engine.  Back home I set about working out what to put where, and changing my mind a couple of times, and Ian got stuck into changing the oil in the engine.

In the afternoon I replaced the curtains in the galley and dinette.  After that I decided it was time to get some laundry done so I came up to the office, paid €5.00, got the key to the laundry room in exchange and loaded 4 days worth of clothing plus some boat stuff into the washing machine.  Right now I am sitting in the laundry room, where it is lovely and warm, watching it all go round and round in the dryer.

Dinner tonight?  Well, I'm not sure.  With fully stocked food lockers I am spoil for choice, but I think perhaps nasi goreng.

Some photos from yesterday:

Chaos!  Trying to find place to put everything

Preparing our first meal on board - bean and bacon soup.

Ian flummoxed by the elecrrics!  Trying to get the fresh water pump to work.

Cleaning fenders

Sunday in the Netherlands

Very cold this morning with a stiff breeze blowing right into our main entrance .  So I kept it shut and had to keep sopping up the condensation from the windows before it streamed down and wet anything lying below.

Sunday: chore number one today was doing the big shopping expedition to provision the boat for a long trip.  But, no that didn't happen.  This is the Netherlands, and everything is closed on Sunday.  Oh dear, move that one day later and get on with the other chores on the list, one of which was to get a 3g data SIM card which we will need to connect to the internet when we leave this club where we have free wifi. Fortunately we discovered that these are available at the shops at petrol stations which are open on Sundays (thank goodness) so we were able to cross that off the list.

With all the shops being closed, we just had to get on with the chores on board.  For Ian that was seeing to the rudder which was giving trouble and involved emptying everything out of the lockers in the stern of the boat and under the double bunk - and that created a whole new list just on its own because he discovered that there is a leak in the engine exhaust system which passes through the locker under our bunk.   It is a huge locker and chock a block full of "stuff", all very black and sooty!

So that meant Ian spent many hours scrunched up in the locker, first of all cleaning out the sooty mess then sorting out the rudder and exhaust problems.  And I spent a few hours out on the dock side with various cleaning products, yellow gloves and copious amounts of water trying to get everything clean.  Even though the sun was shining, and lovely, with the cold breeze I was togged up in long johns under my jeans, 4 layers of long sleeved T-shirts and a weather-proof jacket, which is now very dirty and requires a hour or so in the washing machine!

But come nightfall we had a clean locker, clean fenders, life jackets and various other bits and pieces, and  a rudder system that was a whole lot better than it was before.

Another job was to install the new batteries, which has made a huge difference to the charging systems.

And he installed new LED bulbs in the lights which are much brighter.

I am still putting up the new curtains when I get a chance, at last the saloon is now neutral beige instead of drowning-under-water blue.

Apparently, after a clear sunny day the temp tonight is going down to zero, less the wind chill factor.  And we have lots to do tomorrow, so an early start!

First night on board

After what seemed like an interminable 4 months we finally arrived in Rotterdam yesterday and spent our first night aboard Njord.  Wonderful!

Well, to be truthful anything would be wonderful after the journey here.  We had so much stuff to bring to the boat to make it "home", such as bedding, curtains and  tools, that our hold baggage allowance (of only 20kg each seeing we had to fly on a small inter-island plane from our home in Faial via one of the other islands in the Azores Archipelago) was completely swallowed up and we had to bring all our clothes, books and goodness knows what more, in our cabin baggage/computer bags/handbag/ jacket pockets and wearing umpteen layers of clothes.  In total we were carrying about 15 kg each.  Each change of plane, wait in 2 airports, walk to the train station at Schipol airport, walk to the rental car office in Rotterdam, was a nightmare and by the time we got into the rental car I felt like a bag lady carrying all my worldly possessions on my back!  Not helped by the fact that the wheels on one of the big cases stopped turning!

The previous owners of Njord met us at the Watersportvereniging Ijsselmonde, where she is moored, with big hugs and some lovely gifts.  They had ordered 2 brand new batteries and taken delivery of them for us so now they are sitting on the deck waiting to be installed.

We rushed off to a supermarket to buy some basic supplies for dinner and breakfast and then got stuck in to stowing away the contents of all our bags and de-winterising all the systems on the boat, meanwhile enjoying the good old South African standby brandy and coke to celebrate our new home from home.

And relax....

We were expecting the weather to be bitterly cold but it was lovely and sunny during the day.  However, the temperature plummeted as the sun set.

By the way, we were able to watch the solar eclipse while flying at 33,000 feet.  Really impressive!

When the temperature reached 10.9C inside the boat Ian set about one of the most important jobs on the boat - firing up the diesel heater.  Fortunately there were no hiccoughs and in no time at all we were toasty and warm and it was well after midnight when we went to bed, which was supremely comfortable and really warm.