Tuesday 29th June 2004 Varloh lock on DEK to Lingen.

8.3° C. Mild, overcast and dry until we had one short heavy shower of rain. Set off at 9.10

Chemical works north of Lingen - photo from 2103

a.m. The boat roof was still sticky from mooring under trees again, so I washed it down using the mop and loads of clean river water. Three big boats were loading in the oil berths at a refinery at KP 151, near Holthause. Each one had a boom across the bay they moored in to prevent leakage of any spilled fuel. We moored in the basin at Lingen at 11.10 a.m. in front of several Dutch cruisers and yachts. Mike had a tour round the town by car while I was making some lunch. Took Bill with us to find a supermarket. 

Chemical works north of Lingen - photo from 2103

Did a circuit of the bypass and found nothing, so we went back to the Extra we saw on the way out. They were building a new Famila right opposite. Back on the boat I unpacked the groceries. Mike went for a walk into the town centre to get a top up card for our German D2 ‘phone. Jenny from the bearing company ‘phoned (while he was out) to say that they’d put his parcel (a new pulley and taper lock bush) in the post. I told her we should get that in a week’s time and that Mike would ring her back and confirm when we’d got it. We went back to Extra to buy a 12v coolbox I’d spotted in their free leaflet - we’d forgotten to get a couple of bags of charcoal anyway. 

Chemical works north of Lingen - photo from 2103

We’d decided last year in the hot weather that we needed a 12v coolbox to take in the car when we had days out, but it would also be useful for transporting meat, etc back from the shops when the weather is hot. It cost 39,95€ (about £26). We had ham salad for dinner. At 7 p.m. Bill came round with Fanny, a bottle of apple schnapps and his photos. He’d got lots of duplicated photos which he passed on to us. Mike opened a bottle of his favourite Erben Spätlese wine (2,97€ a bottle - less than £2) and we chatted. Bill also brought photos to show us of his previous life in Oman and his move on to Rosy. Bill went home to feed the dog at 9 pm.

Monday 28th June 2004 Barnflair to above Varloh lock on DEK. GERMANY AT LAST!!!

13° C Sunny spells, grey clouds, breezy. Set off early to get a good start hoping to get to Lingen. We arrived at the swingbridge at 7.55 a.m. (in Germany at last!) and a voice

The rebuilt liftbridge on Haren-Rutenbrock kanal

announced something over a tannoy in German which none of us understood. We had to wait until 8.25 a.m. before the bridge swung and let us into the lock chamber. Meanwhile I sponged off most of the sticky mess covering the roof, which must have come from the oak trees we’d been moored under. We rose 0.1m in the first lock and went on to the summit level of the Haren-Rütenbrock kanal. I did the chores and made a cuppa as we ran down to the first downhill lock, where we dropped down 0.8m with the keeper operating the lock from his desk in Haren. A long straight followed to the next lock, where we had a short wait while three cruisers come up the lock. We dropped down the deep lock, 1.9m, which used to be worked by a very genteel lady who came out from the lock house to press buttons and

Liftbridge on Haren-Rutenbrock kanal

work the lock for us. Two more cruisers waited below. By the next road, a high level bridge carrying the A31 autobahn, a crane boat was busy putting stones along the edge of the bank and backing it up with dredgings. Mike went inside to ‘phone the bearing company while we were on the long pound. First he got an answering service, then he got through to a bloke who was a bit disorganised, first he hadn’t got a catalogue and then his computer screen had gone blank. Mike told him he’d ‘phone him back. We arrived at the liftbridge which had been under reconstruction and had been keeping the canal shut since we arrived on 17th May. We waited and waited with a side

Liftbridge on Haren-Rutenbrock kanal

wind blowing harder and harder. Mike spotted a work boat and threw a stern rope around a little bollard next to it and the construction crew’s portacabin, this stopped the wind blowing us on to the other bank and our boat rested against a little open boat, using it as a fender whilst we waited for the bridge to open. Bill hovered on the bend a little further back up the canal for a while then came alongside. Mike went inside to try ‘phoning the bearing company again and got transferred to a girl called Jenny and had to explain everything all over again. She said she would ring him back. A cruiser appeared on the far side of the bridge at 11.30 (after we’d been waiting over half an hour) and we went through the bridge and into Haren. The bearing company ‘phoned back, Mike agreed to

