I don’t need to tell anyone that Peter and I love a soirée, whether it’s drinks at the yacht club on Friday night, a dinner party or even a catch up for coffee. For the past 6 weeks our social interaction has been limited to short conversations with lock keepers, harbour masters , sales personal or the occasional passerby that wants to know how we sailed a barge from Melbourne to Europe. But I shouldn’t complain, at least we are out and about, unlike our lockdown colleagues in Melbourne.

With no visitors from Australia to look forward to it was time we searched out some of the people we had made acquaintances with in 2018 and 2019.

So we left Zelzate and headed south to the town of Oudanaard to meet up with Claire and Jeremy on Happy Chance, which is the same model Piper as Joie de Vivre.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

It was a long trip to Veurne, through the sea lock at Nieuwpoort, made famous during the First World War when the locks were opened flooding the Ijzer stopping the advancing German army, then we travelled up a narrow weed covered canal.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The party was over all too soon and we were off down the canal to Diksmuide.

The trip from Vlissingen to Middelburg was through 4 lifting bridges and although we were ready to go at 10.30 we were informed by bridge control that the next opening was at 12.45. Oh well should have checked before we left the harbour. Our trip to Middleburg was part of a flotilla of 4 yachts and 3 smaller boats. This is the start of the traditional mast up route through the Netherlands With this amount of traffic would we find a mooring in Middleburg or be forced to motor on?

Middelburg was established around the 8th to 9th century as a fortified town, in response to Viking attacks. By the 17th century it became the second most important centre for the Dutch East India Company, the first being Amsterdam.

• 

• 

• 

• 

We arrived on market day with the city boasting lots of visitors and as we are gradually getting used to, no indication of the effects of the raging worldwide pandemic, which has plunged our home town into another endless lockdown.

• 

• 

We spent 2 nights in Middelburg before heading north on the canal to the picturesque town of Veere, which is situated on the Veerse Meer. Veere translates into ferry, and as such it was established as a ferry crossing. Later, in the 18th century it was an important trading port for Scotland

This picturesque town offered a delight around every corner, ancient buildings, overgrown gardens with an abundance of flowers, artistic surprises and the remains of a star fortification.

Not a problem for seasoned sailors? Not in a 50 ft yacht, but a barge that sits happily on an inland canal, well that’s a different story.

We endured 1/2 an hours battering before we reached a bolt hole, into a canal that lead to the town of Goes.

I left the last story with Joie de Vivre moored up in a marina at Zelzate. What was planned to be a 2 day sojourn ended up 8 days while we waited for the part for the hydraulic steering to be delivered. In desperation we caught the bus and train back to Brugge to pick up the part which had been sent there in error

The trip to Brugge was in itself a truely terrifying experience. As I boarded the bus I was comforted on seeing a sign designating the seating plan. With social distancing the bus could safely accomodate 9 people. Well that’s okay. And of course everyone was required to wear a mask. We commenced the journey with 5 hearty souls. First stop another 3 stepped on board, next stop 4 then to my horror next stop 6! This pattern continued for the next hour with no policing of the number of people on the bus. Standing room only and jammed in like sardines.Then of course the mask rule was slack, with masks worn on chins, one guy even had it on his arm. The train was a welcome relief, with first class tickets purchased and only 4 in the compartment.

So other than risking life and limb on the corona express, what other delights did Zelzate offer?

Our next drama was some information obtained from some local boat owners. Apparently the harbour had been infected by a steel eating bacteria after an explosion in February at a nearby factory. We were advised to leave the marina as soon as we could. Thankfully the hydraulic steering had been fixed so we scuttled north up the canal to the port city of Terneuzen

The West Schelde is in the province of Zeeland and is the only estuary of the Schelde offering direct access to the sea. It is an important shipping route to the port of Antwerp and Belgium. Our mission, planned for the following day, was to cross the West Schelde to the seaport of Vlissingen.

With the wind at 5 to 7 knots we were off across the estuary in the morning for our 22km journey. Luckily we were running with an ebbing tide, that quicken the pace. And I do mean luckily as we didn’t consult the tide table before leaving or notify the port authorities!

Vlissingen is historically known in English as Flushing, and is the third most important port in the Netherlands. Because of its strategic position over the centuries it has been marked by invasion, oppression and bombardment. Today it is a popular tourist destination for the boating fraternity and marks the entrance of the Walcheren canal.

