The boat taking shape

I started writing this new posting about two weeks ago and again lost track. The weather changed and it gave me the opportunity of seriously getting into painting. I have now finished the port side and the bow and it is looking jolly good. I am painting from a floating pontoon, attached to the boat with ropes, and right at the mooring pontoon where all and sundry walk past and either comment on my progress or give advice or just chat for a while, while the brush, roller or paint dries out! Ignoring them is not successful and it is actually quite nice having company all day long. Comments like: no, no, no that should be white, that line shouldn’t be there, that is a beautiful green, you should do the sides first then the middle or you should do the middle first then the sides!

Before....and

After.. much effort and preparation!!

Roof treated with menie before painting

Admirer/advisor Arnold

what a finish! (I thought it made a nice picture!)

I just agree with all the advice and keep on doing my own thing. Linqui is beginning to look like a boat whose owners care and the tacky gipsy effect is rapidly disappearing. The cabin is painted a very soft cream and the hull will be green and black. Zaandam air is filthy, you cannot imagine how quickly the boat gets dirty, black and very dusty. We are near an industrial area and also on the Schipol flight path. None of the above bothers us but the pollution in the air plays havoc with the paint job.

Like everything on the boat the painting is but an end to a preparatory journey and is precede by much chipping, "mynie-ing", sanding, washing down, "plamuring"(filler), sanding again, undercoating where necessary, cleaning brushes and trying to clean paint-stained hands and feet and legs and arms!! The paint job at the end of the process does however provide much satisfaction.

Sacrifices by the master painter, Madame Swart

We have a boat worth looking at!

Attie is busy here there and everywhere working very hard. He has completed the bathroom and it looks  really spiffy. Only the floor has to be done, what a pleasure it is having a shower on board. Amazing! As I mentioned previously the little things that I have learned to appreciate again, this "new" life of ours does that. Once the bathroom is done we will automatically have a space for guests and I would like to know who is coming and when?

Is this a bathroom????

Talking about visitors, Attie’s cousin’s son visited for 2 days, David van der Merwe, 23 years old and ready to help. Thank heavens! He chipped the rust away on the deck and treated it with “yzermenie”, the special paint protecting against rust. Looking good and I don’t have to crawl around on the deck. Check list: done! Apart from his help, it was good having someone else on board for a change who could bring in a reflection on normal things out there in the world and not just the boat diet we have been living on.

David doing a sterling job with chipping and "mynie"

Dankie David

Yesterday, Saturday the 2^nd, was “Zingen op de Zaan” day. Choirs in all variations, solo singers and music floating on the canal on big barges, singing their hearts out. Again 100’s of smaller boats following the bigger ones, causing traffic jams.

First boat... a tjalk!

Kapteijnskoor, a well-known local choir that practices in the Kapteijn Pub on Wednesday evenings

Medembleek singers only do sea shanties

Lady rockers!

5-year old ladies choir that only sings songs from Africa

Dutch "Grafsteensangers"?

Rudi and friend Linda, back from Bangkok

Another tjalk!

and another

barge just making it throught the lock gates

Seniors

Juniors

others

Ico?

dink aan jou

confetti of joy

We were planning to leave for France on the 1st of July, but the painting has been rain-delayed and thus is not finished so we are staying on for another two weeks.

Jaap Tanger of Othec installing the 12V system

 Attie had the 12V system installed by Jaap Tanger of Othec, friendly young man and Attie installed the solar panels, but he can tell you all about that. The panels are 135W each and feed into a 12V system that has a 3kW inverter, 660A/h house batteries and two starter batteries. We tested our independence last night by removing the shore power cord and relying only on the batteries. Even though we have only two of the batteries connected so far we were able to last all evening watching TV, reading into the night and most of the morning and it was only when we had TV, washing machine and microwave on together that the inverter protested and warned of an overload situation. So far, I  am very pleased with the system and have a better appreciation of how to put something like this together and what one can do to save energy.

We spent a lovely four days in Scotland, visiting our friends Sharon and Alan Clark and staying at their four star B&B, Mansewood House in Lochearnhead. They are such hospitable and warm people and Sharon is a great cook! I loved seeing Towser the Schnauzer again, now there is a dog with an attitude, lovely and fun watching him.

chatting with Alan and Sharon on the terrace of Mansewood House

Lochearnheard village shop

Lochearn

Clan Mc Nab

Barren beauty!

