Spring and other improvements

Rudi: Life is improving bit by bit every day. Soon, very soon we will have a bedroom! Attie is working like a slave and it seems like he is enjoying himself.  Quite a lot of hiccups here and there but we are getting on with it.

What I find really amazing is the weather change. It is so good waking up in the mornings to a bright blue sky. It is great even if the wind is blowing. The wind is still very cold, but it is the sun that I want to see. I don’t have to wear a coat, gloves, scarf and hat anymore. People are crawling out of their little holes and there is a general air of gemütlichkeit. More smiles, more greetings and more chattering. The birds are doing their mating dances on the water and the swan is sitting on her eggs while her husband has started his ritual of helping with nest building and slowly swimming up and down the canal bank keeping predators away. It is really amazing watching the different attitudes of the various birds around the boat. The ducks still call for their food and have adapted quickly to the new routine of feeding in the water and not on the pontoon!

Where's my food youse?

Grebe looking out for mate

David and Penny returned from their break in England and it is good having all the familiar faces back on the marina again. Martin invited us for a day on the boat to Amsterdam on Wednesday and it was a fabulous day. The weather was grotty, the wind blew but inside the boat it was no problem. I packed us a sturdy picnic lunch and off we went. Martin’s mission was to get the two of us behind the wheel “to gain some sailing experience!” Well we got that for sure. I have decided that I will enjoy the canals in the country side much, much more.

Chugging along on the canals of a city, is very much like driving your car on busy roads.  A lot of different vessels and boats that you have to look out for.  Especially the fast ones like ferries and hovercrafts and then there are the huge steamers and working craft that silently approach you from behind, so you have to keep on looking back to make sure the coast is clear. Boy oh boy, there were quite a few occasions where I just wanted to close my eyes and yell. We survived. He made Attie do a few round about turns and that was where I drew the line! Attie can handle that. Passing underneath the low bridges also was a daunting experience with hoping that the boat is low enough (few centimetres to spare here and there) and the horrible noise of the cars passing overhead. Give me country any day! We passed our steering test and Martin was happy! The outing did wonders for confidence in both of us. After all we have really not had any practical experience in barging and travelling down a commercially active and busy thoroughfare and into the backwaters of Amsterdam, seeking a mooring for a lunch break and keeping a wary eye out for large commercial barges, fast ferries and water police (stopped us three times from mooring in Amsterdam). 

Confident skipper under Martin's watchful eye!

Many huge commercial barges

Superyacht

Traditional ships next to Nemo, the Science museum

Martin's delightful 16m Aak illegally "parked"

We are keenly awaiting our turn to leave Dukra Jachthaven and sail off into the sunset.  We are dreaming of the French canals, warmth and great cheeses and freshly baked French loaves and sitting outside looking at the world go by.

I will leave the explanation of (the beautiful) walls, water and electricity installation of the bedroom to my clever and handy husband. My job is to sand the wood now and then we will decide which way we are going with the decorating. Painting, varnish or a wash? Don’t rightly know just yet. The good thing about the bedroom being almost done is the bathroom will be next! That will be my ultimate joy!

Attie had a little list

Attie: Well, this  week has seen some good progress. We have installed the channels for hot and cold water and the lower part of the walls in our new main cabin. This has been very satisfying work as every day there has been some visible progress, with emphasis on visible! Often we have been doing this or that that has taken an inordinate amount of time to plan or execute with little to show for it. E.g. three days to cement wash/slosh the inside of the water tank. This is hard work , but only visible to the mole who finds himself ensconced within the dungeon of the tank, and who gives a damn about it anyway? However, when one puts up a nice piece of cladding on a wall it certainly changes the landscape and just seems to bring happiness and a sense of satisfaction.


New slatted wood under walls

I had a list of things to do this week:

Install long wooden slats portside, cover all port walls and gunnels with moisture barrier plastic sheeting, place starboard slats, install walls under the gunnels, construct portside pipe boxing, cut hole in starboard bulkhead for the central heating and water piping and electricity, install pipes, install electricity cabling for main cabin.

