Week 27

Sunday Morning in Boornzwaag

Again, lucky enough to be writing this on the boat

On getting old...

( I sometimes save things to Google Keep)

The majority of the human touch you share with your partner is for amateur therapeutic massage and pain alleviation. There is still moaning, however.

It's a good day when only one knee hurts...

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

A holiday in their own village (From the Sa! newspaper last week)

(My translation)

They were eating whilst sitting on the mooring in Klein Groningen. Between their boat Jacoba and the beautiful flowers on the edge. But they are not "typical tourists".Janny and Ken Copeland live just a few kilometres further up. "But we have been sailing the Turfroute at least once a year for many years". (Frisian - Mar de Turfroute varre wy alle jierren wol in kear).

Arend Wanninge

WIJNJEWOUDE. They love the water and try to set off regularly with their boat. But during the day their attendence is also required at Zorgboerderij De Twa Buken. "We solve the problem this way. Once we are on the water, we have a holiday feeling" says Janny. That stretch between Klein Groningen and Donkerbroek is beautiful every time.

 They also think the stretch through Gorredijk is special. While others might be put off by all the locks and bridges, they find them delightful.

"The Turfroute remains one of the nicest trips every year".

And on the way, there is always time for special meetings. They were in the lock at Gorredijk when they were asked about the Australian flag. That's me, born in Melbourne and in the Netherlands since 1993, said Ken The woman who asked was also born in Melbourne and even more of a coincidence, they recently moved to Wijnjewoude.

The article goes on to describe the tourist facilities -for  boats, cyclists, hikers - and use as a meeting room for the local residents.

Janny went on to say that we had a couple of observations that could improve the site. A notice board, for example. There have been boats moored here and the people on board didn't know that the facilties are around the corner, out of sight.

Payment for the WC and shower is via a QR code on a mobile phone. We had one old chap asking how that works - perhaps that could be easier for the (usually older) boat people.

And lastly, it would be great if there was water available to fill the water tank on the boat.

Glasshouse finished

I went to a local garden centre and managed to find some plants that hadn't been sold in time - at 50 cents each, they were worth a try. A couple of tomato varieties and some cucumbers.

I just have to remember to water them, now...

In the meantime, the pumpkins and courgettes are going OK - warm weather and lots of rain!

I found this story in one of my boating emails (usually about old Dutch ships - the "National Heritage") - not a Dutch ship but interesting this time because of the Australian connection.

SS Great Britain

Fifty-one years ago, 100,000 people lined the banks of the River Avon in Bristol as the SS Great Britain returned to its birthplace. When launched in 1843, the iron-hulled luxury passenger steamer SS Great Britain was described as 'the greatest experiment since creation'. After returning to Bristol, the rusting hulk was meticulously restored to her former glory and now rests in the dry dock where she was built. As a museum ship, it attracts between 150,000 and 200,000 visitors annually.

The Great Britain in 1844

The SS Great Britain was the largest ship of its time. With a length of 98 meters she was the longest ship of her time. She was so large that it took a year to get her out of Bristol Harbour, which required both dredging and the partial dismantling of a lock. She was powered by 1000 horsepower steam engines, the largest engines of any ship of her time. Instead of turning paddle wheels, the motors drove a propeller. The Great Britain's main propeller shaft was the largest machine part manufactured at the time. She also had six masts, to carry sails when the wind was favorable and/or when the engines failed or the propellers fell off, as on her second voyage.

Rudder and propeller of the Great Brtiain

The most remarkable thing about SS Great Britain is that she survived. She continued to earn her living for almost a full century. She only operated for about a year in her intended service as a luxury passenger ship between Bristol and New York. She ran aground off the coast of Ireland in 1846 due to a navigational error and was refloated in 1847.

In 1848 she was sold, refurbished and put into the Australian immigrant trade. Because the distance between Great Britain and Australia was too great for her coal reserves, she changed from a sail-assisted steamship to a steam-assisted sailing vessel. After nearly 30 years in the Australian emigrant trade, her engines were removed and she became a pure sailing vessel, a windjammer, carrying coal.

In 1886, after a cargo fire on board, Great Britain was condemned in the Falklands and was left there as a coal store. She was scuttled and abandoned there in 1937 and remained so until she was returned to Bristol in 1970 for restoration and a new life as a museum ship.

Covid News

(wednesday) (NL News)

The government’s scientific advisers have been asked to investigate the rapidly rising trend in coronavirus infections after positive tests increased almost sixfold in the last week. The RIVM reported another 3,688 confirmed cases on Wednesday, compared to just over 600 a week ago. The seven-day average figure has nearly trebled in the past week to 1,650, while the percentage of positive tests has gone up from 3% to 5.6%.

Compared with Sydney on Thursday (The Guardian)

Residents in Sydney’s south-west are being urged to isolate amid the city’s extended lockdown, with three local government areas – Liverpool, Fairfield and Bankstown-Canterbury – placed on high alert after 27 new cases.

I guess we are in the mode of "learning to live with it", but there are obvious signs that all may not be well...

