The Journey -
An Ending ... and a New Beginning

AN ENDING …

We are coming towards the end of our time in Gent, so there has been a bit of activity as we try to do all those things that we had planned.

It all started on 14 March, when we drove down to Ternuzen.  This is a Dutch port on the Westerschelde, just east of Zeebruges, and is where both Temujin and Rosy entered European waters when they were first brought over to Europe.  We had coffee and spiced apple pie in a lovely restaurant that overlooks the entrance from the Westerschelde to the Ternuzen-Gent ship canal, and watched the barges and ships coming and going. 

We then had a walk up to the lock to watch it working, passing, on the way "Sex Shop 69".  Now.  Why "69"?  It certainly wasn't anything to do with its street number, which I estimated as 39 - being as how it was in-between 37 and 41.  So why "69"?  Why not 67, or 71 or 96 or 88 or some other random number.  There are times when I find the world very odd.

We then set off to find the most excellent chandlery.  It is up by the barge docks, so its stock is generally of the hunky-chunky, professional variety, rather than the twee stuff often found in yachty-ho chandleries (lovers of which should travel along the coast to Breskens, where there is a pretty, busy port with lots of yachts and a wonderful, brassy, gadgetry 'must-have-one-of-those' sort of chandlery).

Thence back to Gent to meet up with George and Helen from the barge 'Floan'.  They used to work a pair of narrow boats (Petrel and Moon) in the UK - cargoes (often coal) in the winter and camping boats in the summer.  They now run the 'spitz' 'Floan', basing themselves in Gent, though they are away for months at a time, and are then only in Gent for a few days.

They are both readers, and we lend each other books.  Helen lent me the recently published (and much acclaimed) Antony Beevor book "Berlin - the downfall, 1945".  It's 500 pages long, so I switched the tele off and read it within 3 days.  It really made our recent visits to Berlin worthwhile, as so much of the geography of the city is now lodged in what passes for my brain.  The story makes a whole lot more sense once one knows that the centre of Berlin is surprisingly compact.

By chance, about a week before I read the book, the TV showed the film "Downfall" - a much acclaimed German film, made a couple of years ago, about the last few days of Hitler's life.  So.  I've had enough of the Nazis for a bit.

WHERE TO GO FOR A HAUL-OUT?

We then had some decisions to make.  Our Belgian boat licences expire at the end of the month, so we need to be out of the Flemish bits of Belgium by then.  We also need our boat bottoms attended to.  Two years ago we went to Antoing/Peronnes where we were well looked after.  For a variety of reasons we fancied a change, so we had a road recce down at Veurnes - just in Belgium, on the coast - where there is a small boat yard run by an Andre.  He wasn't there, but we saw his facilities, and are now booked in for the end of March.  It's a 4 or 5 day journey to get there, so we will quit Gent on Sunday 26 March.

DIESEL PROBLEMS

A few weeks ago, we had a delivery of heating oil.  Mike and I took just over 600 litres between us, and the delivery driver printed out a bill, which we settled in cash.  The other day, I received a supplementary bill, as the driver had omitted to add the VAT, and they also wanted to make a 50 Euro delivery charge!!  I wrote one of my better letters, which caused the boss to appear in person.  He never did explain why the VAT had not been charged on the initial bill.  His claim for the delivery charge was based on the fact that we were charged the 'more than 1000 litres' rate per litre, and had taken less than 1000 litres!!  He could not say why we had not been charged the 500 to 999 litre rate.

In one way, he was quite reasonable, in that he accepted that all I was going to pay was the missing VAT.  However, he then had a rant about how dreadful it was dealing with boaters, and how he was going to do it no more!!  I tried to point out that the problems appeared to lie with the delivery driver who had set the wrong rate per litre and who had omitted to add the VAT.  The boss remained un-convinced.

RABBITS

Sight of the week was Fanny-the-Woof.  I threw a ball for her, and as she was bringing it back, she flushed out a rabbit, and gave chase.  So there was bunny, shifting into over-drive, being hotly pursued by a Fanny with a mouthful of tennis ball.

On Saturday 25 March I paid my last visit to Gent for a while, saying 'Goodbye' to Jeff the Book, and Helen from the barge 'Floan'.  Back on Rosy, it was (as ever) a rush to get Rosy out of 'stationary' living mode and into 'cruising' living mode.  We paid our electricity bill for the winter - Rosy used about 2.2 kw per day.  Indeed, we even corrected the haven-meister's arithmetic - he asked for 4 Euros for the electicity, but I insisted it was 40, and he eventually agreed.  Then, over a glass of beer (or five) we bid farewell to the friends we had made.

... A NEW BEGINNING

(if that isn't too tautological for the purists).