Needless to say, just as I started work on my little list on Monday I got a phone call from Willem, our friendly welding person, to say he was ready to come over to install the new cockpit railings we had talked about. There went my morning, but to very good result and we now have a safe and elegant cockpit area with possibility of affixing the Bimini (boaty description of stoep roof) we will need during summer travelling.  



Peter Coupland, friend, advisor and encyclopedia of boating knowledge!



Willem de Wit and Attie installing smart new railings

Seems like a simple list, but the activities involved are not. Wood had to be purchased and this required decisions about the sizes and lengths, the plastic moisture barrier was always getting in the way and should it go under the slats or over? Some over and some under depending upon where we were when the idea came up, only to be reversed when at the next stage it seemed prudent to apply  glue, or in Dutch “kit”  and panel pins to affix the walls to the slats. As you might recognise, it doesn’t make sense to apply glue if the two surfaces are not wood on wood, thus any slats covered in plastic had to be uninstalled and plastic reset under the slats or some other practical solution found like slitting the plastic down the middle of the slat... I was reminded of my school day holidays on the farm slaughtering and skinning a sheep.

Installing walls sounds a simple task, but realise that working with a boat that has multiple curves the further forward you move means that straight lines and required angles are a severe challenge. I was so proud of the first panel which simply slid into perfect position with no need for adjustment..easy peasy stuff this... until I got to the next panel, which had me sawing .. and resawing .. and resawing and shaving off bits until it could be wedged into place. Eventually it looks good, but the time it took to make parts fit! The sense of achievement when I had completed the portside walls on Tuesday moved me to invite Rudi into “my office” for a drink and planning session after Tjila time.

hot & cold water pipes installed in box channel

Portside complete

The boxing for the water pipes need to be such that one can access the pipes later. Upon reflection I am not sure what the reason for this is as the subsequently laid pipes run through this section without interruption or break. The cutting of a hole in the bulkhead (4-5 mm steel we are talking about here) was preceded by a lengthy drawing exercise to determine what the minimum size and the placement of the aperture should be. It needed to follow the line of the starboard channel built for this purpose and I had to try and fit the two 22mm central heating pipes, one 15mm hotwater and one 15mm cold water pipe as well as electrical tubing through it. I first decided that a round hole would suffice and borrowed a 48mm cutting bit for my drill, only the drilling position was acute and practically impossible to drill, thus I had to crawl into the fo’csle and following drilling four holes cut out the four sides of the rectangle with a jigsaw “decoupeersaag” in Dutch. This is fine if one has sufficient adequate type of blades for the saw, otherwise it becomes a two day job with a cycle visit to the hardware store. Visits to the hardware store are never a quick affair and usually last a good two hours which I have come to enjoy and not tense up over. The hole was cut, the existing diesel  feed, “ leiding”, to the diesel stove disconnected and rerouted through the new opening, edges protected with pieces of the very same rubber ”leiding”.

Saturday was supposed to have the water tubing and central heating tubing installed, but the sun came out and so did we. We rode out to look for paint to wash the new walls with and ended up doing the grocery shopping, comparing TVs, 26” or 32” LED (because these consume the least energy and important on a boat as it needs to be independent  of shore power), having a cigar and generally just enjoying the wonderful weather.

Today we decided to take the eye off the ball, take a break from the mainstream work and install the nifty crank-up TV dish we had ordered from the UK. I went off yesterday to  purchase a few of the tools listed as being required in addition to the various tools I had at hand, e.g. 1,5mm drill, 13mm drill (R210) and 38mm hole cutter. The 38mm hole cutter (R147) of course requires a centre drill (R40) and a quick-release adaptor (R175), this to drill a single hole in the roof of the boat to install the TV dish!!!! I justify this expense by the knowledge that 38mm is also the measure for the black water tank pipes and hull fitting which I may need to drill later. Are we maybe crazy? I mention these costs merely to note that certain aspects of our project are absurd, but hopefully will be worth it in the end or recoverable when we eventually sell the boat.

