Late but not lacking

 I'm tardy again, I know. It's been two weeks since I posted a blog, so it had better be a good one! Well, there's plenty of news which, in a way, explains why I'm late. It's been hectic here in the Flatlands.

Firstly, and so I can get it out of the way, I've just published a new book. It's a sequel to my boating travelogue Faring to France on a Shoe. This one is about our travels through Belgium and into France on the Upper Sambre river in 2018. Despite being a summer notable for its intense and prolonged heat, we had the most wonderful journey on our Hennie H (referred to as Hennie Ha in the book because that's how it's pronounced). The 'faring', the people, the scenery and the history of the towns and villages we passed through made it an incredibly rich experience. If you're interested in boating travels, the link to the book is here, but do be aware, there are a lot of locks to go through before reaching Nirvana ... sorry, France.

The other most important news also involves the Hennie H, and this is both a sad and a happy tale. A month or so ago, we started testing the Peugeot Indenor engine Koos installed last year in the hopes that all would be well for this summer's faring adventures. If you recall, we went to the yard at the end of October last year (see my post here) for a lift out, the main purpose being to clean our outboard cooling system. 

We'd noticed that while the engine ran fine at low revs and tick over, it overheated when revved up to full power. One of our diesel mechanic friends suggested the Blokland cooler, which sits in a well in the hull, might have got choked with weed—a good theory and quite a possibility. Sadly, this was not the case, but we went to and from the yard without any mishaps, albeit it at slow speeds. Further enquiry suggested that the cooling system needed some alterations (I won't go into detail), so Koos did them, but as it was so late in the year, we did not do any test runs.

Well, this year, when Koos first started the engine, he did so with some optimism. A revised system, a clean cooler, what more could we ask? Good question. The first indicator that something was wrong was the oil pressure alarm refusing to go off. The end result was more alarming than the alarm itself. The oil was contaminated with cooling liquid. Disaster, as anyone who knows about oily bits can tell you.

After gasps, tears and numerous conversations with a wonderful knowledgeable friend (Barrie Grant, you were fantastic!), fast forward to a new expert (the former one was unwilling) who came, dismantled the Peugeot and diagnosed a terminal condition (a cracked cylinder head). Yours truly went into total meltdown but not before she'd looked up alternative possibilities and found a company selling Chinese marine engines here in the Netherlands. 

Surprised (and encouraged) at the reasonable price, and with the expert's diagnosis burning a hole in our hearts, we decided to go for broke and buy a new engine. Yes. Again. It's not red; it's (yawn) grey. But it's shiny, new and never been used. Here it is. Thank heavens we didn't dispose of K's wonderful home-built crane. The story of the purchase is too long to go into here, but that was quite stressful in itself and almost resulted in a second meltdown—I won't say whose.

Anyway, all's well that end's well as they say (and I hope). With all the experience Koos has now had in installing engines, I think he could set himself up in business. He's done an amazing job (yet again) and it's almost ready to go, but ... we won't even turn the key until our expert is present and has checked everything over. Although relatively inexpensive, this was quite an investment and we want to be sure of our guarantees.

As far as everything else is concerned, work goes on and it's still very cold, but just as a teaser, these photos below are of a potential new mooring; for which boat, you might ask. Well, I'm not saying just yet, but it's filled us with quite some excitement. I do love change, and this one might bring some fantastic benefits. Since foreign travel might be denied us this year, we are looking at other options.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and the week to come allemaal.