[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

Found that beauty in Vizag. It is apparently called a Lateen sail

My compliments to your friend on the beautiful photo. I had to wake up a few brain cells at the mention of lateen! A lateen sale has a spar across the top which extends forward of the mast. This seems more like a sprit sail, the sprit extending from near the bottom of the mast, diagonally across the sail. Can't make out if it also has a boom, the spar along the bottom of a "for'n'aft" (rather than, eg, square rig) sail.

Used to love all this stuff. Worse, I was rather pedantic about it at times . Those brain cells are all washed up, on the beach, and rusty. Which is a bit of a shame.

[Jeroen]

PAN PAN; The aftermath!!

From my earlier post, it must be obvious that I had a very serious problem with the diesel fuel on Sirion. Even though I did manage to make it home, I did not feel confident taking Sirion back on the water again.

First, the tank needed to be cleaned. There are probably about 15-20 companies that provide a tank cleaning service. But probably less than a handful of them are reliable and have a good reputation. The main challenge is they are all booked up for weeks, sometimes months ahead. Fuel problems is the number 1 cause of engine problems on yachts!

Jip, the mechanic who helped me out in Rotterdam had provided a name for me. He knew the guy and when I checked out the company, it had excellent reviews. So I called him the next day. Mick, the owner, was pleasant and professional. Within an hour I received a quotation. I called him back immediately to discuss some of the details. Then my next question was, when can you come around? Mick replied, it will have to be in the next few days, or it will be several weeks later. I told him, next week is good, in fact next week is great. Let me know the date.

In the end, we agreed on Tuesday morning. He would send Matthijs for this job.

Next, I talked to our harbour master. We have a special mooring reserved for just these sorts of jobs. You are not allowed to do these jobs at your regular mooring. As you will see, this "calamity mooring" as we call it was perfect. Because Matthijs brought a lot of gear!!

I got up at 06.00 AM on Tuesday morning. At 07.00 I started up Sirion and moved her to this special mooring.



I had agreed with Mick I would open up the tank myself, to save time (and some money).

So I opened up the floorboards of Sirion



The inspection hole in the tank also allows for various bits to stick into the tank. Here you see the flange. On it are all the connections. Fuel suction, Fuel return, tank level indicator and atmospheric vent.





At 08.00 Matthijs rocker up in his van. It was absolutely crammed with stuff. He has already downloaded some big portable tanks here.



Matthijs was a real gem. 6 months younger than I and like me a former Merchant Navy Engineer. And we had both worked for the shipping company NedLLoyd. So lots to talk about and stories to share!!

Eventually, we decided to get to work. First things first, pump out all the diesel.



Matthijs had put a tarpaulin on the ground to catch any spillage. On it he put a variety of pumps, filters, drums, hoses, extension cords etc etc.







Matthijs handling the hose and pushing it in all corners of the tank to get as much diesel out as possible.



This is looking inside the tank, with almost all diesel pumped out. You can see a lot of debris and gunk on the tank. Matthijs and I discussed it at length. According to him, modern marine diesel is simply not very stable. As long as you use your boat regularly and replenish the tank regularly there are no problems. But if you leave the boat for months at a time, the diesel starts to deteriorate. Some of the additives start cluttering up and become what is known as a bio-grease. Next, there is also the dreaded diesel bacteria, regular debris and of course water. Water ingress into your tank makes all of the above worse.



Notice that large ring at the bottom of the tank. That ring sits just underneath the opening of the tank. The bolts holding the flange in place thread into the ring, sealing the flange (with an O-ring underneath) to the tank. So it is effectively a retainer ring.

The tank was very dirty and Matthijs could not reach all the corners on the starboard side. So we decided to open up the floorboards on Starboard as well. We found a tiny inspection cover.



That tiny inspection cover was not large enough for cleaning, so I authorised Matthijs to make an additional proper cover. Outcomes the electrical saw!! I was a bit apprehensive, but Matthijs has installed hundreds of these and it showed!!



One rectangular hole cut. Plenty big to put all the hoses through.



Same sad story on the starboard side too!!



Next Matthuis used various tools to detach all the gunk and debris and hoover it up. When everything looks pretty clean, he then sprays down the inside of the tank with clean diesel oil.





Look at the result!! Squeeky clean!! Fantastic!!