Dismantled existing wall - to hide the TV cabling

Well, today I got out in the afternoon to do what I had planned and this is where the 1,5mm drills mentioned above, and listed as required tools to drill the pilot holes for the self-tapping screws, came in. After measuring over and over and deciding exactly where this contraption should be best installed and dismantling a perfectly good wall between the salon (smart boaty word for lounge) and guest cabin (another boaty word for room) and having drilled the 13mm and 38mm holes without any difficulty I was ready to apply the strong and messy special glue/sealant to affix the dish base to the roof of the boat and then to drill  the 1,5mm pilot holes - bought two of these little blighters in case one broke – only to realise that the self -tapping screws were not happy with this nor, 2mm,  2.5mm, 3mm, 3,5mm or whatever else I had on hand. Thus the gluey, messy  base has been merely pressed into position and will have to wait for tomorrow for further consultations, purchase of appropriate new screws and probably new appropriate drills to complete the job. The joys of boating!

Base of fancy wind-up TV dish ...without screws!!!

Linquenda junk yard

Rudi has jumped into the fo’csle and started a proper spring clean and intends to wash and paint it before we install the boiler for central heating and hot water..a vague light in the tunnel. We are now seeing a number of various elements of the project coming together. We have an idea of the water system, both fresh, grey water (boaty description of water from shower and basins) and black water (another boaty description for sewerage), we have decided on the macerator (please don’t ask me to explain) toilet and black water tank we will install, the TV we will buy, where the shower will be installed and are getting to the colour of the walls etc. The plan is coming together even though much work remains.    

various pulleys and stuff from the spring clean

We really are both very happy, notwithstanding the little expletive causing hiccups. And particularly after our excursion with Martin, look forward to our first foray out under own steam so to speak. The weather has also started to support this objective with two days with some sunshine and quite pleasant temperatures.

We look forward to further progress by next weekend, why, we may even be able to watch the World Cup cricket and 6-nations rugby, not to mention following more important world events such as in Japan and Libya.

Shoulder to the wheel

Attie: Well since our last blog entry the weather has been foul. not so much the cold, which we are prepared for, but it has rained regularly and been overcast. The wind has blown constantly from all directions and conditions have not been pleasant nor favourable for us to do any work topsides.

Greased steel ballast ingots

Bright new underflooring...out of the bilges, thank goodness!

However there is recognizable change and we certainly hope to see many more of these visible changes in the weeks ahead. Unfortunately much of what we have been doing on the boat recently is out of sight in normal use or does not give one the sense of progress. I have been labouring in the bilges, chipping away at any rust with a prayer that this doesn´t rupture the hull and leaving me emulating the legendary Dutch boy hero who saved the day by plugging a hole in the dyke with his thumb to prevent a breach and ensuing disaster!!! Well, the bilges in the new fore section have been greased, and greased steel ballast ingots placed on rubber mats in the bilges and spot welded in place to prevent them from sliding around and dangerously unbalancing the ship in rough seas nogal!. Heaven forbid that we find ourselves in such conditions, but better safe than sorry. So, having now neatly placed what was previously an unsightly obstacle as ballast into the bilges and disposing of all the old patchy wooden floors in the fore section I was able to measure the area and plan the cutting of new under flooring. This has to be very carefully undertaken to ensure not only a neat fit, but also to ensure they are level and their ends rest firmly on the beams, all this bearing in mind the most efficient cutting plan to waste as little of the expensive boarding and to ensure they can be slid through an opening that can take a maximum of 1100mm x 85mm. The end result was a success and the fit so perfect that a mallet was required to manoeuvre the planks into place. This single milestone has moved us out of the bilges into ``clean work`` and led to a sense of achievement and satisfaction.

Cutting and installing Piepschuim

Rudi: I don't know if any of you ever worked with "piepschuim" i.e. styrofoam! The whole hull of the boat is insulated with this lightweight foamboard. You have to cut it in precise blocks, strips or whatever. This you do with a bread knife and there are zillions of little styrofoam balls floating through the air whilst you are cutting. Those little balls go into your ears, nose, eyes and cling to your hair and your clothes, even your shoes. The ones going into your ears make little funny squeaky rubbing noises inside and those in your nose make you sneeze. Those that stick to your specs are little "peskies", because you are 50% blinded.

