Never A Dull Moment

NEVER A DULL MOMENT

Enough already!  Not having an engine for 5 or more days and being in a city like Namur means we aren’t suffering.  BUT, besides not having an engine we have also lost the use of our kitchen sink, dish washer, and washing machine.  By placing buckets where the overflow comes out we’ve managed to limp along.  My question to you is: how many buckets of water come out of a front loading washing machine?  We called Wilco who came back on Saturday to replace the impeller on a pump that takes the dirty water off the boat (that’s kitchen and laundry water only).  Without going into all the details (which you can get on Tom’s blog at tmillerauthor.com) we thought we were back in business when Wilco left us Saturday night.  The fix didn’t last through Sunday, which makes us believe we have a defective pump!  It is now Sunday night and our first guests arrive Tuesday.  With Wilco and Tom’s ingenuity, hard work, and more than a little luck we should be back in business by the time Fran and Ed arrive.

Meanwhile, what have we been doing while in Namur?  It’s a nice city.  Between rain, wind and icy cold (37 F one evening) we have managed to walk for miles.  We are tied up directly below the Namur Citadel.  Having never seen it on previous visits to Namur this was our golden opportunity.  The Citadellel of Namur used to be one of the largest fortresses in Europe.  We climbed the many stairs to the top and enjoyed beautiful views as well as a little train ride covering part of the grounds.  As is known, civilizations build on the ruins of previous civilizations, which is what has happened to the Citadelle.  Therefore, it’s a nice place to visit but what you see are remains mainly from the 19^th Century.  For those who are not claustrophobic there are underground tunnels to tour.  NOT for me!

We were fortunate to be here on a weekend and walk thru the very extensive outdoor market.  We found a little food (we missed most of that area), but the flowers, clothing, bric-a-brac as well as live animals were fun to see.  The streets were packed. 

Better yet was the 13^th International Biennial of Belgian Aquarelle Paintings.  There were some 200 watercolor painters exhibiting more than 500 works.  Some excellent painters were represented at the show.

We found a restaurant Peanuts where for the price of a beer they let us stay as long as we wished to use their Internet.  I can recommend the locally produced beer Blanche de Namur.  This city is know for their snails and Strawberry Festival.  Living so close to Camarillo where we produce strawberries all year long, I wasn’t impressed with the small and very expensive selection of strawberries.  The weather may have contributed to the lack of enthusiasm over this weekend’s Strawberry Festival.  I have yet to try their snails, which are specially grown here.  I did try a Belgian waffle dipped in chocolate sauce.  Very nice.  I can also highly recommend the local beer Blanche de Namur.

Check out our new solar panels.  They're great!

I braved one tunnel under the Citadelle and it was very slippery.

Views from the top of the Citadelle.  Meuse River

First bridge to cross the Meuse.

Our little train ride.

I brought one roll of toilet paper from home.  The other is from Holland.  Which is from the US?

Now you know why you should always wash your eggs.

Checking out the local art.

The Local Market on Saturday's.

We went for a walk.

Flowers at the outdoor market.

Wilco squeezed into a corner trying to fix our pump.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

On Sunday May 19th we were to continue our grand adventure bright and early.  The heater in the pilot house decided that 5:30 am would be even better than 7:30.  For the next hour it banged and clanged no matter how many times Tom got up to adjust it.  It's 7:30 and time to start the engine.  Wilco went into the engine room to check the engine and discovered we need oil!  It's Sunday!  Nothing is open on Sunday.  Tom and I walked over to the fuel dock which we were told opens at 10 am on Sundays.  The very grumpy Dutchman couldn't understand why he was working for us when we were too stupid to carry oil on board.  He doesn't sell anything but fuel on Sunday.  I looked so sad he decided to help us out.  Only problem was he carried the wrong type of oil.  So we waited.  One of Wilco's men found a place in a larger town that sells oil for old engines like ours.  Once we got the oil then we took off again.  We had a 5 hour delay that morning.  

Tom and I were able to take a nice walk.  Heusen was a charming little town with a marina full of shiny, beautiful, sometimes large, and expensive power boats.  The cheese shop was open so we bought more cheese.

100 year old Chalik's sailing on the Maas River.  They are a beautiful sight.

Mike and Dave sailed with us for a day trying to get the systems working properly in the new pilot house. Wilco has his phone in one hand.  That's Mike working on the electronics.

Another view of our pilot house looking forward.  We carry a car on board.

Here I am enjoying tea in our new pilot house.  Check out the container ship behind me.  We need to figure out tables.  It is so beautiful and open that we find ourselves taking all our meals up there.  We have wonderful views and are still protected from the elements.

Heusden, The Netherlands.  A charming town geared towards boaters and tourism  They don't even have a bank in the town.

When we were about to exit a lock these Germans couldn't start their engine. We towed them out of the lock and found them a place to tie up.  They thanked us with a couple bottles of German beer which we enjoyed.

Little did we know that the favor would be returned.  May 21st 8:30 pm while cruising along the Meuse and fighting a tremendous current for 13 hours, all of a sudden we had no steering!!!  We had lost our 24 V power.  The normally unflappable Captain Wilco was very upset as were we.  Tom was steering at the time and was able to maneuver Rabelo to a wall.  Unfortunately there was nothing for us to tie up.  The current was taking us back down towards the bridge we had just gone under.  Tom told Wilco to drop the anchor which he did immediately.  Wilco called for help and the Dutchesse (a fuel barge) came along side and tied up to us.  They were ready to tow us to a safe place.  Unfortunately, Wilco couldn't get the anchor up.  After working hard in the engine room he managed to get power to the windlass and raise the anchor.  They then towed us to a wall where we tied up for the rest of the evening.

