Week 13 Boat Afloat

 Week 13

Thisweek's newsletter from John P. Weiss struck a nerve...(even though his actual blog was more about perservering after a setback - which also struck a nerve). He says.... "I just finished reading Akiko Busch's interesting book "How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency." Here's an excerpt from the book jacket: "In our networked and image saturated lives, the notion of disappearing has never been more alluring. Today we are relentlessly encouraged, even conditioned, to reveal, share, and promote ourselves. The pressure to be public comes not just from our peers, but from all-pervasive technology companies that want to profit from patterns in our behavior." Last year I deleted all content on my social media accounts. Partly because I wanted to start over with fresh content, and partly because I was tired of all the time wasted posting, commenting, etc. Time I could better spend reading books, making art, exercising, being with loved ones, etc."

Around the farm...

We started on Monday by replacing a door in Apartment # 1. A new occupant is coming - a young woman with 2 small kids.

I used to count all the doors here - more than 100! 

Mostly, it is an art form getting them "just right", with locks and draught strips against the weather to finish them off.

It took 3 of us most of our 5 hour day to get this one right...

The boat afloat...

With good weather on Tuesday my "volunteer" and I got the boat safely to it's mooring and did a little cleaning up of the winter grime. We also put everything back in it's place - so glad that we don't have to change the gas system after all!

Just as I was going to get the clubhouse ladder, I looked up to see that Tjeerd had already clambered up to loosen the tarp. Fit and young!

It ended up being 22 degrees on Tuesday - with health warnings about not getting sunburnt!

Back to cold again by the weekend and expecting the coldest Easter Monday since 1964.

Hard to imagine that it is now already 3 years ago that we were having record warm temperatures in April (for The Voyage of Jacoba 2018).

https://jacoba2018.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-voyage-of-jacoba-2018.html

Not sure how it is going to go yet as far as using the boat this year. A Grand Tour (with Frank and Pam) or more "pottering around Friesland"...

Frank has had his vaccination at least, but they still might keep him out of France in particular, or Europe in general, for that matter...

Robin and Joy are still waiting in Portugal at least until some time in May before deciding to head back this way (or return to Australia).

They have to negotiate Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands... with who knows what restrictions in place?.

Ron and Annette (the new owners of Houtrib) missed last year as well...

Oh well, we count our blessings, I guess.

Global Warming?

The Rotterdam Harbour Authoritory have sold their last Ice-breaker...One of a few commissioned in the 60's - the last one was sold to a dredging company in Friesland - to be a general workhorse. The last time it was used as an ice breaker was in 2012 and so they decided that the maintenance costs were no longer warranted.

LAST ICEBREAKER LEAVES ROTTERDAM

After having served as an icebreaker for almost sixty years, the RPA 20 has left the port of Rotterdam. The Port of Rotterdam Authority is selling the ship because the winters have become milder.

The 23-metre long and 6-metre wide icebreaker was built in 1963 at the Hendriks shipyard in Dodewaard. The RPA 20 underwent another renovation in the 1990s. The vessel was deployed in case of heavy ice formation in the port of Rotterdam.

ICEBREAKER

It has a reinforced prow. To break the ice, the stern was additionally weighted with ballast water. As a result, the RPA 20 tilted back a little and the propeller was lowered. In this way, the prow could slide over the ice, which would break if the ship sailed against or over it.

TOO LITTLE

But in recent years the ship hardly needed to be used. The last time the RPA 20 served as an icebreaker was nine years ago to make the Delfshavense Schie passable for inland shipping. That is too little to keep a ship in good condition, the Port Authority judged. It therefore sold the vessel to a contractor in Friesland.

Social distancing at the picnic tables - outside at last....

Ben in Madrid.

He has organised at least enough work to pay for his share of the apartment...

Everyone wearing face masks and fairly quiet. The curfew starts at 2300hrs.

We have now placed 24 bird nesting boxes...this one might have to be relocated...(says Tassie the cat).

And it's mowing time again!

A couple of our boys had a good working day with the tractor on Saturday...they cleaned up one pile of firewood and then went inside and made cupcakes!

(last week)

(this week)