Then of course the hull has steel ribs and huge rivets everywhere (Attie: riveting, we are told, is a sign of a boat built when men still built boats!). The styrofoam then has to be cut precisely to accommodate each rivet otherwise condensation will occur where the steel is not covered. To be able to get to this perfection (!!) you have to twist and turn the knife to break the little pesky balls out of their little tough beds and then......................................the knife slips and cuts a gash in your hand. 3 Days ago I got a cut just above the right thumb nail and you know how sore that specific place can be and lo and behold yesterday I pushed the tip of the bread knife into the side of my left hand with great force from my right hand whilst cutting the styrofoam! Deep but small wound that was just bad enough to cause a restless night.

As I mentioned, "piepschuim" clings to everything! Including the rest of the boat! I just went to the laundry to fetch the clothes from the dryer and the lint drawer was full of piepschuim coming from the pockets and socks (which were on my feet inside my boots!) When I shake the duvet out in the mornings you see piepschuim flying and when I sweep the floor in the kitchen, take a guess. But....hurray the Styrofoam covered walls are now covered in a layer of plastic, so little white balls cannot ever again go anywhere! My life  has now improved even more! The engine room is still waiting, but this does give me a little respite!

Attie is going like a Boeing in the front working on building us a bedroom! It will be a very fine day when we can move the bed out of the lounge/salon. I have forgotten what it's like to have a bedroom with a door and cupboards and comfortable mattress on the bed and ironed bed linen, wow! I think once we have a bedroom we will be very ready to put in the bathroom! This ablution every morning in the club house is the only thing that truly gets to me. Listen people, it's cold out there! It rains, the wind blows, it is frosty and even snow and just cold. This "lady" is not used to that, en suite is and always has been the name of my game!

My very nice neighbour and new friend Susan (who is Dutch) is helping me with my Dutch. So once a week we get together for an afternoon and learn Dutch, but I think she is learning more Afrikaans than the other way around, but it's great fun and a lot of laughs. A girl needs something else to do around here, not only to be Attie's assistant/apprentice/cleaner/cook! I have given up on the quilt making for now, seeing that there is just no space. Everything that used to be in storage in the front is now packed on top of each other in the salon and our "bedroom", so nowhere for me to create anything except cleaning something that belongs on the boat. Last week was the cleaning of the very old and rusted water pump and expansion tank. The pictures will be self explanatory!

About two Sundays ago Linda, a Thai friend, asked me to go to a bazaar/market for the day. So I left Attie on the boat all by his lonely self and off we went. Well it was raining cats and dogs all day long. Fortunately the market was in big warehouses, but one still had to walk from the one warehouse to the other! I have in my whole life never experienced a market like it. Vendors mostly, about 85%, were Turkish and 95% of the stuff they sell is made in China, very international!! So much bling and plastic and rubbish that one shudders to think what all those Chinese factories are doing to the global warming issue. Unbelievable! The other 5% on offer is other people's old clothes! Needless to say that we were drenched by the time we hit the marina at just after four. We left at 10am! I was exhausted and decided that a market like that will definitely not see me ever again.

Tidy lounge now strewn with stuff



Even bed is hardly accessible at times

Dinner at a Chinese restaurant with Linda, Hazel, Alex (not in picture) and Peter

Three ducks, two males and a younger one decided to come knocking on our door 5 or 6 times a day for some attention and I do think they are very cute and definitely characters! But being a land lubber I didn't realise what a mess ducks can make of pontoons. It took only about 3 days (and Attie getting more and more agitated) before I decided that sorry, even as cute as you are, you will have to go mates. Amazing how quickly they got the message! So there is peace in  the home again and the grocery bill is also a bit smaller again! It is a well known fact that I am the all time feeder, but even I draw the line at cleaning pontoons every night after duckies went off to bed!!