One night in Vlissingen, then we were up the canal to Middleburg. But that’s a story for another day

Firstly I’m not complaining, it’s more a weather update from Belgium. But it has rained everyday, bar 3, since we arrived, making the most important accessory, an umbrella.

So now to an update on our journey. We are still in the grips of marine services. The engine instrument panel, which was shorting out has been replaced. We had an enforced wait to have the engine cooling system checked, but as it is too close to the water line, no repairs could be done. We were advised it was safe until next year, when we will slip the boat.

As I write we are in Zelzate, waiting for parts to fix the steering hydrolic oil reservoir, which was not correctly installed during the build. Oh well it’s only a boat

But back to our journey. We spent 4 days in Ghent. The crowds had not diminished so we steered clear of the tourist sites. There was a visit to the best chip shop in the world, dinner out one night, a walk around the flower market and of course a little shopping

We diverted off the main canal to the smaller Moer canal and the picturesque mooring at Spanjeveer marina. Although we were just an arms length from the commercial port, this canal wound by meadows and farms and the well provisioned town was only a 15 minute bike ride away.

Our current mooring at Zelzate marina is just off the main canal and though it is a forced stop to wait for the marine engineers I am happy we are safely locked away. The rain has come again and it is blowing 15 to 20 knots. Not a good day to navigate!

I crowed a little early in boasting that all the systems on Joie de Vivre were shipshape and tickety boo. On the contrary into our third morning the sensor in the grey water tank fused resulting in a backup in the showers and sinks and a flood in the bilge. But don’t despair dear reader, the crew was on hand to deal with the clean up and after consultation with the captain the failure was diagnosed and the replacement spare part was on its way.

This enforced layover allowed for a few trips into the old centre of Brugge. As Australians trained to be crowd adverse for the past 18 months we were horrified. The town was packed with tourists, admitably non of our oriental brethren who usually pack the streets, but Europeans from each corner of the continent.

With our new sensor installed and the boat cleaned (I’m still chasing away spiders), a week since our arrival and we were finally ready to depart Coupure and adventures further afield. With a fond farewell to our harbour master Steve and his wife Nell, we headed to Ghent to have some repairs done on the heat exchanger system and the instrument panel, which was meant to be fixed a few months ago.

After missing the European boating season for 2020 we were hopefully optimistic that we would return to our Joie de Vivre in 2021. However to achieve this end a number of hurdles had to be successfully navigated.

1. Vaccinations with documented proof of the required 2 jabs.

2. Permission from the Australia border force to leave the country

3. The purchase of airfares(not too difficult thanks to Julie Avery)

4. A documented negative Covid test 72 hours before departire

5. Health declarations for all the countries we were transiting through

With all these documents in our hot little hands we finally departed on Wednesday 28th to our first stop, Hong Kong. All I can say is international Covid travel is e very different experience. To my dismay with the lounges closed there was no pre boarding glass of champagne. And the flight, only 25 people on board and no walking around the plane while in the air.

The next shock was on arriving at Hong Kong airport. This previously vibrant shopping hub was deserted , with the shops not only closed but empty. Again no lounges opened and to add insult to injury our flight to Zurich was delayed which pushed back our connecting time time from Zurich to Amsterdam from 1 hour to 6 hours. But I’m not complaining, we had escaped!

After the Armageddon like experience of both Melbourne and Hong Kong we felt as though, instead of arriving in Europe, we had been diverted to another planet. The airports were packed with people enjoying the luxury of travel. Admittedly everyone is required to wear a mask, but you can forget about contact tracing and social distancing. It is even difficult to find complimentary hand sanitiser.

We finally arrived at Joie de Vivre at 6.30 pm on the Thursday after a mammoth 40 hours from door to door. We were warmly welcomed by the harbour master. I even had the lady who lives in the house opposite our mooring come and say hello promising a catch up when we return for the winter mooring in October.

The joyful news is that all the systems on the boat kicked over on the first try. The downside is after 2 days on board I still have miles of cleaning and thousands of spiders to chase away.

We are now in Coupure, our winter mooring in Bruges. It has been rather a wet trip south, with rain everyday. I wish I could stuff a few storm clouds in my bag to bring back to the drought effected areas in Australia.

But all the rain did not impact on our journey. The wheelhouse is snug and as there are not many locks in this part of the world, so the crew did not have to step out very often to throw the lines. And the purchase of a new warm jacket at Willemstad offered protection when I did have to brave the elements.

The last part of our journey took us from Rotterdam, back to Dortrecht, then onto Willemstad and Tholen, down the Scheldt Ring Canal through Antwerp harbour to Dendermonde and Ghent, then the 4 hour trip on the Ostend Ghent canal to Brugge. Not bad for our final 2 weeks on the waterways.

In summary our 2019 year on Joie de Vivre saw us cruise the Thames, cross the Channel into Europe, explore parts of the Belgium, French and Dutch waterways, covering approximately a total of 2628kms, visiting 51 ports and welcoming aboard 9 staying guests and a number of new friends.

We said goodbye to our boat, packed up and winterise on the 22nd October, with plans to return in April with new adventures waiting.

In 2016 we had a fabulous trip through South Holland with friends on a hire boat. So it was time to revisit, again with friends, on our own boat. Our starting point was Utrecht where we meet Robin and Phil Mellet. Peter did not brave the bridges of Utrecht in our boat , as he did in the hire boat, so we came off the Amsterdam Ring Canal on a sunny Sunday afternoon, turned right onto the Vecht, and were lucky enough to find the last mooring through the lock at Utrecht.

Joie de Vivre in Utrecht surrounded by hire boats

We thought we had a lucky mooring until I woke the next morning to find my beautifully cleaned boat covered in bird shit! Uck, a warning to the unwary, don’t park under trees. The first day in Utrecht with the Mellets saw us walk our feet off with not only a city walking tour, but an underground tour as well.

we were now off on our adventure, with our trip down the Vecht taking us pass luxury houses to Loenen and dinner at the 1 star restaurant t’Amsterdammertje, which was as tasty as I remembered it from 2016.

Then it was onto Amsterdam with a mooring at Six Haven. And that was a long day, as we sat waiting for bridges to open. We eventually found out after a lot of phoning and radioing that they were having problems with the system, that left us waiting at a few bridges for over an hour.

For those familiar with Amsterdam, Six haven is across the Noord sea Canal from the city, with easy access via the free ferry. So it was Amsterdam, with a segway tour in order, a visit to the Rijks Museum (my third) and a little bit of shopping (while Peter and Phil visited the Maratime museum).

And yes we would venture back again to Amsterdam, but now we headed north to Haarlem, arriving on market day. This is perhaps one of the best markets that I have visited in the Netherlands, the other being in Maastricht. The market gave us the opportunity to introduce the Mellets to a speciality of the Netherlands, the fish truck with not only fresh delights, but fried prawns with a dipping sauce, which have now become one of my go to dishes.

Lunch in the market

We had our last spurt of the European summer in Haarlem and although we were now heading south the weather worsened.

But it’s snug inside

With a change in the weather we didn’t linger in Leiden or Delft but made a dash to Rotterdam and the historic harbour of Veerhaven. The museum in Rotterdam closed in May, for renovations that are estimated to take 5 years. With no museum to visit, Robin, Phil and I took a day trip on the train to Den Haag to see the Mauritius Haus and Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Sadly the day came too quickly and we farewelled our last visitors for this season. As I sit writing my blog, with the rain tinkling on the cabin roof, I think, like the swallows we should be heading southto Australia and a warmer climate. The start of this journey has been delayed by storm warnings, but hopefully we can throw off our lines tomorrow and commence our trip to our winter mooring in Coupure.

There is only one thing I can say about these last 2 weeks, and that is, ‘how do you pronounce the name of that city’!! However, the haven master at Leerdam gave me a good hint, if you see a ‘g’ pronounce it as an ‘h’ as in hospital, but then he confided that most English speaking people don’t even try.

So we left Nijmegen (pronounced nighmaygan), for Tiel, then up the Amsterdam Ring Canal to Wageningen (the ‘w’ is pronounced as a ‘v’), to Arnhem. This is on the Nederrijn, which is a tributary of the Rhine. Then back to Culemborg. From there we left the major rivers for a trip down the Merwedekade to the Linge and the town of Leerdam and Gorinchem. (There’s that ‘g’). We rejoined the commercial route of the Bowen Merwede to Dortretch, then up the Noord to the Lek, stopping at Kinderdyke, then Schoonhoven. Sounds confusing? Well don’t run off to find a map, I have included one below. And if it looks as though we have been travelling around in circles, well yes we have!