We thanked our heroes with two bottles of champagne. 

On our walk we found fields of dandelions.

We are now in Namur, Belgium.  After all the excitement of the last few days with 14-15 hours of cruising daily we decided this is a good place to stop.  We sent Wilco home for some much needed rest.  How much rest he will get I don't know. With our starter batteries fried and in his car, he needs to figure out what went wrong, fix the problem, and make sure it doesn't happen again.

We will meet our first guests here in Namur and then travel on to France.

Be patient when you write to us as we don't always have wi-fi and replies may be a while.

Whistle While You Work

It's been a long week since we arrived in Holland. Here we are, still sitting by the side of a canal in Middelharnis.  As long a week as it's been for us, it has been much more difficult for all our hard working crew.  They put in extremely long hours from 8 am until sometimes 11 pm.  When we arrived they were singing and whistling while they worked.  As the hours and days stretched out the chatting, singing and whistling practically disappeared.  Mothers Day most of the men stayed home.  Dave said he slept the whole day (his girlfriend wasn't too happy about that).  It has rained every day which meant some of the outside work wasn't done.  It's difficult painting in the rain.

In spite of all the obstacles, including no steering, it looks like we might leave sometime tomorrow (Friday) with two men continuing their work while we travel.  We're keeping our fingers crossed.  It's 8:30 pm and Wilco is installing the final extra strength windows so we can safely sail on the rivers.

Meanwhile, we have searched every market for miles for ham hocks!  It appears they aren't used in Holland, so if anyone knows what I can use in its place to flavor my soups, please let me know.  We were fortunate enough to find an outdoor market with beautiful produce, a fish market, cheese, and chicken and turkey products.  We've been to the local markets every day outfitting the kitchen.

So what's it like here (besides wet, windy and cold)?  The Dutch people are determined that it is spring.  The flower shops are overflowing with magnificent flowers.  Tulip fields (which bloomed late this year) have produced striped carpets stretching for miles.  The ladies are wearing their white jeans and white skirts with their winter parkas and boots.  Some wear sandals with socks.  We saw a parade of postmen starting their route riding bicycles with saddle bags filled with mail.

We went to a framing store and left two art pieces to be framed.

Tulip fields.  The green area is where they are deadheaded.  We don't know why.

We started hanging art that we brought from home.  The wall hanging was done by Loris Bogue and hangs in the entrance to a guest bedroom.

The Magic Lute made by Fran Elson is by our new  wine refrigerator/cabinet.

We look forward to hearing from you.  If you respond by email please do NOT hit reply but rather start with a new letter.  Once we are on our way it is difficult to download pictures and I really don't need my pictures sent back to me.

Happy Mothers Day: Missive 3, 2013

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!  For those who are wondering, yes Mother's Day is a big deal here in the Netherlands.  The Dutch are brilliant in what they do with flowers.  We are just outside a charming town (Middleharnis) where yesterday people were carrying armfuls of beautiful flowers and plant arrangements.  You can imagine where they all went today.  Even the workers here on Rabelo have taken the day off to be with their mothers.  I think our crew were desperate for a break.  They had been working from 7 am to 11 pm for over a month trying to get Rabelo ready for us.  They accomplished a great deal considering delays due to weather and delivery problems.

After a long, bumpy but uneventful flight from Los Angeles we arrived  6:30 am Thursday.  This is what we found when we boarded Rabelo.

Kitchen
With an empty refrigerator except for lemoncello.

Guest bedroom

Guest bedroom

Now I'll show you what Rabelo looks like as of Saturday night.

Guest bedroom

Guest bedroom

Living Room

Kitchen

Our new pilot house

The roof has been lowered hydraulically 

Exhausted but enjoying our first bottle of champagne with appetizers

Mothers Day lunch prepared by me :)

Examples of my artwork

Oil on Canvas
Poppy

Poppy Detail

Poppy Detail

Saguaro Sunset

Oil on Canvas

Oil on Canvas
Blue, Orange, Yellow on Green

Detail

Tropical Storm

We're Off to Europe

Missive May 6, 2013

I can’t believe 6 months have gone by and we are returning to Rabelo this Wednesday.   The time we have spent with our friends and family have flown by!  Hiking, painting, working in my studio, going to the gym, French lessons, New York, visiting our family in Northern California, spending time with dear, dear friends, drinking great wine, eating wonderful food…Phew!  It has been terrific.

Wilco has been working very hard to get Rabelo ready for our return.  It’s down to the wire!  The floors are being put back in and hopefully Tuesday all our furniture and personal belongings will be back on board.  You may ask why all our floors were removed.  We had 50 tons of steel placed under the floors throughout the whole boat.  The idea was to lower the boat a foot in the water to improve steering.  Maybe we’ll even have reverse now instead of just blowing bubbles.  Our pilot house was enlarged and pushed forward by about 12 feet.  At the same time we put on it a new roof which is raised and lowered hydraulically.

Since I need to finish packing this missive must be short.  You try packing for 6 months and 3 seasons.  It’s challenging.  Please stay in touch.  We look forward to hearing from you.  Tell us about your lives, your family, good books you’ve read, and anything else you think might interest us.  Just go easy on the politics, please.

Pictures will be coming soon!