Vertical liftbridge in Meppen DEK - photo from 2005

compromise and have a 106 mm dia pulley (he wanted 110 mm - a larger diameter pulley was needed for slowing the water pump down) and she said they could get a bush to fit it for him from their other depot. She found the last bill we’d had and noted that last time they sent us stuff we didn’t pay the carriage, she said she’d have to charge us this time. Mike arranged with her to send the parcel by post to Bad Nenndorf. Jenny said they didn’t normally send stuff abroad. When she saw our address she remarked that she lived in Tipton. Small world? Everything should be OK to post off to us next day, but she said she would call us. We went through the liftbridges into Haren expecting to have to tie up above the lock as it was getting close to twelve o’clock and the keeper should be off to his lunch. To our great surprise it was the same guy that came on a moped to work the bridges when we were there last time, four

Below Meppen locks - photo from 2005

years earlier. He asked us for 2 Euros each and showed Mike his computer screens in his brand new lock cabin. No more uniform and kepi, he was very casually dressed as befitted an office worker. It was 12.15 p.m. when we set off upstream on the river section of the Dortmund-Ems-Kanal (DEK). One Dutch cruiser was waiting below the lock to go uphill on the canal into the Netherlands. We ran up to Schleuse Hüntel and waited while Marina came downhill, then we followed Corrona into the lock with two cruisers. The lock was 210m long, so there was enough space. A boat called Anita loaded with rocks, was waiting above when we left the top of the lock at 2.15 p.m. The river wound through some gentle bends after the canal section and we went into Meppen. Under the bypass bridge past a long gravel loading quay, where two 80m boats were loading, Breediep and Drieklag.  Swapped over to the left hand side to go round a left hand bend into the town and passed a loaded boat, 80m Eberswalde from Berlin, coming

Above Varloh locks DEK - photo from 2005

downstream through the bridges round the bends. (We did that last time). Mike called the keeper at the lock at Meppen. He said there was one to come down (we thought) and a 67m loaded called Rival came out of the lock, then there were just us two narrowboats to go up the big lock on our own. The keeper leaned out of his third storey window and shouted something which we a) couldn’t hear and b) couldn’t understand anyway. BEA-D a loaded tanker was waiting above to come down. The lock filled at the front and back from economiser pounds, then from the pound above to fill its 7.5m deep chamber. The next canal section was 5 kms dead straight all the way to Varloh lock. We met the next loaded boat, Murene 52m x 6.3m, about 1.5 kms from the lock. When we got there the lock had been refilled and another loaded boat was coming down. We went up the lock and Mike asked the keeper on VHF if we could stop overnight on the landing, He didn’t understand the answer he got. We tied up anyway - where else was there to go? It was 6.30 p.m. Mike went off to get the car half an hour later. No sooner had he gone than a police car came stooging slowly down the towpath, had a good look, but didn’t stop. I prepared garlic pork for a stir fry for dinner but didn’t cook it until Mike returned with the car. He was back at 9.30 p.m. having taken the car on to Lingen and ridden back on the moped. Put the moped back on the roof, I cooked dinner and we ate it, both of us shattered.  

Saturday 26th & Sunday 27th June 2004 Roelagebrug to the German/Dutch border at Barnflair.

Saturday 26th June 2004 Roelagebrug to the German/Dutch border at Barnflair.

7.8° C. Sunshine, blue skies and a gentle breeze. We set off at 9.05 a.m. following Rosy up to Ter Apelersluis. Bill turned the key to empty the lock and we went up the last lock on the Ruiten Aa kanaal. Mike wound up the lift bridge above the lock and Bill went on to get the next bridge. We arrived just after a cruiser called Elles had landed on the opposite side of the

Roelagebrug - photo from 2005

bridge and a lady from the cruiser got off and worked the bridge. For some reason best known to themselves the skipper brought his cruiser through the bridge first, instead of letting the two narrowboats through first and getting out of his way, because then he had to hover about in the narrow channel while his crew closed the bridge. This meant that Bill was in front to work the last liftbridge, a bridge which carried the busy main road into Ter Apel. He managed OK, but he had great long queues of traffic while he moved Rosy through, tied up and went back to lower the bridge. The lock at Barnflair was full with the top end gates open. We tied to the sloping grassy bank below the lock, next to three old cruisers with for sale notices on them, and Mike got off to investigate. There was no sign of the keeper, but his book in the lock cabin indicated that four cruisers had gone through earlier heading uphill. We waited for his return. I tried ‘phoning the number in the book and got a shrieking recorded announcement

