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.