Barge Date:  22-05-2017

Catching Up

After getting Rich off to the train station, I departed south. I would soon be entering the Wallonia (French speaking) area of Belgium. The idea is to meet up again with the Silk Purse and proceed further south. I pass through several locks by following a large commercial barge with no problems.

I needed to go through the Bossuit lock for the mooring area that is on the other side. This is a big,
big lock with a lift of about 30 feet. You enter in a concrete canyon with green algae growing all around you. In locks of this size, the only way to tie on your boat is to have floating bollards attached to the walls. Once attached and water begins to enter the lock again, you and the bollard float to the top. It takes maybe 10-12 minutes for the lock to fill up.

On the other side, I spied the Silk Purse tied to a floating dock. I cruised past, did a 180 turn and came in in front of them with a pretty good maneuver.

I spent the time working in the boat and riding the bike to a town about 2 miles away. I needed food which I found and I was looking for a good hardware store but no such luck.

Anywhere where you have several pleasure boats - this includes metal barges as well as fiberglass and metal cruisers - there is always the opportunity to gather with the other boaters. With the Silk Purse tied up, it is a good bet that the gathering will take place on their barge. Carole, Barrie and I spent the evening with a couple from New Zealand talking about canals, boating, and the experiences that others bring to the party.

The Silk Purse and our boat departed in the morning through the large Bossuit lock, this time going down, and headed further south and east. There was a bit of excitement for me in that I ran aground. Honestly, I did nothing wrong.  We were waiting for the next lock to be available and had to "hover" in place while we waited. There was plenty of room and I was a good distance from any shoreline but somehow, in an area not marked with warning buoys, I found myself unable to move.

After trying several high speed revs of the engine with no movement, my first thought was to have Silk Purse pull me free. But the lock was now available and they were proceeding in and did not respond to my horn or the radio. I don't know why the radio didn't raise them. As the large commercial was leaving the lock, I could see a swell of water in front of it, and I hoped that it would be enough to lift the boat to allow me to go forward. And it worked just that way; I was ready and the boat moved. A surprising event and it caused a bit of consternation.

by CG

We were joined in the next lock by Sojourner who had been with us in Diksmuide. We all continued south and east through the city of Tournai (see above) to our final destination of Antoing having to pass through  a section of canal that is one way alternating traffic and we had to hold until we were given the green light. My mooring approach at Antoing was a thing of perfect beauty.

At this location, there is a substantial boat store geared mostly for the commercial operators but they do have some items that would be useful for people on a barge. I purchased several small items from them.

The next morning, I woke up to a no electric power situation. This had happened before, and the thought was that I was the culprit, having done a load of wash just off of the batteries. But overnight there was almost no electric activity other than the refrigerator and a low battery situation turned off the inverter.

With advice from Barrie, I tested each battery and found that one of the house batteries was reading 9 volts. Normally they should be reading 12 volts or more. This means the battery is bad and since they work in pairs, it means purchasing two new batteries. This type of battery used for house electricity is of the gel type and is very large and very, very heavy. It takes two people to move one around.

Finding a source for this size and type of battery is not every day work. In the end, we were referred to a store in Tournai and I spoke with a person there in my best French and he seemed to know what he was doing and what I wanted to purchase. If there was a weak link, it was me. So to make sure that we were doing the correct thing for the correct battery, I called Marianne and asked her to call the store to confirm everything that I had set in place. She did, and everything looks good for a pick up of the new batteries next week.

Of course next week is when Marianne arrives from the US. In order to collect my long fought for Belgian visa, I must fly to Atlanta to go to the consulate and have them give me the paperwork. Marianne and I will meet in Atlanta, spend the night, go to the consulate and then fly out. Two trans-Atlantic flights in 2 days, you would think they would give me first class just for the fun of it.

Last night another big shindig on the Silk Purse. This time a couple from the UK in their double wide narrow boat, the Jolly Roger, joined in the fun.

Today I am being picked up by my kind brother-in-law for the trip back to Brussels to be ready for the flight back to Atlanta. I guess as a parting shot the boat wanted to leave me with good memories and work to come by having the manual toilet fail. I think I have the correct parts on hand but will be ordering more from the supplier. Hope to have them sent to Brussels for our return next week. That would be good timing.

 We drove by the very impressive lift lock, so stopped to take a picture.  It will be fun using it.  Boats enter a large "bathtub", maybe several boats as the tub is big, and as one tub goes up, another comes

down. There is a video here that shows the lock in operation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJBqnOpZnM

In preparation for the arrival of the Admiral, I have been attempting to clean the boat but without electricity and now without one of the toilets, I am limited to just straightening things up. I hope she understands. Anyway, we are both looking forward to seeing each other after nearly 3 months of separation.

