Well, here it is. Sunday evening and I’ve been trying to fathom where this last week has gone. Nothing of any note has happened and a lot hasn’t happened that should have.
The main event I was hoping to report on was the Great Move (i.e. moving Vereeniging from Rotterdam to Oudenbosch), which we’d planned to start on Friday or Saturday. Unfortunately, two quite major obstacles prevented us from leaving: the first was that poor Koos caught a cold, the first one he’s had since before Covid started. He got it via via via (as you do), but I suppose because we haven’t been exposed to them much in the last 18 months, it’s hit him quite hard. Luckily for me, I haven’t caught it from him; otherwise we’d both be a sorry pair. Anyway, it’s only a head cold and hopefully, he’ll be on the mend soon. The second obstacle was the weather, which has been quite foul these last few days.
I drove up to Rotterdam last Friday to do some more preparations and it took me four hours to get there. The rain poured, the thunder roared and the traffic crawled. I’ve never had quite such a dreadful drive up. It continued to tip down most of the night, but fortunately stopped by Saturday morning. I was very thankful as my daughter and her boyfriend came to help me lift my gangplank onto the boat and arrange the mooring ready for departure, the idea being that when the weather’s right we can just cast off and go. Being a strategic manoeuvre requiring military precision (haha), It wouldn’t have been fun in the rain at all. I also handed my little green rowing boat over to a neighbour. I’m not taking it with me for a number of reasons, but it was definitely a bit sad to say goodbye to my trusty little spuddle and painting friend.
Other jobs were topping up the oil and coolant and charging the battery so that’s all ready. I was relieved to see Koos’s brilliant repair of the leaky cooling water pump has remained a success so far (the repair involved wrapping the joint with thin jute string and smothering it all in grease: a sort of homemade caulking – I think). Just to be sure, though, I laid a disposable nappy down next to it. I always have a supply of them because I use them to soak up any water that seeps into the bilges, a tip I got from my narrowboating friend and fellow author Roger Distill, whose blog is here. (By the way, his books on narrowboat life are really great. Highly recommended.)
Anyway, by the end of the morning, it was clouding over once more and the first drops fell as I drove out of Rotterdam. By evening, it was chucking it down again. I was so glad we’d decided not to make the move, and even Koos, who claims to be an all-weather stoic, confessed it would have made him miserable as well, especially with his cold. Still, we’re ready to go as and when the weather and my nerves permit! It’ll be the longest trip we’ve done on the Vereeniging under our own steam and the longest with the current engine ever. Gulp. But that’s still in our future.
As for now, that’s about it really. Nothing new in this zoo. I don’t even have any photos this week, so I’ll have to dive into the archives to pretty up this post.
These three photos and my new header photo show what we’ll be leaving behind. It’s been a wonderful twenty years in the Oude Haven, and I’ll miss the harbour with its gorgeous barges and lovely folk… But to be without the increasing noise from the bars; to sleep uninterrupted by shouting drunks and night-time incursions on board; to come and go without worrying about tides, dodgy gangplanks and rearranged ropes, all this will make life much easier and infinitely more peaceful. Bliss, in fact. It’s the beginning of a new era and I’m looking forward to it.