Below Ter Apelersluis - photo from 2005

by a Dutch woman and the call cut off. The lock keeper came back shortly afterwards and emptied the lock and we went up. He spoke no English, but wanted to know all about the origins of our boats, so he enterprisingly enlisted the aid of a gongoozler as interpreter. We signed his book and then he swung the footbridge over the canal for us and raised the vertical liftbridge over the junction with the Haren-Rütenbrock kanal. A small tjalk was moored at the landing stage for Potze’s garage, where we had to return our keys. I collected Bill’s key and we backed off into the old oval stop lock and Mike went across the road to get our deposits back for the keys (20€ each). Another tjalk was moored by the old Dutch customs place, this one was German from Lingen and had full sailing rigging with stepped masts lying across his cabin roof. It was 12.30 p.m. when we got to the lock. Bill pulled the hanging chain, but

Ter Apelersluis - photo from 2005

nothing happened. The swingbridge lights remained on red, as did the lights for the lock whose bottom end gates were open. We thought they must be closed for lunch until 1.00 p.m. so we had our lunch while we were waiting. At 1.00 p.m. we tried again, and this time the lock and the bridge lights went off to our great surprise - nobody had looked at times in the book! Mike went to look and see if there was a timetable on the new lock cabin. There was. The newly reopened, now remotely-operated canal was open from 8.00 until 13.00 on Saturdays, but last entry time was 11.00 a.m. Now we found that the canal in front of us was closed until Monday morning. Somehow, it seemed that something didn’t want us to go to Germany! We reversed towards the landing by the garage. Then I noticed that there was a short section of bank with a few trees sheltering the canal from the busy road which follows it all the way to Haren, so we moored there instead. There was enough room for the two boats side by side at the bottom of a steeply sloping grassy bank. A kind fisherman at some time had cut a few steps into the bank, so we positioned our bows by that and tied ropes around conveniently spaced trees. Mike decided to walk back to Roelagebrug to collect the car as it was only about 6 kms back and easier than trying to unload the moped. On his return he took Bill with him to get some beer and something to BBQ from Edah in Ter Apel. I prepared spuds to bake, potato salad and egg mayo while they were out shopping. We sat outside chatting and had our pork steaks

Ter Apel - photo from 2005

and sausages plus one of Bill’s hamburgers. Fanny collected twigs and sticks for making more charcoal. The weather forecast was right, it clouded over during the evening. We went indoors and Mike watched the end of the football match. The Dutch team beat Sweden. They were 0 - 0 when we went in at 10.30 and into extra time. When I went to bed at 11.30 they were still doing penalty goal kicks. Mike stayed up to watch the end and finish off his beer.

Sunday 27th June 2004 Barnflair.

An enforced day off as the canal was shut on Sundays. A mild 13.1° C overnight but the weather was no good for cruising, as rain poured down all morning with short sunny spells just before lunch. The afternoon was drier and cloudy. Mike cleared up the BBQ stuff he’d left at the top of the bank under the trees from the night before. We had some lunch, then we went out in the car to check that the mooring in the basin at Lingen was still OK and hadn’t been turned into a fancy new marina. An empty 80m boat had taken up most of the one side of the mooring opposite the builder’s yard and a few cruisers were moored in front of its bows. We picked up some German bio-diesel at 79.9c/litre and went back to the boat on the scenic route via Meppen and Haren on the 70. 

Friday 25th June 2004 Veelerveen to Roelagebrug.

It was still wet and windy when we got up (coldest was last night’s 10.6° C just before we went to bed) but we decided we’d better move on. Mike refilled the water tank, Bill did likewise and we set off at 9.30 a.m. I got off and worked Veelerveensterbrug liftbridge and Bill went on to turn the key and get Vlagtweddersluis working. We sat in the lock chamber when it was full and Mike and Bill went to the farmer’s shop, Doen and Groen, Bill to get some dog food and Mike wanted some brass fittings – but they hadn’t got what he wanted. The rain was still pouring down. I made a cuppa and defrosted the ‘fridge. Up Bourtange lock with its bridge lifted while we locked through (part of its lock cycle - good thing there’s very little road traffic). We were first at Wollinghuizersluis and I had great difficulty with the side wind blowing the boat sideways. There was a gap in the trees just where the landing was.