Next, we had to put the flanges back on. When Matthijs retrieved that retainer ring inside the tank, a small part broke off. Right on top of one of the threaded holes. It looked as if somebody had already fixed this ring before.

We decided to position the ring underneath the tank opening and drill a couple of small holes. Next, we put two small bolts through with a nut and locking ring on the inside of the tank.



Then we drilled a new hole through the flange, through the tank into this retainer ring and tapped thread.

See that narrow pipe on the left? That is the suction line of the diesel space heater. It has a very small diameter suction line. I took off the hose and blew through it to clear any debris.

With the tank all clean, and both inspection covers, old and new, ready to be fitted back it was time to pump the diesel back in. The diesel gets pushed through various filters so is absolutely clean when it goes back in.

The newly made cover on the starboard side was very easy to fit. The cover is just a large beautifully machined rectangular plate. It has an identical retainer plate and a gasket in between. Matthijs showed me how to install it. First, you put these two bolts in, they have white spacers. Which means they are longer than the other bolts. The two bolts in the two flanges are held together but there is sufficient room to get them into the hole. Next, you fit the other bolts (black spacers) and tighten them down evenly.





Once we had all the covers, pipes and hoses re-fitted I started Sirion's engine.
Matthijs and I debated whether we should bleed the fuel system first. But we were both confident that most likely the engine would self-prime. Just to be sure I put her on high idle and let her run for 15 minutes. No problem.

Also, the vacuum gauge on the Duplex filter showed very little vacuum and stayed well below the yellow arc.

I helped Matthijs load up. Matthijs had also provided me with some special Diesel treatment fluid. I have some, but he preferred this stuff. So we added it in the tank prior to refilling it. I asked him to add extra as I was going to get bunkers right away.

At 13.45 PM I cast off and headed for the lock at Gorinchem to make my way to Werkendam. The same trip and the same bunker station you saw me visiting before. The weather was atrocious. I one point I had less than 400 meter visibility on the river.

But with every kilometre of motoring my confidence grew. I kept checking the vacuum gauge. Initially every 5 minutes. Especially once I had cleared the locks and went to full power I kept checking it. But even under full power for half an hour, the vacuum did not increase. All is good, Sirion is back!!!

Very happy and relieved!!



Tied up at the bunker station once again. I took on some 180 litres of diesel.





I am very happy with the result! It was not cheap, but it was necessary. Also, with these sorts of jobs it needs to be done properly. Or you are just wasting time and money. And worst of all, you are compromising your safety.

There is not that much you can do to prevent this. Other than keeping an eye on the vacuum gauge. With my new inspection hole, it becomes a little easier to have a peek inside the tank. Matthijs advised to clean the tank every 4-5 years. But again, it depends a lot on the usage of the boat as well. As I mentioned, the more you use the boat, the less likely it becomes a problem.

I will take that advise to heart!

Many thanks to Matthijs who did a stellar job!! And great to catch up with an old colleague.

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

So beautifully told and illustrated. Thank you yet again for this wonderful coverage.

[Jeroen]

By now, those of you who have followed this thread will have picked up that owning a boat, brings more chores and jobs to do than all my classic cars and our old farmhouse put together!

It is an integral part of boating. There is always something that is not working, leaking, rusting, needing a new coat of paint, polishing and so on.

Even on a well-maintained boat like Sirion.

I have mentioned before that overall I am very happy with all the new Raymarine Electronic kit I had installed. Except for the fact that the radar keeps switching itself off randomly and the plotter keeps changing its zoomlevel randomly as well. Both are extremely annoying.

I have been in touch with Michael, who installed it and I also talked to one of Raymarine's own specialists whilst I was attending one of their courses a few weeks ago. They asked me to update the software and do a system reset. Which I did, but the problems persisted.

The radar connects to the electronic network via a WiFi network, powered by the Plotter electronics. So the next step would be to eliminate any problems on the WiFi Network. To that purpose, a special Raymarine cable was required which Michael sent me. His advice was to just plug it in the radar dome and the back of the plotter and have it traipsing through the cabin. For several reasons I did not like that. it would leave the panel in which the plotter is fitted, half open, because the cable would prevent it from closing properly. Also, on occasion, I have sailed for a full day without any problems. So testing whether the cable made a difference could take some time. I did not want to have cable traipsing around the cabinet, preventing the panel (and the outside cabin door) from closing properly.