Donald

Donald, Daffy and Quacky

.... and their mates

Another daily outing I enjoy most of the time is going shopping, or as I call it going hunting for food. What I enjoy most about it and I might have mentioned it before, is the walk to the shops, which is about 2km there and back. Thursdays and Saturdays are a bit more special seeing that those are market days in Zaandam. The commotion is very interesting and the people in general are very friendly and full of humour and fun. So Thursdays and Saturdays we eat kibbeling for lunch as well as herring with chopped onions and gherkins, the latter mostly by Attie. Kibbeling is deep fried cod cheeks, the batter is very thin and kibbeling is served with chopped onion mayo sauce. Scrumptious!

Nieuwe haring!

....met uie en suurtjes

"Lekker warme kibbeling"

Koop een boot en werk je dood... this time the fridge

Our nearest supermarket is called Vomar and because I am there every single day I am greeted by all and sundry working there which gives me a feeling of belonging. The fact that most can speak English and my Dutch is improving daily, makes it feel more like home. The super market has new “akties”, i.e. special offers daily and I enjoy the challenge of finding bargains every time I go. The bargains decide the course for dinner for that evening, so dinner is never a dull event but different each evening. Today’s meat aktie and also veggie aktie is tiny chicken drum sticks, half price and neatly packaged, peas, potatoes fried with red pepper and courgettes (all on special). Don’t worry, I won’t spare the garlic! I want to add, that because of the daily specials I also invent different mixes of food, especially veggies, that I have never considered before. The daily shopping outing is not only for the specials and the fast walk for exercise, it is also because we now have a second fridge! Remember the first one? Well this one is gas, also inherited and also doesn’t work! C’est la vie once again! One day when I am big I will have a brand new, bigger and in working order fridge in my kitchen.

In the previous blog I mentioned that Alan, Sharon and Towser left for Scotland. They unfortunately had huge water damage in their guest house and we were very concerned, but it seems that they sorted their problems. We felt rather lonely after they left, but since then Martin as well as Paul and Lisa returned from England and it feels good to have company again. Bert and Aukje moved their boats to Amsterdam and that is also sad for us. Now we are just waiting for David and Penny to return from England and all will be fine again. They all have different types of boats.


Alan and Sharon's Luxemotor





Paul and Lisa's Tjalk Meander



David and Penny's Marscotti

 This summer will find us in France with an extra bedroom so our friends and family from S.A. and all over will be able to visit us.......at least this is the plan.

We are so busy in this home of ours that one only thinks about what has to be done today or tomorrow and time for thinking about other things is limited, but these last few days I have been missing my children, my friends and my doggies. I guess one will have days like that, especially when the weather is so  miserable!

I will leave the saga of the new door to Attie to tell you all about it and also about the changes he has made during the last two weeks. 

Attie: Well, the little informal logbook I am keeping says: 23 Feb - 4.125 l/cm...this is the red diesel tank consumption. Red diesel you may ask, my friends, what is that? Well red diesel is the fuel one uses for household purposes such as heating, as to be distinguished from regular propulsion diesel. The difference is a red dye which signifies the former, which is taxed at a lower rate and may not be used to run the engine! Another little bit of logbook info relating to 23 Feb is that we purchased 198 litres for 193 Euros and that consequently we use between 6 and 8 litres a day to heat the boat (at R9,60 tot the Euro that is about R66...it is so damn cold outside that this can be considered a bargain, better even than the specials on wine at Vomar( ....well maybe?).

Further trivia that might be of doubtful interest is that given that the external dimensions of our steel diesel tank are 55,5 x 45,5 x 85,5 cm and that the steel is probably 3-4mm thick it can be calculated that the tank will contain precisely 215 litres. I mention this merely to illustrate that without maths one would be lost on a boat or would have to rely on other, more parochial shortcuts, such as running the tank empty, filling it and checking the receipt from the bunker ship! I think the point I wish to make here is that everything we do on the boat has a learning curve.