Bourtangesluis - photo by tourist info

The wooden landing stage was green and slimy, therefore very slippery, and there were no bollards to check the boat with. So I didn’t get off by jumping across to the landing. Mike put the bows up the mitre gates of the lock and I climbed up the green and slimy gates. Then I realised I’d left the key in my other waterproof jacket - which was dripping in the shower on the boat! Mike powered the stern end over to the landing and I got on and fetched the key. He backed the boat off and I tried threading the centre rope through the wooden toe rail on the landing, but the boat was already several yards away and I let the rope slip as it fetched chunks out of the horizontal wooden railing and the block underneath it started working loose. In the end I gave up and cast the rope off allowing the boat to be blown forcefully sideways across the face of the lock and into the weir stream. Mike will have to sort it out - he’s had enough practice. (Mike was not very pleased at this and shouted something to that effect. Ed.) The horizontal rain was pouring and the gale force wind funnelling through the gap. I turned the key and the shallow lock emptied and we went in and up. I suggested to Mike that at the next lock we tried using the old quay wall where I would get off and walk up to the lock instead of trying to use the tiny wooden landing stages right by the locks in the side wind which was blowing the boat away from them. (At times like these we wished we’d had a bow thruster installed when we had the cash and the opportunity!) 

Wollinghuizersluis - photo by Tourist info

The bridge above the lock was all electric, so I operated the bridge and Bill went on to get the next lock working. Two boats were coming down Jipsinghuizersluis, so I made some lunch and we ate it whilst waiting for them to clear the lock. The rain eased off. Another cruiser was waiting above as we went up the lock. The lift bridge was a wind up one, so Bill asked the chap off the cruiser if he would use his key and he wound the bridge too. (Well, he’d got to wind it to get into the lock anyway!) We passed yet another cruiser coming downhill as we went along the pound to Sellingersluis. The chap off  Pax was at the lock - his boat was moored above - and, when he saw us coming, he turned his key to set the lock for us and then chatted to Bill and Mike as the lock filled. It started raining again as he worked the liftbridge for us. I wished his lady a good summer cruise as we passed Pax. The canal was more sheltered from the wind and rain by trees on both banks as we went on to Zuidveldsluis. We were in the empty lock chamber first and I walked down to the landing to turn the key in the slot as Bill brought Rosy in. It seemed to take ages to fill and open the gates. I lifted the hand wound lift bridge and Bill went on to swing the swing bridge with no name. We went straight though, leaving Bill to close the bridge, and went on to work Terwalslagerbrug, another swing bridge. A cruiser was moored on the staging beyond the bridge. The elderly Dutch lady off the boat came to help work the bridge and I told her I was waiting for Bill to catch up, he would go straight through and on to the next leaving us to close the bridge. 

Sellingesluis - photo by Johan Zuidema

Her husband came over and they were panicking about who was going to move where and how would they get back on their boat. In the end I swopped keys with the woman and she shut the bridge after both our narrowboats had gone through and her husband had brought their cruiser through to tie up on the staging where we had been. Bill was having severe trouble with the staging at Roelagebrug when we got there, the wind kept blowing Rosy sideways. As we were running short of time and the Post Office in Ter Apel would be closing soon, Mike stuffed our bows into the bank herbage and he jumped off to work the bridge, leaving me to back off and steer through the bridge, which was OK until I had to get it alongside the old quay wall where we were going to moor up. Bill managed to get Rosy on to the one end of the quay, then jumped off with his centre rope, and I’d got to get our boat on to the other end of the quay with the stern up behind the landing for the bridge. Meanwhile the wind was still blowing hard from our right, constantly blowing the boat away from the quay. I ended up getting blown to the far bank. 

Moored at Roelagebrug - photo from 2005

Mike closed the bridge and, under instructions yelled from the bank, I powered the stern end over for him to get back on and he steered the boat over to the quay, working it back and forth to get the bows on to the wall, then I got off with our centre rope. Bill was still hanging on to Rosy’s centre rope as there was nothing to tie to and he couldn’t loose the rope to go and bang stakes in!  I held on to our centre rope while Mike knocked a stake in the bank between the boats, so he could tie Bill’s stern end and our bows to it, then he put mooring pins in for Rosy’s bows and our stern before Bill and I could stop being human mooring bollards and let go of the centre ropes. Mike went off on the moped to get our post from Glyn at Ter Apel. It had arrived, thankfully, as the post office was only open a few hours on Saturday morning, then closed until Monday afternoon. A Dutch guy came over to knock on Bill’s cabin - Mike had forgotten the key, he’d left it in the bridge while we were having difficulties tying up. Mike went in the library at Vlagtwedde while he was fetching the car and got printouts of the e-mails to and from Jabsco. Mike watched the football, champions France got beaten by Greece. I read Bill’s Waterways World magazines. 