Also, I figured I would be happier with a wired connection than a WiFi connection regardless. The reason Raymarine introduced WiFi connections is it it saves a hell of a lot of time on installation. Running cables on yachts is a real PITA!! As you will see!

The first thing is to run the cable from the radar mast inside the boat through this special J-bend. Taking it off the top of the cabin was easy enough. Just three bolts and a bit of pulling as it is sealed of course. I wanted it off, because I thought it would be easier to feed the cable directly through the hole in the roof of the cabin, rather than poke it through that J-bend. Notice I have already fed the cable through the J-bend, you can see the connector that will attach to the radar dome



I had brought some special "cable-pulling" tools from home. By far the most successful one is this homemade 1-meter-long piece of flat plastic. You might have seen me use it working on my classic cars as well. It is sturdy, yet flexible.

You should always spend a considerable amount of time attaching the cable to the tool. I use wire and duct tape. The duct tape also ensures nothing sticks out and thus can get stuck.



I opened up all the cabinets and cupboards on the port side of Sirion and removed all shelves and covers to get access to the cable routing.

I just pushed my trusted tool through the deck opening of Sirion and it went in without any problems. Great!!

From there on things got complicated. I thought I would be able to see and or feel it easily on the inside of the respective cupboard. Not so. It took me a long time to figure out where it went. Then a much longer time to be able to actually see it and grab it. I used mirrors, my endoscope viewer. And I scraped my arm badly groping around a corner deep inside the bowls of Sirions cupboard

It took me all but 4 hours to finally get it through!!



Running it behind all the other cupboards toward the forward cupboard nex to the steering stand took 30 seconds!!



I decided I would first finish the work atop Sirion before proceeding with the cable into the steering stand. Which meant taking the radar dome off, just four bolts and inserting the cable into the connector provided. The other cable you see is the power cable.



Next, I re-installed with fresh sealant the J-pipe. And tie wrapped the new cable in place on the radar mast. I had spent about 5 hours on Sirion so far and I needed to go home.

A couple of days ago I went back to try and finish the job. I had been to the DIY centre to find some more tools/gadgets to help me pull the cable through into the steering stand. The challenge is that there are various holes in the bulkheads and so on. But there is already an unbelievable amount of cables running through all these holes. And this cable has a refitted connector, it does need a bit of room.

I picked up this steel cable puller. Normal use is for use in plastic conduit pipes. But I figured it would be strong and flexible enough to be pushed alongside/ through the existing cables and wiring. I made sure all the electrical power was switched off of course. You don't want to poke around with a heavy metal spring around live wires, terminals, fuses and equipment!

At the ready for the job at hand.



Yep, that is a lot of wiring and all kinds of other tubing and stuff going down some holes you can't even see!!!



It took me about 2 hours to get the spring-fed through! Very tight, very difficult to see what I was doing. Mostly by feel. And a lot of cursing of course. Everybody knows cursing helps in these situations.

Finally, I managed to get it through and I attached the radar cable to it. Ready to be pulled through!



However, with the connector of the table being so much larger than the spring every time I tried it got stuck. So I had to reroute the spring several times. Which meant taking the cable off, pulling the spring back and pushing it back in a slightly different orientation, attaching the cable once again and pulling again. It got stuck about 7-8 times and then suddenly I managed to pull it through with virtually no resistance at all!!!

Victory!!



Next I had to stick it through one more hole in a panel dividing the steering console in a forward and rear side. That went very smoothly.



Finally, push the cable connector onto the plotter. Job done!!



With all the cupboards and panels still open, I powered up every electrical system on Sirion. Everything seemed to be working, no smoke coming out of anything. This is always a bit tricky because when you pull new wires and cables in and around existing ones, you might pull something loose.

So I just closed everything down and collected all my tools to take home.



All in all, it has taken me about 8-9 hours to install this damn radar cable. You can imagine if you have to pay somebody it would cost a small fortune. At least here in the West, this kind of work will cost easily Euro 100 per hour. They might have been able to do it quicker than me, but not by much I figure.

We have my wife's cousin Debbie, from Barbados, staying with us. Of course, we took her for a day sailing on our gorgeous river de Linge. Lots of nibbles, and these days alcohol-free Prosecco! I am happy to report that all of Sirions electronic worked perfectly for 6,5 hours!!



it is a good start. But then again, I have had the odd full day without problems before. