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I always feel a little sad leaving our Joie de Vivre to face the winter months alone, however with the cooler weather starting to bite it is time for these sallows to fly south. After our little jaunt on some of the canals in central Belgium we returned to our winter mooring at Coupure in Read more

The beauty of our aqueous home is that you can choose to stay in port or venture to new harbours further afield. After a few days of cleaning and maintenance (varnishing and painting), then visits with our friendly Brugge bargees group the weather turned wintery, so we stayed put for a few weeks. But then Read more

After a pretty ordinary summer, with more days of rain than sunshine, with the arrival of autumn the sun decided to grace us with its presence. Our first stop down the canal fron Verne, was Diksmuide, which being located in a pastoral area, is famous for its butter. In 1914 the Germans overran Belgium hurrying Read more

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 Read more

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 Read more

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 Read more

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 Read more

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, Read more

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 Read more

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 Read more