Update Friday evening Press Conference

Due to a sevenfold increase in positive tests, a lot of things have been tightened up. Night clubs and festivals, for example. None of which really affect us...yet. 

Janny told me on  Saturday afternoon that the number of positive cases has jumped to over 10,000, just in the previous 24 hours.

Three of Ben's friends got Covid - one of which occured  AFTER he had his 2nd vaccination - (but only a few days after). That appears to be the problematic age group

The Netherlands' warmest June in 120 years

After a practically non-existent spring, the Netherlands dove head first into summer last month, with June 1 being the first official summer day of the year and bringing temperatures of 25 degrees or more. As the month progressed, temperatures manage to hold steady at above 20 degrees, and on June 17, the Dutch Weather Institute (KNMI) recorded the first tropical day of the year, as temperatures reached 30,8 degrees in De Bilt (a town near Utrecht). 

The final 10 days of June did see temperatures fall as the sun struggled to fight through the cloud cover, but the strong start to the month made June 2021 the warmest June since 1901. With an average temperature of 18,2 degrees - compared to the average of 16,2 degrees - last month broke the 2019 record of 18,1 degrees. 

Thursday 0700hrs

On Thursday afternoon...

...we headed off in the boat again, leaving Heerenveen at 1715hrs. By 1935hrs we were settled in Boornzwaag for a long weekend. We had eaten on the way, so we went to the havenmeester and paid - and had a couple of beers...with the boat in the background.

On the way...

On Friday, we had to cover the windows and provide a bit of shade for Boeke. It worked well with a nice breeze through the wheelhouse

In the background is a boat belonging to a keen fisherman. We met him last year and this year he has had his boat there for 4 months! He has heaps of fishing gear including 2 extra boats...(one is a Pike Master brand). He goes out in the early morning, evening and overnight, as well as having fishing lines all along the jetty if there are not many boats.

He caught a rather large snoekbaas (a pike) which he duly gutted and filetted. We're not sure about the legality of snoek fishing...he also had a bag full of eels, which are definitely protected (and therefore illegal). I'm rather glad in a way because I always complain that "fishing is OK here, but there's nothing to eat".

Janny asked him "don't you have to work?" - he laughed and said "I only come here from Thursday onwards - every week". I think his T-shirt said it all - "Born to Fish - Forced to Work".

His wife came and picked him up on Saturday, as he had a family birthday to go to.

He also told us that he had asked his boss for Friday's off - the boss grumbled a bit and so he said, "well, I'll have to look somewhere else"...The Boss said OK. We don't know what his work is, but it must pay well!

The fishing boat(s). Rubber dinghy on davits at the back.

They're everywhere...

And, just behind the fisherman's boat is a small boat inlet and a house that we walk past every time we go anywhere. Janny saw an Australian flag go past and then it turned into that house! So she went to ask what is the flag about? The man is married to an Australian woman and they have a "half-Australian son" - they fly the Boxing Kangaroo every time he (the son) comes home...

and later on Friday evening...

We've seen this one before...

...as long ago as 1994. Back then, a typical day out for us was to go and visit boatyards and boat havens - I'm still taken aback sometimes at just how many boats there are...and how much money is tied up.

I got to see lots of boats and lots of Friesland in those early years - until Janny got sick of it, I think!

Anyway, this particular Lemsteraak was literally on it's last day of "finishing touches" before being handed over to the owner. The theme was the "Happy Hippo", even with dancing hippo carvings inside - and a hippo on the tiller. Back then, they invited us to go on board and have a look - they were very proud of their work! It has since had a name change - to Bolle.

The hippo on the tiller...

Janny bought a new SUP board - this one with a detachable seat and footrest.

She had a bit of drama with attaching the fin. She had let a small threaded plate fall out of the bag, but didn't notice until she came to attach the fin. Lots of cursing about bits missing and just my luck etc... and then, just a minute... it MUST be here somewhere... it had fallen through a crack in the jetty - which, luckily, had a solid filling underneath - i.e. not directly through to the water.

It was only 1.5cm square and just visible.

Now, a few weeks ago, Janny had been trying to take all my "might come in handy" stuff off the boat, but we had compromised by putting it all in plastic crates in out of the way places.

Needless to say, it required some of my "what's this for?" stuff to retrieve the bracket.

Also needless to say, I reminded Janny of just how good some "stuff" can be...😁

A year ago, or two, I wrote about "some houses having two or more sides of the land with a place to moor the boat" in Boornzwaag.

This was the block, in particular. Mr Haveachat reared his head again, this time in the form of a gardener - to tell us "yeah, they paid 400,000 Euros for the old house and knocked it down and built this one for 600,000...he was speaking rapid-fire Frisian with a local accent - I could barely keep up with him, but he gave us all the details, including the fact that the stainless steel nails are each also sealed with glue!

Like all the houses in this estate, it has access to the main waterway where we are moored.

Saturday

Saturday evening.

Lots more boats, many with fold-up electric bikes - won't be long now before we buy a couple - says Dicky Knee after having walked nearly 40kms since Thursday!