Here are a few more pictures from the travels.

Tim and Rich

This old car has something to do with Eddy Merckx, greatest bike racer ever - a Belgian

Art in Oudenaarde

and another type of lift bridge

A brick windmill

Silk Purse to the left

                                                              

Barge Date: 13-05-2017

From "this is what it is all about" to "playing with the big boys"

This will be a short post because, as they say, pictures speak a thousand words and I am sure you would rather see the pictures than me writing 1000 words. See below.

This is about an independent trip that I am taking with my friend Rich from Latvia. After charging the batteries and starting the boat, we did a 180° turn and headed up the Leie river (la Lys in French).

This section of the river is absolutely beautiful. The river is narrow with many twisting turns and on both banks beautiful views of stately weekend homes and pasture scenes. It was a lot of fun driving the boat over this section of water. And there were some exciting times on the river. Kayak users, small boats, and surprises at the worst possible tight turn. But no one hurt, no damage, and in fact we touched no one. But look at the pictures and you will see what I mean. I want to go back and do this several times. Now we know where all the Belgian money is hidden - in these homes along this river.

But after this bucolic trip we entered no man's land - commercial waterways. And it started immediately when we made our turn on to this busy thoroughfare. We had to pause to let a commercial pass to our starboard then we pulled in behind him.

Up ahead of this commercial was another boat heavily laden with product. So the boat in front of us attempts to pass and completes the pass immediately where another commercial waterway enters from the starboard side. So now we have two commercials in front of us and we all turn south into the waterway. Very quickly things begin to happen. A third commercial, running empty and running fast, was pulling in behind us. We were a little surprised to see him. And, running fast and empty, he wanted to pass and he began to do so. For some reason he did not know of a fourth commercial boat coming from the opposite direction. How wide is this canal?

So picture if you can or simply look at the picture, three boats running abreast, two in one direction and the third in the opposite. When I looked out my port window there was the fast guy, just 6 feet away. I'm sure he's been on this water many, many times while this is my first but I knew I had to keep my line and keep driving forward. There was nowhere to get off.

This lasted for several minutes until we came to a turnaround section on the canal and I simply entered and reduced power to let the fast boy go by. For me, pretty exciting. On my first trip. With a visitor on board. Rich was impressed and it is his pictures that you're looking at on this post. The rest of the trip south was uneventful other than we shared a lock with another boat by the name of Memphis. We shared the lock with me coming in last and but there was plenty of room, and Rich and I handled it like pros. Neither of us made it to the next lock in time to go through so we tied up together to proceed the next morning at 10 AM. We were in the town of Oudenaarde.

This is a panorama..

Barge Date: 12-5-2017

More lessons learned for the master

I stayed several days in Deinze and in addition to looking over the town, there were things to do on the boat. I think I have used or tested all the things on the boat that I needed to know about except for one. Using the washing machine when not plugged into shore power.

We have two sets of batteries on the boat, simply labeled house and engine. It is possible with a switch to use one or the other or both. Perhaps best practice is when you are not connected to shore power to change the switch so that only the house batteries are being used. It is the hope then that when you need to start the engine you have a strong pair of batteries to produce the 24 volts needed.

It was a sunny day so I ran the washing machine just on the batteries, no shore power, but getting

good sun exposure. Prior owners have suggested a much shorter wash run to save on water and electricity. I probably didn't follow that suggestion to a T. But it ran fine and the voltmeters dropped just a little. I had not changed the switch to be using just one bank of batteries – the house batteries.

For a second load I chose to start the generator so that 220 volts could be produced directly for the house, bypassing the batteries. I had a little trouble with this. Last year, when I was looking to buy the boat we started the generator but did not actually use power from it. I took videos and notes and I thought I was proceeding as I should. But no 220. After a period of head scratching watching the old video and looking at my notes, I was stumped.

So what does someone like me do with this type of problem? I called on Barrie on the Silk Purse. He came over to the boat and we scratched our heads for a period of time and then he said: “What is this 32 amp switch on the control panel for?” I knew immediately that was the answer. I had turned it on and off several times but never tested for 220 volts when it was on. So our solution was found – turn on the switch dummy and also hook up the battery charger since the generator was running.

