Tag: Marina Stellendam

No more jumping summersaults

Increased safety measures again

April 18th, 2020

No entrance due to Corona virus

In the Netherlands we are still under a lock-down light -or as our Prime Minister calls it- an intelligent lockdown due to the corona virus.

In addition to the regulations that were imposed at the beginning of this month, the marina is now completely closed down. Since the 7th of April no boat may enter or leave the marina. No-one is even allowed to be at the marina at all and all the sanitary facilities are still closed. They made an exception however, for long-term residents -or in boat jargon- liveaboards. Thank goodness we were allowed to stay, because otherwise we had to find another place to wait out the pandemic. A lot of other boatowners who were not permanent residents were rather disgruntled. The weather for the coming days promised to be perfect for a day on the water or to polish your boat, but now they have to stay inside their stuffy houses.

In these trying times lots of Dutch citizens are suffering from loneliness and supermarkets are ransacked because everyone is hoarding pasta and toilet paper, being a liveaboard has it advantages. Apart from being the only ones allowed in the marina and to spend the warm sunny days in the cockpit, we are sort of prepared for a quarantine-like situation. We like to spend most of the time at anchor somewhere in a remote area and limit our visits to the shore only to do the necessary shores like filling up the water tank, buying groceries and do the laundry. Spending lots of time in the limited space of our boat is therefore not much of a change.

The empty supermarkets are also not really problematic. Even though we have a small boat, we have a reasonably large food supply with food that keeps for a long time, like rice, flour and beans. Next to the dry stuff we also have lots of preserved foods. Things like home-canned pate, stews, fruits and even home-brewn beer. In the worst case scenario we can make our own tofu with the dry soy beans. With a helping of rice and some home-grown microgreens we have a complete meal, ideally enjoyed with a glass of our own beer

So even if the shops are ransacked or if we are really quarantined, we won’t starve. On the contrary. 

In that sense the lockdown isn’t such a radical change for us. But some other things have become more complicated. The sanitary facilities in the marina are closed, which means we have to wash ourselves and do the laundry by hand on the boat. And we don’t have warm water. So if we want warm water we first have to put on a kettle and bring water to the boil, just like the olden days. Doing the laundry by hand is a time-consuming task, and is everything but fun especially when it involves big soggy things like towels.

And today we were also told off by the harbor master for using the trampoline on the playing field here at the marina. All the facilities in the marina are out of bounds, he said. Disappointed we headed back to our boat. No more jumping summersaults for us.

But the most difficult part is that we aren’t allowed to go sailing, and can’t travel anymore. All our plans for this year have to wait. 

So, we just grab one of our beers and enjoy the sunshine in the cockpit. Under the circumstances, things could be worse.

Alone in our floating nutshell

Sailing back to Stellendam

March 25th, 2020

Today we’re sailing to Stellendam. It was the perfect day for a trip: Blue skies, light winds and reasonably warm temperatures for March. We had to wait a bit for the extreme low tide to pass, otherwise our keel would get stuck in the mud in the marina. 

Around noon we awkwardly untied the lines and set off. It seems our sailing skills have become a bit rusty during our winter break. But soon we were on our way again, just like we used to.

It was quiet on the waterways. Almost no commercial traffic, and we’ve just spotted two other pleasure crafts during the whole trip. On the shore however, it was a completely different story. On the cycle- and walking path along the river banks it looked like a procession with so many people walking, cycling and riding horses. We’re glad to be far from the crowd alone in our floating nutshell on the water.

After quite a pleasant trip we arrived in Stellendam. The slip we were able to hire was coincidentally next to our old slip. Probably due to all the familiarity, docking went a lot better than when we untied the lines this morning. 

It’s a bit strange but also nice to be back again, almost a year after we started our journey here. 

Change of plans

Postponed travels due to Corona virus

March 16th 2020

A rainbow over Rhoon

After four months in Rhoon our hibernation has come to an end. We have looked forward to spring, to be able to untie the lines again and to sail to distant shores. But then the Corona virus happened. During the last month we saw the virus spread and it seemed inadvisable to go traveling with a pandemic raging over the globe. And now the Dutch government has issued several safety measures like social distancing, closure of schools, prohibition of contact professions and the advice to stay indoors and work from home as much as possible, it seems highly unlikely that the situation will change anytime soon.

To make matters more complicated, we cannot stay here in Rhoon. We hired a slip just for the winter. The owner of the boat that normally lies in slip spent the winter on the hard for maintenance, but will return here around the 1st of April. So we have to leave and go somewhere else in the coming 2 weeks. 

Instead of sailing north again, we’ve decided to go south. Just a little bit, to Stellendam, our old marina. It occurred to us that it might be prudent to hire a slip and to be sure of a place to stay for the coming year. We don’t know how long this virus will be rampant, and sailing to other countries like Denmark is out of the question anyway with all the closed borders.

Besides, if we would become ill, it is way more comfortable to stay in bed in your own marina, then as a guest in a strange marina without having to worry about costs or if you can stay at all. And Stellendam might be an ideal spot to wait out the storm. It is quite isolated, next to a nature reserve, and if the weather is nice we can go for a short sail on the Haringvliet or the North Sea. So we called Marina Stellendam and asked if they still had a spot available for us, which luckily they had. 

