Well, here I am again after more than two weeks. I am always disappointed when I can't blog every week, but it's been quite a challenge to keep up with everything lately. Even now, I'll keep it brief because I have a heap of work to do before I leave. Leave? I hear you say.... for where?.
Well, this weekend I'm having some daughter days, and my youngest and I are off into the wilds with her caravan, so I won't be taking my laptop with me. Koos is bravely staying at home to man the drawbridge (gangplank) and keep the marauders out, and other daughter is bravely staying at home to finish writing her master's thesis.
In other news (and hence the title of this post), the wifi has broken down in our harbour and I have to rely on my phone as a hotspot. This is itself is fine, but because we have quite a significant tidal range, my phone signal often drops off when the tide is out and we sit low in the harbour; result – no (or painfully slow) internet until it rises again. All fun and games and part of life aboard a barge, but it does mean quite a disruption to my work life. Since it won't wait for me to finish what I have to do, retreating to Zeeland is the only other option.
And in even more news, we have a new delay with starting the Hennie H's new engine. We have discovered a significant amount of dirt in our diesel tank, which looks suspiciously like diesel bug. The sample we took is also somewhat milky in colour, so we started draining the tank – a big job as there was around 300 litres of diesel in it. Ho hum. We are going to try and find somewhere to test the sample, but we don't want to put contaminated diesel in our new engine...and so we shall wait and see, but it's just adding to the time before we can get going again. Better news on that front in the next blog – hopefully!
In the meantime, a few photos might brighten up this post. Here are some boaty photos for all those who enjoy them. They were all taken in and around the Oude Haven.