Wednesday 23rd to Thursday 24th June 2004 Veelerveen. Waiting, Fanny has her op, then foul weather

Thursday 17th June 2004 Veelerveen. More waiting....

11° C Sunny start, then a strong westerly wind brought heavy showers for the rest of the day. 

They have an excellent library - photo by tourist info

Bill called round to say he’d got his callback to work today. Mike told him ours wouldn’t work the previous evening too, then he tried ringing Glyn via callback and got his answering service. A few minutes later Yvonne called and while they were chatting another incoming call made the ‘phone bleep. It was Glyn returning the call. Voicemail picked it up. Mike tried ringing him back and got the engaged tone! Can’t win. I dialled 121 Voicemail and got charged 34c to receive the message which was to say that he hadn’t had anything from our insurer. Mike refilled the water tank and started the engine and Markon up. I helped recoil the water hose back into its box just as the first heavy downpour of rain hit. I did some washing for Bill and two loads for us. Bill came over to get some info from Mike to fill in the blanks in his log where his GPS hadn’t given him the daily kilometres when we were still in Belgium. Lunch while the washing continued. Mike put the Mac on and composed an e-mail to our insurer querying the need for a BSS and a letter to our “Expert” (French boat surveyor, Jean-Marie Lemaire) asking for his advice. Then Mike and Bill went to do some e-mailing at the library in Vlagtwedde. They called in at the farmer’s shop, Groen & Doen, on the way back and Mike bought a bargain - a double hibatchi BBQ for 6,95 Eu (about £4.50), and then he watched two more boring football matches on TV.

Friday 18th June 2004 Veelerveen. Waiting....

11.2° C Grey, overcast and showery. Thunderstorms later. Glyn ‘phoned to say he’d got all the post and asked for an address to send it to. 

Vlagtwedde - photo by tourist info

Mike asked him to send the stuff to Ter Apel. I did some book and magazine sorting and chucking out. After lunch Mike and Bill went to the library in Vlagtwedde. We’d had just one e-mail, from Glyn. Mike sent one to Mike S (our insurer) and one to Jabsco about our new gearbox and engine manifold water cooling pump, which is showing early signs of excessive wear. More football but a thunderstorm took the picture off completely.

Saturday 19th June 2004 Veelerveen. More waiting....

Cooler 8.5° C. Sunny spells and more heavy showers. Put the Markon on and washed Fanny’s bed and blanket for Bill. Then I did our jeans. Making use of the electricity, I sanded the port side kitchen wall, then did the ironing and vacuuming. After lunch I filled the holes in the woodwork. After it had dried sufficiently I sanded it down and gave it a coat of grain filler. I started checking through my (very) old boat logs and reconstituted some missing sections from our trip on the K&A in 1991 using the engine hours book and my diary.  Rubbish on TV. During the evening the temperature took a severe drop and we could hear distant thunder.

Sunday 20th June 2004 Veelerveen. More waiting.....

7.9° C (the minimum which occurred last evening, not just before dawn). Windy, sunny spells and showery. Mike watched the USA F1 qualy. I put a layer of white undercoat on the kitchen wall. After lunch we had discussions on how to make improvements by installing window blinds instead of curtains, which would allow more light into the cabin. Cooked steak and chips for dinner, we decided that the Dutch steak we’d bought was expensive and tough. Mike didn’t watch any Euro 2004 football matches, but he watched the USA F1 Grand Prix from Atlanta instead.

Monday 21st June 2004 Veelerveen. Still waiting .....

Cloudy, heavy showers. We needed groceries and we wanted to see if they were actually ready yet to open the Haren-Rütenbrock kanal. 

Ter Apel - photo by anaschnitfink

We took Bill with us and went to Ter Apel and drove down the canal as far as the bridge they were rebuilding in Germany. We saw five cruisers going downhill and eight more coming uphill, all of which were bunched up in lockfuls. The workmen were still finishing off the new bridge, but it was working and the navigation was open. Hooray for that! Back into Ter Apel and we shopped in Edah. The post office didn’t open until 1.00 p.m. so in the meantime we had a look around a cheapy shop, called Action, where I bought some notepads and Mike bought some tins of red and black gloss paint for 4,50€ a tin. Then we went in the library and went on the Internet. Mike had got a reply to his e-mail from Jabsco, wanting more info. He composed a reply. Bill had collected his post and had finally got it all, even the stuff that was previously returned to Veronica his letterbox lady. Back on the boat for a late lunch. England played Croatia and won 4 -2. I sorted out old photos, mainly ones taken by other people, to make up a new album.

