Well, we made it . . . .

Leimuiden    6/26/11    3am

Well, we got here.  Boat looks OK.  Got kitchen area cleaned; today Bill wants to spend on boat obsessing about rust.  I’ll get the sewing on “sofa” and bed sheets done, change name of the boat on outside (and take 1^st photo with new name), and take down the last of Frank & Betty’s decorations (odd photos & plastic flowers are the last to go).  Need to do a superclean of the toilet area – yeuch.  Not looking forward to that.  Have been to IKEA for first attack and got off lightly as well as managing to put it on the frequent flyer card.  Twice to grocery story.  Note to self:  Bill gets cranky if hungry, FEED HIM.  Found WONDERFUL garden center in Ter Aan not too far from Kempers at Bart’s recommendation.  IntraTuin  GORGEOUS and CHEAP plants, they were even on sale 20% verkorting.  Makes Homestead Gardens look like a bad wannabe.  Got huge rosemary plant for -€5 and thyme, plus pot and dirt.  Really want to go back and get some other things, but Bill is resistant.  Got my old phone number to work and evidently retrieved about €45 in paid minutes from last year, got chip for Richard’s old phone so Bill has a phone too, and dongle for computer that we have yet to set up.  Will switch to using WaterVogel gmail address as primary to avoid getting charged for the volume of mail on Juno account.  Monday Kemper’s is having one of their guys come and translate the electrical panel for us and show us how to use a couple of other basic systems, then hopefully on to Jeannet’s after lunch.  Been chilly and have had no water (no electric to pump), no propane (tanks empty or low), no electric (can’t read the panel and don’t know how to hook up to shore power).  Heated water for coffee on wood stove, sleeping area is working better than expected, though not exactly a welcoming area.  Surprisingly warm down there after body heat kicks in and cheap IKEA comforters working well also.  Still got the dog that chases tiny rocks at Kempers so we can sort of adopt him now that Solomon’s gone.  -----Naah, too much terrier-----.  Forgot how astonishingly gorgeous flowers are in Netherlands, as well as how serene the countryside is.  As much as France beckons, this is wonderful too.

Leimuiden    6/28/11    16:15pm

Went from chilly to miserably hot and humid awfully quickly.  In 90sF last two days and ALMOST wishing for air conditioning.  So much for it being cooler near the water.  Wasn’t expecting this until we got well into France.  Now I also understand why boat bloggers are so erratic with their entries.  You really do not have reliable internet coverage here.  We [Bill] bought a dongle to keep us connected, but we can’t get it to work and it’s been 5 days without contact with our usual world and the people in it.  Have phoned Richard, left text messages for Adam and Amy, and all other messages have not gone through.  (Sorry Carolyn, I tried!!)  Have spoken to Richard a couple of times, but he doesn’t have international calling on his phone so we’re really isolated.  Also, it takes a lot to upload photos, so even when we get connected we won’t be sending a lot of them.  Maybe wait till we have WiFi connections through a marina, but even that doesn’t seem to work so well, we should have it here but don’t.  Saw Jeannet yesterday, and got a phone call from Rob today.  He’s stopping by with a bike from Jeannet and to visit/see the boat, so perhaps he can get us through the last of the dongle hookup.  At least Donald from Kempers came yesterday and we worked out what the electrical systems were.  Found a deck wash pump we didn’t know was there.  Saves Bill from hauling water out of the canal/lake/marina basin with a tiny bucket to wash the boat.  She [the boat, AKA Bird] does look much more presentable clean.  Changed the name yesterday with the makeshift stuff brought from home.  Looked pretty crummy, but again better once the boat was cleaned off.  Spent at least 4 hours, perhaps a good bit more, hanging off the side of the boat with a scissors and a roll of Gorilla Tape masking out the former name, then had to position the precut letters I’d done at home.  Had on a self-inflating PFD, Bill rigged a climbing harness that was supposed to keep me from falling in.  Must have been a sight; I was too busy working to notice.  Did take photo of boat with new lettering, so maybe that will make it in.  Spent this am bailing water out of the forward bilge.  [First had to FIND the hatch to the bilge, that was a day’s work in itself!!!]  Bilge pump doesn’t cover that area.  We’ll have to keep a close eye on it, but we’re hoping it’s just a bit leftover from the winter.  Bill said the scaling on the rust we found last year wasn’t near as bad as he had remembered.  Funny thing that:  Sun comes up here about 4am or before so we’re up and working.  6-8 hours later we’ve done huge amounts of work, but then we’re exhausted so we crash and end up feeling like we’ve wasted the day because after noon we’re too tired to do anything.  If we try to do something as simple as shopping for groceries, we just get cranky and even more exhausted.  Night doesn’t fall till nearly midnite, so you really have a lot of daylight hours that leave you feeling you haven’t used them well.  Hmmmm.  Only another day or so with a car, so have to make the most of it tomorrow.  Shopping with Bill is really no fun; he poops out way too easily.  But he does scrub boats and bail bilges well, so maybe I’ll keep him.