On Sunday 26 March, we started the engines, slipped our moorings and set off for the 2006 cruise.  We soon joined up with the Gent-Bruges canal, and in company with a blustery, westerly wind headed for Bruges.  It was a relatively uneventful day, with few boats on the water.  We moored just above the lift bridge at Moerbrugge.  At 4am we were awoken by several very loud shouts of 'Hello'.  A barge had arrived, and needed to moor until 6 or 7 am, when the bridge would open - and we were in the way!!  We made room by breasting up our two boats.  I assume that the barge left on time, as when I awoke at 8am it was gone.

Peaceful, out of the way Moerbrugge was the scene of heavy fighting in WW2, as the Canadians tried to force their way across the canal.  They lost some 50+ lives, the defending Germans even more.  A memorial, constructed out of bits of tanks, reminds us of these events.

We set sail at about 9am for our cruise through Bruges.  For those who have been there before …

The Coupure, which was very dilapidated, but provided free moorings, has now been 'developed', so instead of elderly wood pilings there is now some nice (?) neat concrete, for which one has to pay for the 'privilege' of mooring alongside.  To encourage you to moor there, the pretty reach alongside the windmills is now a 'no mooring' zone.  Personally, although it was pretty and full of friendly back-packers, I always avoided mooring there, as the passing barge traffic made it very uncomfortable.

The bridges through Bruges are also a pain.  There is a 5 or 10 minute wait at every single one, and a minute or two delay between every action thus:

Bell rings for a minute and traffic lights on the road turn red.

Half barriers descend

Wait a minute

Other half barriers descend

Wait a minute

Bridge rises/swings.  When it is fully open

Wait a minute

Lights for boats turns green

Further excitement for us was that the blustery wind continued, making control of the boats … interesting/challenging/difficult.

The lock of the day was, of course, the Bruges round lock.  Like many 'round' locks, it is not actually round.  It has curved sides, but it more approximates to an oval.  It is round(ish) mainly because it has 3 sets of gates.  We entered the gates from Gent, and exited the gates for Ostend.  A third set of gates gives access to the canal to Zeebruges.  Thus the lock has to have enough width to enable boats heading to and from Zeebruges to turn through a right-angle.

It is worth mentioning that Bruges used to be a port, but its entrance got silted up.  A canal was dug through the silt and a new sea-side harbour built … Zeebruges (Sea-Bruges).

We continued along the canal with the wind getting more and more blustery, and moored at Oudenburg, where there is a convenient floating quay with free water and electricity.  In the evening I read "Under the Greenwood Tree" by Thomas Hardy, a book I've wanted to read for some time.

The next day, the wind and showers continued as we butted along the canal towards Nieuport.  We were held up at a bridge by a cycle race, which was a most remarkable sight.  First a string of 'sponsor' vehicles, over a kilometre in length sped by, followed by a bunch of (I guess) about 100 riders, followed by another long string of support vehicles.

At Nieuport, we worked through the St Joris lock, and called in at the yacht club to top-up our tanks with cheap, red diesel.  Then a short cruise up the River Ijzer to Schoorbakkebrug, where the convenient floating pontoon was missing.  We moored there anyway.

The next morning we cruised back down to Nieuport, out through the St Joris lock, and then had a lock-keeper enforced delay of an hour.  I took the opportunity to bike down into Nieuport (which is a big yachty town but still retains its fishing fleet) to buy some really fresh fish.

Back on Rosy, the lock-keepers were eventually ready to work us through the Ganzepoot.  Ganze = Goose and poot = foot.  It is a nearly circular basin.  Five water-courses lead into it.  Three of them are armed with locks, though one of these is now disused.  The other two have non-navigable sluices.  Leading out of the basin is a channel to the sea.  Hence, the basin is tidal, and the locks are in use 3 hours either side of high tide.

The River Ijzer was the front line during World War 1.  The Belgians managed to 'control' the Ganzepoot, and used the sluices to control the flow of water to the extent that east of the River Ijzer (where the Germans were) could be flooded, whilst west of the Ijzer (The Allies) was dry (ish!!).  However, nipping out into no-man's-land to wind a sluice up or down was dangerous work, and the area is littered with memorials to those who were killed so doing.

After the Ganzepoot, we cruised along the canal to Veurne, being passed on the way by the cycle race.  This time it was being filmed from a helicopter, which (we heard later) not surprisingly, found Rosy and Temujin more exciting than a bunch of cyclists.  We were LIVE on Belgian TV!!!!

We worked through the lock at Veurne on Wednesday 29 March, and moored in the town port.  Mooring is free, and electricity is available via a card (bought at the lock or the Tourist Office) at a cost of 2.50 Euro for 10 kw.

So here we are, on a comfortable mooring in Veurne.  The plan is that on Monday we will move half a kilometre down the cut to Andre's boat yard to be hauled out for a week or so.  So in the meantime, we are relaxing, shopping and keeping our logs up-to-date.

Toodle pip!!

Bill