Map of travels

Each town or village has its own unique character. Arnhem was the site of a major battle in the Second World War. The town was heavily bombed, but the church was in its final stage of rebuild, with the reopening scheduled to coincide with a 75 year commemoration of the battle at the end of September. We went to the top of the tower by lift, to admire the view and stand on the projecting glass floors.

Gorinchem gave us the opportunity to unpack the bikes, to ride along the top of the dikes and take a ferry to the other side of the river to explore further a field. Who said bikes weren’t a good investment?

The church in Dortrecht boasts beautiful stained glass windows, from past centuries and from present time, and of course an opportunity to light a candle.

We planned a visit to Kinderdijk and and the world heritage listed windmills. The nearest harbour to the windmills was across the river, so it was out with the bikes again, and onto the ferry. After the peaceful seclusion of the towns along the rivers and canals, it was a bit of a shock to be back in the land of the tourists and even though we are late in the season, there was still plenty of them.

The windmills are not only a museum, but still operate dragging the water from the land below sea level, and pumping it out into the river. You really have to admire the Dutch ability to manage water. Perhaps some should go to France to educate the VNF.

We have admired windmills, ancient fortification, (this part of the world has been fought over for years), lovingly maintained listed buildings, harbours full of historic barges and of course the river traffic, both the monsterous barges that dwarf our Joie de Vivre and our fellow pleasure boats.

And finally, it was fun discovering the small statues hidden in obscure places in some of the towns.

These fellows guard the town gates at Gorinchem

From Kinderdijk we cruised up the Lek stopping at Schoonhoven for a sleepless night on the town wall, suffering from the seemingly continuous wash from the commercials, who still ply the river at night. This wash surged into the harbour and threw us against the wall. This combined with about a 1 metre tide, saw us up and off early to dive off the Lek and back into the quieter environs of the Mederweder canal and our journey to Utrecht to meet the Mellets on Tuesday.

I really can’t be more blunt about this part of our journey. The Meuse in the Netherlands becomes the Maas, and of course as with any rivers, it becomes wider as it meanders to the sea. It is also a busy commercial route with 2 very deep locks. A lot of people asked about the traffic on the channel, but that was a walk in the park compared to the barge traffic on the rivers.

In one lock, we were called in as the second boat, wedged between 2 110 meter barges. As in all locks, once the lines are secured, it is important to control the movement of the boat as the water is let out or in as the case maybe. The next challenge is to hold the boat secure and not to be thrown around, as the boat in front motors off. As the big commercials throw out a lot of wash this can sometimes be quite a task.

And Karen still has to smile for the camera!

But big rivers and boats aside, back to a commentary on our visits along the river Maas and Waal.

We had a lovely 4 days in Maastricht moored in the historic harbour (the Bassin), close to the city centre. Wednesday and Friday were market days, and the best thing in the market, the cooked fish stands!

Our new bikes also got a bit of a work out, as we travelled further afield than the historic centre. Not that the suburbs were exciting, but we did find a watchmaker to fix my broken watch, at a very Christian price, €0!

The next European heat wave was starting to kick in as we headed from Maastricht to Maasbrecht. Fortunately all the marinas along the river are equiped with power, so once moored up, we kept cool in air conditioned comfort.

The 2 day stop in Maasbrecht was to accomodate a visit to Linnson boat builders, which only confirmed that we preferred our Piper boat, not only for the cost, but also the detailed fit out and finish.

From the Maas we turned onto the Waal, which is the Rhine in the Netherlands and travels to Rotterdam. We motored upstream a few kms to the port of Nijmegen. Even at this time of the year, with a reported drought, the river was flowing at 2.5 to 3 knots, that slowed our uphill passage quite considerably. Just as well it was only a few kms! Nijmegen sits on a bend in the river, so the commercial barges were indicting to pass on the starboard side, instead of port. Quite a challenging traffic situation.

The interesting town of Nijmegen is the oldest town in the Netherlands, being settled by the romans and boasts the ruins of a castle built by Charlemagne. It was also the home of the medieval painters, the Limbourg brothers, who produced 2 book of hours, and are considered to be the fathers of Flemish art.

And if you asked what Peter did on his birthday, it was navigating from the Maas to the Waal, dodging the commercial barges and battling a strong current.

The port in Nijmegen