Learning curves are a wonderment to me on the boat and underscore the fact that most things in life are simple and if one can keep them so, so much the better. A prime example is, as reported by the trusty logbook, that on 28 Feb, the water in our main water tank (738 litres, calculated the long way as mentioned above, given the fact that the tap desists from providing a receipt which would allow us to follow more logical shortcut method of determination) ran empty and it offered the opportunity of opening the hatch and checking inside. Well after removing some 60 bolts I found that the inside was packed with those baubles of brown/grey slimy stuff one finds in farm reservoirs. The remaining water in the tank was crystal clear until I started to fiddle with the baubles, creating a cloudy havoc and suspicion that I might need to clean the tank and go in to Amsterdam and buy some of that hoy poloy two component epoxy paint stuff that one coats the inside of tanks to ensure they outlast the next twelve generations, of course after getting rid of all traces of rust, gunk build-up, pitting and sanding the inside surface down with various grits of sandpaper and degreasing with special Sikkens degreaser and not painting it at temperatures that are more than 3 degrees above the dewpoint and certainly not after 15:00 etc. etc.

 

Inside the water tank





Newly cement-washed tank - good for another century

Happy camper following spelunking in the tank

Well I chipped off some of this gunk and asked our friendly marina co-owner Klaas, whether he thought it necessary to recoat the inner of the tank based on the samples I showed him. Hoping to avoid further unexpected toil I reminded him that many farm dams in South Africa go for generations with these strange baubles without poisoning their owners.  His answer: “Ja, smeer hom cementsous”????  What, friendly reader I hear you ask, does this mean! After enquiring and confirming on the Internet and with another new friend, Alex, who happens to be a corrosion specialist, Klaas’s advice was to scrape off the main rust and deposit and then to slosh on a slap pap of cement. What mixture the builder in me asks, 1:6, 1: 8, 1:3, no simply mix a sloppy wash of pure cement and slosh that on as a wash, repeating after setting until there is about a 3-5mm layer. This is how all tanks were treated when men still built boats! According to the Internet it is also the way in which modern hotwater systems are renovated. “So gesê, so gedaan” and I spelunked into the tank and scraped off the worst of the rust upon which followed forays into the bowels of the tank to apply three layers of the stuff over three days, allowing the mixture to settle. (Note irrelevant boating fact: there is a ratio of steel to rust, namely 1mm:7mm and determined by a scientific formula named after two intelligent blokes whose names I cannot recall, but confirmed by my friend Alex the corrosion specialist). Bottom line is, the cement ”slap sous” was cheap, worked a treat, mixed easily, applied simply and the tank was ready to go immediately thereafter (Rudi complains the tea tastes funny and the glasses are blotchy, but I balance that out with the obvious benefits to the intestinal tract and counter to sooibrand).  

Rudi wrapping presents!

Installation of new hatch

The proud new entrance to our home

Entre S'il vous plait

The trusty record log shows we have attended the HISWA Amsterdam Boat Show, dried out any moisture in the front section of the boat, installed new Hep2 O 15mm piping to the kitchen, applied three layers of cement slop, Rudi renovated the Hydrophore and pump – if you don’t know what that is then you aren’t the boating type and deserve not to know, re-commissioned the water tank, installed a channel for pipes and electrics under the starboard gunnel, stabbed ourselves variously with knives under the pretext of constructive employ, done bokkerol, visited with friends, cocooned the new section in plastic, hung the struts for the cladding, fixed the roof in the spare cabin, wrapped the water tank like a christmas gift in insulation and planned the electrical system for the new section. Also, the new door and steps have arrived and been installed. What a difference it makes to entering our new home. The dreamboat is now starting to take shape. We have received via the post from Ebay our bird books of Europe, a new EEE Netbook for Rudi, a Sewing machine, a fancy crank-up satellite dish for TV, a freesat box, a new instrument panel for the boat with oil pressure and temperature senders and wiring loom as well as the three new windows which will be installed one day soon.

grotty old pot

renovated Hydrophore

There are small things about our lives here that are different to what they were at home. For example, Rudi has adopted my own useful habit of talking to herself and inanimate objects, probably in an attempt to convince herself of some of her bright ideas... not necessary I say, as her suggestions have saved us hours of frustrations on a number of ocassions, but entertaining. We have tried to inform you of little, but unique passages of our lives here and will continue to convey what we have considered quite regular, where they might add to the sense of what we are experiencing here. 

All wrapped and ready for cladding!