Tuesday 22nd June 2004 Veelerveen.  Fanny has surgery.

8° C. Sunny and warmer. Mike took Bill and Fanny into Vlagtwedde for Fanny’s operation to remove the lump under her chin. I stayed on the boat to get on with painting the kitchen wall. 

Fanny on the roof of Rosy, her favourite place to be - Bill's photo

The vet gave the dog methadone, which made her dribble, and, while she was sitting on Bill’s lap, he gave her an anaesthetic injection in her rump and she was soon asleep, they took her off to do the operation, telling Bill to ‘phone at 1.00 p.m. Mike got the sander going and sanded the back deck and the gas locker lid (useful to be able to detach it since he replaced the welded-in pins with removable ones) and fore deck. He did the green paint and sanded it and then the red paint and sand. We had lunch then Mike took Bill to the vets to collect Fanny, who was just about staggering around - the front end was walking OK, but the rear end was having trouble following. Bill had had another text message from Jim Mc D. who was now in Hildesheim (an arm off the Mittelland kanal) he said he was meeting friends in Schwerin in July. I carried on with painting the kitchen walls. 

Did a second coat of cream emulsion and the first coat of green on the dado rail. Poor Fanny looked really pathetic wearing her neck collar when Bill took her for a short walk down the road alongside the mooring. Mike practised changing the number with our callback service WWT. First he changed it to the German ‘phone and then back to the Dutch one. Later we went out for a ride in the car, just the two of us. Crossed the Ems near Dörpen and followed the Küstenkanal on the 401 towards Oldenburg (the way Jim went with narrowboat Elizabeth). The straight canal was just visible in places through the dense vegetation. It was still quite busy with traffic, even that late into the evening. We left the canal and ran into the town of Frieosythe. Mike navigated using the GPS, so I did no map reading, just enjoyed the scenery - we even went up to a dizzy 41m asl on a road through undulating farmland! We ran south through Markhausen to Lindern, then west through Werlte and Sögel, crossing back over the Ems at Lathen (just after we’d gone under the maglev test track) and back into Holland. Back home via Bourtange.

Wednesday 23rd June 2004 Veelerveen.

12.5° C Sunshine and heavy thundery showers. Mike took Bill and Fanny to Vlagtwedde for the vet to check her over. 

Kusten kanal nr Dorpen in Germany - photo by Sjaak Kempe

She was declared OK and Bill was told to take out the drains from her neck in five days or when the leaking stops and the stitches from the wound in about ten days’ time. I painted the starboard cabin wall where I’d damaged the paintwork by using a bleach cleaner to clean it, the bleach had made the emulsion paint go sticky. Mike had scraped the paint off for me and I’d undercoated it the day before. Mike took the deck lid off again to paint the pattern back on it (he’d covered the whole lid with green paint), but it started raining heavily, so the lid went back on still green. At this rate it will wash the sand off the back deck before he gets chance to seal it with another layer of paint!  Mike put the Mac on and started composing a letter to Waterways World in response to the article written by Di Murrell about boating in Europe in which she severely criticized narrowboats and a picture of our boat was used as an illustration!! He went to Vlagtwedde to use the internet in the library. Bill stayed on Rosy as he didn’t want to leave Fanny on her own. We’d had one e-mail, a reply from Cleghorn-Waring about our Jabsco pump. They said we were running it too fast with a 10 mm bore pipe, which was too small. Mike sent a reply to say that the 10 mm diameter pipe was recommended by them, as was the running speed.  Bill brought more magazines for us to read. I told him Mike was writing to WW in protest at Di Murrell’s article - he told me that was part two of her article, read part one and get even more annoyed! Waah! He did, we all did! Narrowboats are OK for European waterways, we know we’ve done it! Fish and chips for dinner for a nice change. Mike watched Germany get beaten at football by the Czechs. I did some French word puzzles. The west wind picked up to gale force and Mike went out and lashed down all the stuff on our roof – ladders, planks, etc - and moved the car into a gap where there were no trees. It was blowing very hard across the fields on the boat’s port side.

Thursday 24th June 2004 Veelerveen. Getting ready to move....