But the excitement was not totally over. The sun was shining, I thought the solar panels were working as they should, but the next morning when we wanted to depart for a trip I could not start the engine. Now for this I knew the answer. Start the generator, produce 220 volts, plug in the battery charger and charge the batteries. Barrie stopped by just to make sure I was doing it right. After about an hour of charging we were able to start the engine and begin our trip.

Now I believe I have tested and used all the important systems on the boat and I am ready for anything. Sure.

Regress. The night before, with only the light from the computer screen, I noticed movement out on the water. This is what I saw – 3 Canadian geese going down stream in a row and between the first and second adult were 4-5 babies and between the second and third adult 4 or 5 more babies. Convoy. Not sure this is normal practice but perhaps Jim and Sue who hang around the ornithology lab at Cornell might know.

Barge Date:  8-5-2017

A Down Day - Let us hear from you

We have made an attempt to notify family and friends about our European adventure. If you find time to read our posts, please let us know we have your ear.  I have a gmail.com account that has my tim name and the last name horchler with a period in between;  no spaces. (think that will hold off the email bots?) If you have stumbled onto the blog, say hello.

Out biking a few days ago and the phone rang.  Sandy S. calling from South Carolina.  First non-family phone call.  Thanks, Sandy.  Call the house to get the Belgian number or send me an email.

We have decided to stay tied to the commercial for today.  So I am doing simple tasks, such as determining light bulb types and wattages. Over time and owners there have been some changes but nothing ever thrown away.  All lights in the living quarters and ceiling light in the wheelhouse are 24 volt.  Some are small at 10 watts and others can go as high as 60 watts.  But one always has to consider battery drain so no more power than is needed. I think I can throw out some (but will I?).

It is working day on the water and there have been a number of large commercials passing by as well

as some fiberglass cruisers.  Seems the smaller boats make more wake than the big guys. In the picture you can see what looks like a lock door.  In fact, it is used to control water in the canal.

My six-month-old mouse died.  I don't like working with the touch pad on this PC so, as soon as I can, I will be looking for one. Where is a FNAC store when you need one?

Yesterday, while moving along the canal, I saw numerous Nazi pillboxes along the southern side of the canal. Most likely sealed up but

from the outside they looked in reasonably good condition.  I want to get the chance to see them closer. The spacing had them maybe 1km apart. A lot of space in between for the Allies to get through I would think. Will do some research. The canal would certainly slow down any advance.  Perhaps the Germans had already retreated and thus the fortifications were not destroyed.

Barge Date: 5-5-2017


A visit to Bruges

Click on photos for larger size.

We arrived in Bruges and tied up at a small dock that Silk Purse knows. It is located immediately in front of the famous cantilevered bridge over the canal. I have been able to see the bridge in operation and it is interesting not only in design but in how it works.

I walked to the center of the medieval city and began to explore street by street. I had little interest in going inside anything so I kept up a good pace. There were many tourists and the commerce along the streets and squares was dedicated to them. If you have done any traveling, I think you know what it must look like. I had some satisfaction in thinking that I live here. Not a permanent resident but someone that has his floating home tied up on a canal.



I shopped in a FNAC store to purchase two books and a longer cable for the iPhone. This store is something that gets Marianne excited for the large selection of books available. And as a tired walker I had to take refuge in a café on a square. And what does one have? I selected a coffee and a waffle. One can look at old building façades all day long and be interested, but it is also interesting to watch the people walking by. You hear all languages and see individuals to large groups of tourists being led by someone holding a sign in the air. I sat and enjoyed my snack, read a book and watched over the square. A native.

In the evening, I took my bike and began to circumnavigate the city by following the various waterways. Certainly at one time the town of Bruges was surrounded by canals. There are even canals through the downtown area which are used by small tourist boats. But many of the waterways are now just inland lakes, long and narrow and well suited for swans.

There are two boat marinas in town and I was able to discover both of them. Always amazed by the number of people on bicycles. On some stretch of roads you will see lane markings for autos, buses, bikes, and pedestrians. Everyone gets their own lane in Bruges.

I passed by three large windmills built several hundred years previously. This is one of the attractions of the city. I had mentioned earlier that Marianne's great-great-grandfather, François Stroobant, was a well known painter and many of the sites in the city are the objects of interest for painters today. With this post you can see two of Stroobant's paintings; one found on the Internet and one that we have at home. Both show Bruges.

The next day I set out with Carole and Barrie to explore the town. No real destination in mind but Carole wanted to find a lace bookmark. By necessity, we also needed to refresh ourselves with some drinks late in the morning. And by lunch time we needed to eat and selected a table along a smaller street. I had an omelette and it was perfectly prepared.

