Tuesday 18th May 2004 Roelagebrug. Waiting.
Warm and sunny all day. Two cruisers went downhill during
the morning. Bill had a chat with them as they passed. Made some lunch then later Mike loaded Bill’s bike in the boot
of the car and the two of them went off to the library in Ter Apel to look on
the internet for callback phone services - like Bill’s - but in the UK. They
went to the Post Office and three out of five packets had arrived for Bill. The
other two will arrive later, the Post Office clerk said. Mike bought two twenty
Euro top ups for Vodafone. He tried calling the D2Callya service operator and,
again like before, had trouble finding one who could speak English. Eventually
one said they would ‘phone back. It cost us 6 Euros to make the call and no one
‘phoned back. Peter sent an SMS to say that he was driving a 1960’s London
double-decker bus in London and it had broken down. I sent one back to ask if
he was playing the role of Riff Pilchard in a new version of “Summer Holiday”!
Later he sent another SMS to say that he’d signed on at a new agency and they’d
sent him to collect the bus to deliver it to be painted in Birmingham to start
its new life as a mobile disco. He said that the new owners weren’t very
pleased that he’d abandoned it, but what else could he do, he was employed to
drive it - not fix it! I got on with the chores. After dinner Mike dug the
sewing machine out to make his new map case. Had lots of problems with the
cotton bunching up underneath due to the extra thick and slippy material. He
adjusted the tension and changed the needle for a nice new sharp one and all
went well. I took over and finished it off except for the Velcro fasteners for
hanging it on the moped’s handlebars. He needed to buy some sew-on Velcro as
we’d only got self-adhesive stuff.
Wednesday 19th May 2004 Roelagebrug. Waiting.
Sunny, wind cooler, cloudy by midday. 5.7° C overnight. Mike
used the spare 20 Euro Vodafone top up on our British Vodafone. Then he took
Bill to the Post Office in Ter Apel. No post had arrived so they went to find
the bridge controller at Roswinkelerbrug in Ter Apel to ask for news of the stoppage
on the Haren-Rütenbrock kanal. They came back with a couple of telephone
numbers. The wind had picked up a lot and while we were talking to Bill a
sandstorm threw loads of fine white sand from the horse paddock alongside the
quay all over the boats. Chores, Lunch. We cut and pasted a new sunscreen on
the inside of the ZX’s windscreen, it wasn’t easy because it curves in three
directions at the same time! I decided it was about time we both had haircuts,
so I did Mike’s first and trimmed his beard (I accidentally slipped with the
clippers and gave him a bald spot on his chin which he swears I did on purpose
to try and get him to shave it all off!) then he cut my hair. (I accidentally
slipped with the clippers on the back of June’s head, but I haven’t told her
about it. Ed.) After dinner Mike took the camcorder to pieces, cleaned it and
put it back together (it was a gift from a friend who’d bought a new one who’d
said you can have it if you can fix it – Mike fixed it). We went out in the car
at 9.30 p.m. to have a look at the liftbridge on the Haren-Rütenbrock kanal and
came back over Sustrumer Moor to Sellingen and back to the boat in the
darkening twilight via narrow roads with beuatiful avenues of tall trees.
Thursday 20th May 2004 Roelagebrug. Waiting. Ascension Day
- Hol.
Milder night 11.3° C. Sunny morning until grey clouds
rolled over at 9.30 a.m. Showers but no wind, sun out again at teatime. Mike
phoned Glyn to ask him to send the post to Middelstum and asked him to look on
the ‘net for details of a callback service called PangIT based in Nottingham.
Later he took Bill by car to Ter Apel to find not only was the Post Office shut
but everything else was too as it was Ascension Day and a National Holiday.
Light rain was falling when they returned. Lunch. Mike copied info from our old
map A-Groningen/North Friesland, to the new one and plotted a GPS course for a
trip up the Stadtskanaal. Ran the gennie and I put the Mac on to catch up with
the log entries - nearly a week behind again. Glyn phoned to say that SangIT
wasn’t on the net as a Callback service. Mike had misspelled it, it was PangIT!
Six horse drawn carriages went past us, driving along the track into Ter Apel. At
7 p.m. a narrowboat-look-a-like called Var came through the swingbridge heading
uphill into Ter Apel. (A hireboat from Friesland Cruising). Half an hour later
a cruiser went past also heading for Ter Apel. This DIY canal is open until 9
p.m. We went out in the car to have a look at a strange looking railway line
shown on our German road map. It was on the far side of the river Ems near the
town of Dörpen and turned out to be a Maglev test track with trains reaching
speeds of 400kms/hour. On Tuesdays through to Fridays during the summer they
offered rides to the public on the 31.5 kms long track at a cost of 18 Eu per
ticket.