It is a bit sad that we have to postpone our plans, but that’s life. You never know what will you will find at the end of the rainbow.

Untie the lines!

An eventful first day of our journey.

April 7th 2019

Stellendam to Noordschans: 21,8 nautical miles

Today is the big day. We’re leaving the safety of marina Stellendam, and sail towards the unknown. The last checks, the last goodbyes, make sure everything is tied down, and then it is finally time to untie the lines!

First stop is the Marina of Noordschans. 2 years ago we bought our boat there and their yacht service specializes in Volvo Penta engines, which we have in our boat. We wanted to give our engine a thorough service before we sail north and Noordschans is actually on the way. Perfect combination!

It’s quite unreal to sail away from the marina knowing that you’re now really a nomad. Even more because the landscape is still so familiar.

The weather is amazing: although still a bit hazy it was 20 degrees Celsius, a day for shorts and t-shirts. But no wind. Suddenly the wind picked up, a perfect light breeze for sailing. Quickly we hoisted the sails but just as sudden as it started, the wind died again. Alas, back to motoring, let’s start the engine.

But the engine wouldn’t start…

Luckily the main sail was still up enabling us to slowly sail on with one knot of speed, and kept us from being fully adrift. But what was wrong with the engine? It couldn’t be the batteries. We had just installed a battery monitor and that indicated we had enough juice. We had just filled the diesel tank, so that couldn’t be the problem either. What then? The lights in the control panel for the engine wouldn’t light up when we turned the key to start, indicating that there might be a problem with the electronics. Where are the tools? Of course they are in the back of the quarter berth behind a pile of stuff we had so skillfully stowed away yesterday. Let’s start digging then…

Meanwhile we were slowly but steadily sailed towards a narrow stretch of water with a lot of hazardous shallows. Captain Fluffy remained fast asleep through all the commotion, which was actually quite calming. What is the worst that could happen? We might have to drop an anchor and spend the whole day searching for the cause of the trouble. And if we can’t find it we could always call the coast guards.

That really helped to see things in perspective thus methodically Jeroen checked every wire and connector if there was any electric current running through them. After an hour of searching he finally found the culprit. One of the connectors was totally eroded. Bit of scraping and wriggling and..VROOOM! Just in time, we were approaching the shallows.

Due to all the commotion we missed the bridge opening and had to tread water for nearly an hour before the bridge would open again and we could continue our journey. Oh well, time to relax after the stress of a failing engine.

Waiting for the Haringvliet bridge to open.

Eight hours after we left Stellendam we finally entered the marina of Noordschans. We had called them earlier to ask which slip we could dock. “If you sail towards the crane there are three empty slips on your left hand, it’s quite obvious when you see it. Just choose one”. But when we entered the marina we were confused. There are two cranes and in each case there were 3 empty slips on the left. We went for the first option, but it was a tight fit and quite far from the workshop. And since our engine was going to be serviced tomorrow it seemed not likely to ask us to dock here. So when we were safely docked, we got off the boat and checked out the other option. Seeing the other slip up close it was clear we had chosen the wrong one. Back to the boat then to move it to its proper slip.

All in all an hour later than when we arrived in the marina were finally moored. We met the owner of the marina on the dock. He said: “That’s a familiar boat!”. “Yes that’s right” we said, “We bought her here two and a half years ago, and now we’re back to service the engine before we go on a big trip”. “Engine service for a Dufour 31?” he said. “I know nothing of a service for a Dufour 31, and I schedule them. Are you sure?”. Oh no…we had made the appointment with one of his employees last week, surely she must have written down the appointment somewhere? But before we could explain he added, “But it’s not a problem, we can fit her in somewhere this week, probably tomorrow”.

Finally time to settle down an prepare something to eat. We have shore power here, don’t we? Indeed there was shore power, but slightly further away than our cable was long. Where is the electric power cord reel? Of course, it is stowed in the back of the quarter berth as well. Time to dig again.

In the meantime let’s heat up the diesel heater. Hmm, it won’t start. A fault code? What does it read? Sensor overheated? Well that could be plausible, the sensor is in the engine compartment and since the motor has been running for about 8 hours -minus the part where it wouldn’t start- the sensor might be under the impression that it is too hot. Well, since it has been a warm day and the engine is indeed still emanating a lot of warmth, let’s see if it will start again in the morning. We’ll just make dinner and we’ll probably go to sleep soon after we’ve finished eating anyway.

When we finally sat down for a late dinner the bilge pump started to pump. It runs automatically, so there’s probably some water accumulating there. But 5 minutes later it started again. And then 2 minutes later. And again. And again. And then it wouldn’t stop anymore…

How to deal with a bilge pump that is going berserk? Could we have a severe leak? No, it didn’t seem like there was a severe leak. Is there something wrong with the wiring? No, no problems there either. Disconnecting the pump doesn’t seem like a wise idea, what if we do have a leak which we haven’t discovered yet? Okay…What does the hive mind say? The pump might be dirty. Let’s check, yes, the inlet of the pump is quite dirty. A quick wipe calmed down the hysterical bilge pump. We’ll probably have to clean it thoroughly tomorrow, but it is good enough for now. At least we can get some sleep.

An eventful first day…

Waving goodbye to Stellendam