Back on the boat I addressed the swabbing of the deck. There is still dirt from over wintering. I wanted to go out on the bike one more time but that did not happen. Today the weather was the best I have experienced since arriving in March.

On the following day, Sunday, the weather was not great and we proceeded to pass along the city and head further east. In this city there are a good number of bridges to deal with and we proceeded to queue up and make the pass. Turn on the bells, lower the barriers along the road then raise up the bridge or rotate it, as the case may be, to let us pass. We did have to negotiate one large oval shaped lock and, without going into details, let me just say that my performance was not good. Always something to go wrong but I guess that is why I am still learning.

We passed by the tower painted long ago by Stroobant (following photos courtesy of Carole), and the three windmills that I wrote about earlier, and the view from the wheelhouse was very nice. You can understand why people want to visit the city.

              



We traveled approximately 13 km on the canal and tied up along a large commercial barge that is under restoration by the owner. The Silk Purse knows this person and he welcomes them to tie up here.

Barge Date: 4-5-2017

On Our Way

Today was a fun day. Heading north from Diksmuide towards Bruges and further locations. The early morning weather is gray and cold with some rain. For me however, I will be standing in the warehouse for the next five hours. I am not complaining.

After we get to Nieuwpoort I am traveling over new territory. I am following the Silk Purse and we

are headed northeast along the coast of Belgium. I can't actually see the North Sea but if you look in that direction you can see a line of condominiums along the beach. I am told this line of tall buildings covers the entire Belgian coast.

We are traveling on the Plassendale - Nieuwpoort canal and our objective for today is a small town called Oudenburg. We are traveling through farm country and I see a lot of spring activity. Hay is being readied for mulching and I see many dairy cows and sheep. Along the canal there is a good number of water fowl. I enjoy this angle of view of Belgium and imagine that I always will. It is a view that most people will never see.

After passing through the very large lock at Nieuwpoort we will be encountering a string of moving

This is a sliding lock door coming down.

bridges. This section of canal is controlled by a convoy system. Easterly and western traffic begin their crossing at different times in an attempt to coordinate the bridge openings. I don't know how well this works as Silk Purse and Lionel d’Antan are the only traffic we see in either direction. The canal is reinforced on both sides the entire length. This section of canal is certainly suitable for commercial barges but we don’t see any. That will change tomorrow when we get on the canal going to Bruges. So I have yet to have the thrill of passing a large barge and seeing what its wake will do to my smaller boat. Stopping for the night in Oudenburg, a fairly large town. As with most towns, the church steeple is a landmark that you can use to navigate the area. I take my bike towards the center of town and immediately see a grocery store. It is a new name for me: Spegelaere. It is the largest grocery store I have seen thus far in Belgium. The selection is very good and I discover my favorite Post cereal. I buy two boxes. After unloading the groceries at the boat I am off again on the bike to tour the town and out into the countryside.

The wheelhouse is the warm spot on the boat because of the wrap around windows. The day has turned out nice and the wheelhouse is warm. At our location there is free water and electricity. I wish this to be the case everywhere we stop but I know it will not be. Obviously the town put this dock at this location to attract people into town.

Note the pair of nesting birds.

In the evening I spent some time on Silk Purse talking about anything that comes to mind. Always interesting with Barrie and Carole. In the morning we will pull out about 8:30 and head towards Bruges. The Silk Purse has done this trip several times and knows where we can tie-up in town.

Once I am in Bruges, I will write more but a quick summary is that it is a historic town, has been designated so by the UN, and it is a fun town to explore. Mostly surrounded by canals. I have been there several times and I am sure I have not seen all there is to see. Marianne’s great-great-grandfather, a well-known Belgian painter, did a lot of his work in Bruges and if my memory is correct, he was called the painter of Bruges.

The boat has been handling well and sounds good. We have been cruising at about 8 km/h. At that speed I can take the time to see all that is around me but this must be done in quick glances as the boat is quickly affected by wind and my inattention. The following 2 pictures are courtesy of Carole; the second one shows Lionel d'Antan and Silk Purse side by side.

        

 

Barge Date:  01-05-2017

Belgian Pictures

Pictures from a few days along canal in Belgium.

Near Fintele, Belgium

6:36 from the barge

Along a canal path. Cleaning up the grass.

Lock at Fintele.  Belgian boaters heading to France.

Meal pictures to wet the appetite. I had eel.

Back in Diksmuide;  heading north towards Ostende, then Bruges.