Friday 21st May 2004 Roelagebrug. Waiting.
Colder 5.9° C. Grey clouds, sunny spells, showery, but
very little wind. We took Bill with us by car into Ter Apel. First stop the
Post Office. No post, so, at Mike’s suggestion, Bill had their ‘phone number.
Next we went into a camera shop and Bill got a lens hood for his 35mm camera.
Then we went in the library and Bill spent half an hour on the internet looking
for info from PangIT (there wasn’t much available and Mike had asked Glyn if he
would have a go at getting info from them) then printed out the application
forms for the USA callback telephone firm that he uses for us to look at (10c
for photocopies from the library). Then we called in Edah for some fresh veg,
etc. We were back at the boat for lunchtime. Mike cleaned the car as it was
plastered in glued-on sand. Glyn ‘phoned to say he was having trouble with his
service provider, Clara, and had ‘phoned PangIT who said they would e-mail him
the info. I said if they sent it to him by Saturday to send us a copy with the
post, but send our post off whether the e-mail arrived or not. Mike and I went
out for a ride in the car to look at moorings on the A.G. Wildervanckkanaal in
Veendam. The moorings were not very good, large commercial boats come up to the
quays to load and unload in the town. We called at a DIY shop as Mike wanted
some distilled water and I went in the pet shop and garden centre next door to
get some parsley seeds and a bag of compost - potgrond. The junction of the
Oosterdiep at Bareveld was better for moorings, with more open surroundings,
the rest of the Stadskanaal was backed by roads and hemmed in by houses or
shops on both banks. We drove back along the canal through Stadskanaal town and
Musselkanaal town. There was a diversion through back streets in the latter as
a street fair along the canal bank had blocked the road. This was where Mike
had spotted, (a few days previously, when he was out on the moped), a long line
of moored boats on both sides of the canal. They were still there, now with the
bunting out and so was the hire boat from Friesland Cruising we’d seen the day
before. We called at various garages on the way back to the boat, as Mike
wanted some upper cylinder lubricant (used to be called RedX in Britain) as
he’d opened the last bottle he’d bought in France and needed to replace his
stocks. He didn’t find any (but he did get a brass fitting to replace the
broken plastic one on the loo tank under the bed). We even tried a DIY shop.
Bill was running Rosy’s engine when we returned at 4.30 p.m. A cruiser went
through the swingbridge ten minutes later. Later, as the temperature dropped,
Mike lit the central heating. Bill uses the “flowerpot” method of cabin heating
- an upturned ceramic flowerpot over a gas jet and light the gas - sounded
dangerous to me!
Saturday 22nd May 2004 Roelagebrug. Waiting.
4.2° C overnight. Grey clouds, sunny spells with showers
later. One storm threw down hailstones as big as peas in the late afternoon. Mike
went to see Bill. He’d tried the ‘phone number given to him by the Post Office,
which had been a Dutch answering machine. He asked Mike if he would try our
Honda generator on his system to see if it would cope with his Victron, it didn’t
– it couldn’t supply enough current to turn it on, but would run it once it was
started. Then they went to see if Bill’s post had arrived in Ter Apel. Nothing.
Around midday the hireboat Var from Friesland Cruising went past heading
downhill. Lunch. Later, around 12.45, the small cruiser which had come up last
week went back downhill. It was from Bellingwolde, on the Veendiep - where we
had tried in the circular off line basin to get some water. Mike watched the F1
qualifying session from Monaco. I did some crochet. Put the central heating on
again as the temperature dropped.
Sunday 23rd May 2004 Roelagebrug. Still waiting...
Breezy with sunny spells 4.3° C We
turned the boat around, winding with the cold north wind which was blowing
straight up the canal. Yvonne called to wish me a happy birthday early because
they would be going on the Commodore’s cruise (Wolverhampton Boat Club) next
week, up on to the BCN to Walsall then Merry Hill and down Stourbridge to
cruise the newly reopened Fens branch before they fill it with residential
boats. She said she’d read Bill’s article in the Residential Boat Owners Club
magazine all about shipping boats over to the Continent and how much it costs. Mike
put the pins in to run the Markon and do some washing. After lunch he watched
the F1 Grand Prix from Monaco. Trulli got pole position and won. Schumacher
crashed in the tunnel. Another Friesland Cruising narrowboat hireboat went
uphill, this one was called Ee. Mike lit the central heating again.
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