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Jan Meijer ... Friend, Owner & Captain of La Nouvelle Etoile. Came to stay for a couple of days (he is doing a Radar course, in Rotterdam) and needed a hotel room... It's a pleasure to have him onboard and gives us a great chance to catch up... as normally we get an hour (2 or 3 times a year) as & when we are moored in the same town. So it was real good to have many hours to discuss life on the waterways.
I rang Novio Nautic, the Co. that supplied the Depth meter, on Mon. morning... they rang the manufacturer. Who rang me on Tuesday & sent a technician on Wednesday. A 10 min examination, resulted in a swap out. The old (3 mths.) depth meter out & a new one in. So all working again... something in a circuit board.
Starting to put the finishing touches on the web page. Well I am doing a lot of copying hand written comments from the "guest book " in to "word" doc. So that Edward can HTML them... or what ever that foreign language is...and I thought the French was difficult.
I'm sure it will look great. I will send you a link when it is up there. Back to my painting.
Well, after a grey drizzly start to the day. We, that's Nico & I, slipped our lines at 11.15 am and headed out and down the picturesque river Maas. All went very well, with oil pressure, water temp's and all systems exactly as they should be, Incident free... as all boating should be. Nico is quite impressed with how quite & maneuverable Ab2 is... I'm glad he is happy with her as he is doing most of the steering. Not that it is tiring to move that tiny little electronic lever. We moored up out side the last lock. , & I put a dinner , that I had prepared in the oven and had a celebratory beer. ( I should have had a scotch... it doesn't take as long to drink) So dinner was a bit over warmed, but that's life when Ienka is not on board.
Early night, and early start... but our new Depth meter is not working at the gauge, It is relaying the info on to the radar screen, but not on to the Depth gauge its self. Will look at it on Monday. Have moored up out side the lock at Schiedam. So will be on the generator again tonight. Back on shore power tomorrow.
We have set the date for Ab2's departure, as Saturday 27 th,with only Nico and I on board. Sailing down the Maas and across the Nord and then through Rotterdam harbor. The forecast is not as good as it could be ... but that's spring in Holland.
We are feverishly working on our new web page... well when I say we... I mean
Our web master (long time GOOD friend Edward) Now living, perhaps forever, in Florida.
I will email you all a link to the new page, soon. It is looking fantastic and should work a lot better. So Supplies are all on board & all systems checked again, will continue on Sat night from some where down the Maas.
Ab2 has finally had all the work completed on the new wheel house. All the new electronics & the color radar will be a treat to use, but more importantly for our guests...seating in the wheel house. For those of you that have cruised, & spent a lot of time up there, helping to navigate, you will love the extra space & improved vision.
We will slip our mooring any day now, preferably on a sunny day and head west across Holland to our winter berth in Schiedam. I must confess to being a little nervous about this trip. Even after 20 years of cruising all over Europe in all kinds of ships (Barges) a single accident makes one a lot more cautious. However, our many shake down cruises to calibrate, instrumentation over the years have gone smoothly, so it will be good to be seriously "On The Road Again"
I should be joined by Nico, who is also a ship's captain, and our tour guide from last year, provided his work load allows for it. Margreet our hostess from last year (who is also a capable ships captain) may join us. Hopefully she will be finished piloting her tug boat, as it is reed cutting time in Holland and they have to get it done before the birds start nesting)
So I will have no shortage of very able people on board... but who is going to do the cooking. They say too many cooks, but in this case... too many captains.
more when are under way.