Leimuiden 6/29/11 – 11pm

Well, last nite Jeanette said that really hot weather never lasts more than two days, then you have a big storm, and it gets cool again.  So far, she’s right.  Thank God!  Today started stormy and gloriously cool.  Had planned to start the day by taking the boat out, but the weather was rough so we decided to go to the next things on the list.  Especially get the dongle working.  Went to Kudlestaart just down the road to the other Kempers marina and did boat shopping.  Not much, just a new fender, some maps and updated water cruising Almanaks, a fire extinguisher.  Did discover a 24v refrigerator:  SUPER tiny (think 2 shoeboxes), as expensive as a very, very nice, good sized kitchen unit, and that didn’t include installation.            OK.   That hurts                 Went next door to the fiets (cycle) shop and got a few things.  Big purchase, the bike shopping basket I’ve coveted for decades!  Also learned that there are protective bike covers for leaving your bike outside called bike pajamas [fietspyjamas!!].  Yup, you can even say it with a straight face after a while.  Actually went into a shop later in the day and asked for one for Jeannet’s bike. 

Then the great expedition to figure out how to make the dongle work.  Eventually wound up in Aalsmeer, found a computer/cell phone store where we bought more bytes and were directed to the Indian restaurant next door for free WiFi so we could engage in the lengthy set-up process without using up all of our “free” bytes.  We think we’ve accomplished that.  But who knows.  Turns out the Indian restaurant is the best I’ve ever eaten in, much better than anywhere I’ve been in the States.  For reference:  Himalaya Huis, Marktstraat 32 in Aalsmeer (www.himalayahuis.nl).  Got money transferred to cover our bill here, very reasonable by US standards, so we’re evidently ready to go.  We’ll see how the weather holds out.

PS  --  It’s just coming up midnite as I finish editing this and the sun has barely set.  The night time here is absolutely gorgeous.

Leimuiden   6/30/11   22:30

OK, got a route set for our departure, only about 2-3 hours, depending on bridge openings.  Did manage to collect all the information I needed about the route, including the phone numbers for the bridges that will have to lift for us, in one place.  Will be heading for Lisse, home of Keukenhof Gardens.  Beyond Lisse, there are three, I think, bridges that I can’t find the phone numbers for, only VHF.  Don’t got no VHF.  Well, we’ve got one, but it doesn’t have required upgrades and it’s not registered so shouldn’t be used, I don’t have the required license to use it, and it doesn’t work anyway.  I am very pleased that we replaced both the Water Almanaks.  The current information is much more complete and significantly more useful than even the last version.  Anyway, if weather isn’t bad tomorrow am, we’re out of here. 

I/We have realized that we will definitely have to modify the three day rotation schedule of the couple from Scotland we met in France 2 years ago.  For us it will be more like:  1 day traveling, 1 day crash and burn to recover from traveling, 1 day boat work, 1 day housekeeping, couple days being tourists, and 1 more day for internet.  The most efficient way to make use of the internet appears to be to use it only occasionally, but when we do to run the bill up over the €4+ max daily charge and just pig out on internet that day.  There’s a good probability that will be Friday, for a variety of reasons.  That would make it more like a week for every stop rather than 3 days.  I truly do like living on the boat, it’s getting the uncooperative thing to move from place to place that seems to be the irritant.  I just have to remember how we talked ourselves into this:  “We’re not stupid, we can learn.”  --If we don’t get killed in the process.

Leimuiden  7/1/11    10:00

             I don’t’ know whether to be totally impressed with myself, or have a heart attack on the spot.  We’re STILL in Leimuiden.  We decided that to be safe we needed some docking and maneuvering lessons, especially after our battle with the wind yesterday.  Just got off the phone with a gentleman who is coming tomorrow at 1pm to teach us.  This will be fun – evidently he’s got no English.  The heartstopper is that I managed to call him on the phone, explain what we wanted, and arrange a lesson, all in Dutch – and very fast and somewhat idiomatic Dutch on his part as well.  After that, I think I deserve the day off.  I know I need it.  If anyone from Dutch class is following this:  Hey, it works!!  (Tomorrow’s lesson will be the real test I guess.)  If our teacher Pat sees this:  THANK YOU!!!!!!!  (Now, can someone please remind Bill how to change a bicycle tire?)

Leimuiden    7/2/11   15:25

Yes, we are still here.  Just finished a wonderful boating lesson with Tom Schneider.  Evidently he does speak English, quite well, he just didn’t realize on the phone that I did.  Oops.  Exhausting because of the level of concentration needed, but very very helpful.  Feeling a lot better about our plans to leave on Monday.  Also very encouraging because we learned more about our new boat from Tom:  he is impressed by how well she handles.  Oddly, every Dutch sailor/boater who has spent time on her has volunteered the same comment.  Guess we got a good one.  Good handling, good engine, nice solid little boat.  Not the prettiest thing on the water, but she’ll do quite nicely, thank you.


-----Dongle is not playing well with photos. Will try to add later, best to just get this on the net while I have the chance. Tot ziens!!