June 18th 2019
This is how we pictured being anchored somewhere: beautiful scenery, singing birds, and warm and sunny weather. Suddenly this idyllic picture was brutally disturbed by the approach of a very big tow boat coming up the channel. We weren’t aware of the fact that professional traffic was using this channel. On the internet all you can find about this channel is that it’s an anchorage, not something that sees a lot of passing traffic. There was enough space for the tow boat to pass between us and the buoy, but it felt way too close. So after it had passed we decided to move the boat closer to shore after all. We lifted the anchor, and moored again closer to the embankment. Now we have more space between us and the buoy, and we have a better view of all the wildlife on shore.
After the relocation we started with the construction of a sort of lazy jack for our main sail. For this we needed to get ropes through the eyes in the spreaders halfway up. Jeroen went up the mast this time to overcome his high anxiety. We spent a good deal of the day getting it right, but still the sail wouldn’t collapse smoothly in the lazy jack. Maybe some grease might will do the trick? Yes, that sort of helped a bit. It’s still not perfect, but good enough for now. It was getting too warm to continue working anyway.
Perhaps it’s time to play around on the water with our inflatable boat? Our poor dinghy had deflated a bit overnight. Apparently the repairs we had done before we left Stellendam hadn’t worked. The boat was still leaking. We couldn’t find another leak, and pumped it up again. It doesn’t deflate immediately so we can still use it for now. But we probably have to buy another one and say goodbye to our little floating friend.