Must be trout in there somewhere

Old church across from Mansewood House

Haggis at Lochearnhead Hotel with Alan and Sharon

Towser the Schnauser

Wee post dinner dram of single malt

Alan breaking into Mansewood House after leaving his keys in the car at the hotel....miles away. He had to wake guests to open for us!

Edinburgh Castle

Wow, what a beautiful area! They are situated in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs Reserve. It is a huge area, green, friendly and sparsely populated. Attie tried some fly fishing, but he claims that he didn't have the right menu for the fish to bite, but nevertheless enjoyed himself tremendously. You can Google Alan and Sharon on http://www.mansewoodcountryhouse.co.uk/ and should not miss stopping over at this gem of a haven.   We had such a lovely time; I didn't want to return to Holland and would love to rent a tiny cottage on the banks of the river for a couple of months. Imagine that, just chilling, reading, walking, fishing, cooking and sleeping!

Back at the marina I was so pleased to see that the ducklings had hatched all over the place and now I am so sad, because they disappear very quickly! Rats and seagulls catch them. Normally on the first day about 4 and the next day there is only one and the day after that nothing! Nature can be very cruel and they were so cute! The swan had six cygnets to start with, but I only see the one every day now, growing fast but I can’t help wondering what happened to the others. Working outside most of the time I cannot help getting involved in nature happening around me. I especially enjoy the coots, they are birds with spunk and chase the ducks around the marina with gusto!

Visitor on my floating pontoon.

We took Goos and Klaas Kramer and their wives to dinner. They are the marina owners and it was a fun evening with a lot of laughs. I think the evening brought us even closer and getting to know each other better.  The Dukra brothers have done a lot for us over the last few months. We can only ask and help will be offered. The ladies are lovely and fun to be with.

Last thing I want to say is in a way I will be sad to leave this marina. We got to know quite a few lovely people here, Dutch as well as Brits, a Taiwanese, Surinam, an American and Australians. You get to know your surroundings and start feeling really comfortable, which is not good, makes it difficult to leave and on the other hand, I cannot wait to go and explore the unknown. I am nervous (just a bit though) about the sailing thing. This is one big boat we’re on, but Attie will get us safely to wherever we are going. I’ve got my money on my hubby!!

I am going to hand over to Attie now; he has much more to tell. I miss you guys and looking forward to seeing y’all again. Hopefully sooner than later.

Since our last blog we have progressed with increasingly visible evidence. We have installed 3 new portholes, completed the building of a bathroom more or less from scratch, painted more than half of the boat, obtained a davit from our friend Martin for the princely sum of a bottle of Calvados and had it installed, cemented out the second freshwater tank, installed solar panels, planned and had the 12V system installed and cleared a lot of the clutter from the floors in the installation process, e.g. the  two central heating radiators in the bathroom and spare room, the stack of timber that went into the walls, some of the itchy stone wool insulation that we have put into the bathroom walls for sound dampening and insulation. As we progress we hope to find our living space increasing and the loose cables and boxes and junk rapidly decreasing!

planning electrics and negotiating for a davit with Martin

Martin's Calvados davit

Our budget is surprisingly more or less on track both for the renovation of the barge and for living expenses, although a number of friends believe we should be able to live off less than our current spend on household goods. We have now more or less purchased the large items that we had planned for the boat with the last being the purchase of new life jackets, a dinghy and additional batteries. We recognise that the work on a boat is never done so the expenditures will continue, but we expect this to be at a slower rate than the Euros have flown out of the wallet in the last few months.

We would like to commend Dukra Jachthaven and its location in Zaandam. From a boat renovation perspective everything one might need is at hand. Hardware stores, shops, chandlers and all the excellent marine services one could need at ones doorstep. The Kramers manage the marina as a tight ship. When there is something mechanical that is amiss one can be sure it will be fixed without delay. Any assistance required with finding a good supplier or picking up purchases that cannot fit on the back of the bicycle and a variety of friends on the marina and the Kramers are on hand with a smile. Zaandam is 13 minutes by train from central Amsterdam and 20 from Schiphol airport. Convenient as could be. While there may be cheaper moorings elsewhere, Dukra offers outstanding facilities, friendly assistance and convenience in great measure.

We plan to depart for France for the rest of summer and next winter soon and hopefully our next blog will reflect the start of a new phase in this adventure. See you there!