The October Great Return

I truly cannot believe all the above and more happened in only one year! So now we have been back in Zaandam since the 14th of October. Unfortunately when we arrived at Linqui Attie became ill, picked up some stomach bug on the plane. He crashed into bed and to my horror I discovered that all the styrofoam that was removed by the "builders" was stuffed in and on top of every single shell and cupboard on the boat! What a nightmare, our beautiful clean boat!

I immediately started clearing up and carried on for another day while Attie was really poorly and then, at 2-30am Sunday morning I was attacked viciously by the same bug! Well, that was the end of all creativity and grafting for a whole week.

Carl, Attie's brother came to visit the end of that week and what a great help he was. He helped lugging away all the old wood, chains and whatever. By the time he left, Linqui did not look like a scrapyard anymore. The welders did an excellent job of the changes we wanted to make (apart from leaving her in such a state of upheavel!)

Brother Carl, who made such a difference to the state of the boat and our own sanity

Now problem number one is we don't have a kitchen anymore and we need to eat. We can use the kettle at least, but that's it. Problem number two is that it is quite cold already and we still don't have shower or toilet. So it's back to the ablutions at the club house. Ohhhh not pleasant walking out of a warm shower into the cold, but no other choice. Amazing how quickly one can adapt and our realisation of with how little one can cope. A mug, milk, sugar and coffee and a plate each, a few pieces of cutlery and hey presto, you have a life. We lived on cup a soup, bread and now and then a salad. At least now we've got the little grill oven cleaned and our diet is slowly changing.


washing up, camping style




A lot of work has been done already, during the last two weeks, seeing that we are pretending that the first week actually never happened. Sometimes we stand around, turning in circles not knowing what to do next. You cannot plan on for instance doing the kitchen, because before you can start building something there is a whole lot of demolishing that has to be done first and then cleaning up again, like lugging all the old wood away to a recycling station not far, but all has to be carted in a wheelbarrow!! That can take between one and maybe five trips. Every evening at 6 we start cleaning the boat so that you can at least feel civilised when you enjoy a glass of wine and a cup of soup or some kind of take away! At least we can say the boat is clean again.


Jon, Niki, Attie with the Rijks Museum in the background.





And other guests hoping for somthing to eat!

 Thursday after Carl left, Jon and Niki Low arrived from Geneva, especially to see us. Bless them to go to all that trouble and to give us a break from all the grafting. What a superb weekend. We went out to dinners, visited the amazing Rijks Museum and did a whole lot of walking. I was sad to see them go again. But as I always say you have to leave to be able to come back again. Maybe we can make a plan to visit them in Geneva soon.

Back to reality! All the materils and tools we need are stacked away in the front of the boat where the future 2 bedrooms and shower/toilet will be. Attie has cleared the new kitchen area, done the electricity wiring through the whole boat and now he is preparing the kitchen walls for the installation of all cupboards and different units! Whoopeeeeeeeeee! The first evening after installation I will cook one slap-up meal that will not easily be forgotten. I have this all-time need for loads of fresh veggies. Now the installation of the kitchen means first having to clad the walls with insulation which I am sure will keep him busy all day today and most of tomorrow. One gets a little despondent every now and then, because it is a very slow process!! But we will do it! I could not stop laughing last night lying in bed, I asked Attie what next to be done, he said install the wood for the insulation. And then? I ask. Then we think, he says. Think about what? I say. "Bugger me if I know!" he says. I am still wiping the tears as I write this. Planning is almost impossible, you make a whole list of things to do today and that entails so many small things to do first that by tomorrow you sit with more or less the same list for "to do"!

Kitchen taking shape.... slooowwly!

The weather isn't helping much, very confusing! Rain, hail, wind, sun and mist in 30 minutes! So the best is to ignore the weather totally and just go where you have to and remember your brolly! It is lovely living on the water. The ducks, coots, swans, grebes, seagulls, etc are lovely to watch and to hear. The slapping of the water against the hull at night when you are lying in bed is just so pleasant. We are doing an enormous amount of walking and I am sure, well, speaking for myself, that I have lost quite a few kilos. Yes, yes! We walked about 2 km to the hardware store last night, just to discover that they close at 6 and this was now 6.05, our info was closing time to be 7 or 8, so we walked back 2 km and had a glass of wine! C'est la vie!