11.7° C Gales and horizontal rain. After being moored in a two day mooring for a week, we were intending to move today, but decided not to go in such foul weather! Mike drafted a letter to do an e-mail to Jabsco. After lunch I went with him to the library. Vlagtwedde library was closed so we went to Ter Apel, which has longer opening times. We had one and a half hours (3 €) on the Internet doing e-mails. I typed while Mike dictated. Spent the last few minutes looking at a couple of web sites from Bill’s Waterways World magazines. Back on the boat at 5.30 p.m. Mike watched England get beaten (they lost on goal kicks) by Portugal. The temperature dropped sharply down to 10.6° C

Wednesday 16th June 2004 Wedde to Veelerveen.

9.9° C Grey, overcast and showery with a chilly strong breeze. We set off at 9.10 a.m. following Rosy back downstream on the Westerwoldse Aa. Once upon a time this was a river, but now it flows whichever way the pumps dictate. Just past the windmill and yacht haven in Weddeveer there was a series of islands. 

Liftbridge - photo by Grenze

Bill asked Mike on VHF if he was going round the back of the islands, he said he wasn’t going to go. Mike thought about it and decided to try it as it looked OK. We swung left alongside the basin of the yacht haven and followed a winding route between flowering yellow water lilies. With nothing registering on the echo sounder, the prop threw up great black clouds of mud stirred up from the bottom, but we had no problems. The channels rejoined by the road bridge to the big campsite. The next island was immediately beyond the wooden road bridge, too sharp a turn for our length, so Mike went to the other end of the island and we turned left and went back towards the road bridge. The course was narrower and shallower with more water lilies, but the mud was soft and again we had no problems. Shortly afterwards we turned right on to the Veendiep, following Rosy at 10.10 a.m. Still no boats moored in the round yacht basin by Bellingwolde. Yvonne ‘phoned. 

Groenesluis - photo by Staverse

She said that a picture of our boat was in a waterway magazine that Horace had, and asked if we wanted a copy of the magazine. Mike tried to fathom out where it was (there was no caption indicating its location) and thought it was probably in the North of France, possibly on the Grand gabarit to Dunkerque. Looking forward to seeing that. A shower of rain caused us to get the brolly out. No sooner had the brolly gone up than it was down again, the rain didn’t fully wet the roof, which was still covered with sticky patches from being moored under lime trees. Bill turned the key and went into Groenesluis. We went in alongside and I pushed the button to “fill” the lock - less than 2.5 cms - and we went out first, turning right on to the straight and deep B.L.Tijdens kanaal. I turned the key in the box below the next lock, Vriescheloostersluis. When the lock was empty Mike called Bill past to go in the lock first as the wind was blowing right to left, Rosy favours the right hand wall and the wind would keep the boat that side. Bill didn’t realise this and went for the left hand wall and was surprised when the wind blew him over to the right. Later I told him we hadn’t realised he didn’t know about the “wind effect” in empty lock chambers. It’s something useful to remember and use to advantage in such a windy place as Holland. 

Vriescheloostersluis - photo by Roepers

Bill went out of the lock first and stopped to lift the fully automatic push button Veendijksbrug, while we hovered about in the middle. The moorings were just beyond the bridge in Veelerveen. There was a Dutch cruiser called Pax on the mooring (but right at the very end, which was unusual) so we winded and took the other end leaving the gap in the middle for Bill. Had lunch, then Mike decided as it was only 4 kms back to Wedde (we’d come round almost a full circle by boat) he would walk it. He picked up the car and went to the library in Blijham to check our e-mails, collecting printouts of one from Glyn (he’s been having bumps on the head - a mirror fell him while he was asleep and he tripped over the hall carpet, hit his head on the wall and gave himself a black eye!) and one from insurer who was waiting for a British Safety Survey certificate from us (what??!??). 

Noabersbadde bridge at Veelerveen - photo by Roepers 

Mike took Bill and Fanny to find a vet, as the lump under the dog’s chin was starting to get very large and needed something to reduce the size. Bill had bought a herbal remedy when we were in France, which had worked well but hadn’t been able to find a pharmacy which sold the same pills since then. The vet said Fanny’s lump couldn’t be left until October as Bill had originally planned and Bill agreed for her to have the necessary surgery done the following Tuesday morning. When the young lady vet said it would be 200 Euros Bill jokingly said that he wouldn’t be able to eat for the next fortnight! I made a chicken and mushroom curry for dinner. I read. He watched the football, Russia v Portugal, the home team won (all the matches are being played in Portugal, some English fans had been stirring up fights in bars in the Algarve and had been arrested and deported. UEFA had threatened that if violence occurs with the fans at the England matches then the team would be chucked out of the competition!) Mike tried using the callback service to ring Glyn and, like Bill earlier, he couldn’t get the service in the USA to call him back. 

Monday 14th & Tuesday 15th June 2004 Langebrug to Wedde.

Monday 14th June 2004 Langebrug to Wedde.

Westerwoldse-Aa - photo by Johan Zuidema

7.9°C Chilly, grey, overcast with a cold south west wind. Drizzles of rain which lasted (thankfully) only a few minutes. We set off at 9.10 a.m. and ran down the Westerwoldse Aa to Wedde, a distance of 8.5 kms. Three boats came out of the Veendiep - two of them turned the wrong way and went towards the dead end at Wedde (the direction we were going) until they realised and turned round to head for the Winschoterdiep. Perhaps only one of them had the map! The channel from the junction with the Winschoterdiep had been wide and straight, except for one bend at Langebrug, all the way to the junction with the Veendiep, a distance of six kilometres. After the junction the navigation became more like a river, winding between reedy banks, passing a large camping site. 

Trees by Westerwoldse-Aa - photo by Johan Zuidema

First there were fixed caravans and then some men were laying bricks to make new bases for more ‘vans. A large meadow had lots of bays set out, bordered by low bushes, for touring vans and campers. A small mower was busy cutting the grass ready for the influx of holiday makers. The river passed through a pleasant wooded area, winding past white and yellow waterlilies. The water was shallower, we were leaving coloured muddy trails behind us in the water. At Weddeveer there was a small windmill on top of a building alongside the waterway, it had a rotating set of small blades to direct the main sails automatically into the wind. We arrived in Wedde at the limit of navigation for large vessels. Beyond the next road bridge the navigation was suitable only for canoes. 

Westerwoldse-Aa - photo by welvoart

It was 10.45 a.m. and the weather was showing signs of brightening up. Helped Mike unload the moped off the roof using a plank and he went to collect the car from Langebrug. When Mike returned he spotted that I’d missed a call on the ‘phone - it was from Glyn - he must have called when I was in the engine room starting the Rediline! Mike tried dialling back using the new callback system only to find he was engaged (at that time he used dial-up, so most likely he was online)! Then we all went into Blijham in the car to get a few groceries from the C1000 supermarket. Back for lunch. Mike took Bill to get diesel from the garage halfway between Wedde and Blijham, where they were selling it at 78.9c a litre, which was much cheaper than in Germany, so they did two trips in the car with all their cans and topped up Rosy’s fuel tank. 

Waterlilies  

When they’d finished with the fuel Mike lit the BBQ and we cooked sausages and baked spuds. Bill did slavinken and ribs (half of the ribs were for Fanny). I made stir fried veg to go with our sausages and spuds and we sat outside and ate our dinner, waving to all the passersby in cars and on bikes - they all waved! A queue of sportscars and vintage cars went by. Mike and Bill recognised the owner of the trip boat company whom they’d met earlier at the garage. He waved too! While we were waiting for the meal to cook, I had one of Mike’s Grolsch. Bill and Mike shared a bottle of Côte du Rhône with their dinner and later they had a few G&T’s. Bill had had a text message from Jim MacD. who was at Oldenburg in Germany, (having crossed the Dollard and gone up the tidal Ems) waiting for the tide to go down the river Hünter to Bremen and then up the tidal river Weser and later on to the Aller. A man on a bike stopped to have a chat. Later a couple in a pickup towing a trailer (for wood he told us) stopped to talk - they were fascinated by the boats, having seen nothing like them before. Bill showed them his boatman’s cabin.  

Tuesday 15th June 2004 Wedde.

12.7° C Grey, muggy and showery.We all got up late after a late night the night before. I collected up all the BBQ gear we’d left at the top of the grassy bank next to the park bench.

Westerwoldse-Aa - photo by supervakantiehuis

Later Mike and Bill went for more diesel. They topped up Bill’s containers so he had as much fuel as he could carry and refilled our containers for use in the car. The price had gone up 1c from the day before - now 79.9c! Still much cheaper then in Germany! They found the library in Blijham, but it was only open Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 2.30 until 5.50 p.m. with extra late opening 6 until 8.30 on Thursdays. Meanwhile I repotted my seedling herbs, parsley and chives, and the plants off the roof of the boat. Mike watched the football, the Netherlands and Germany drew, scoring one goal each.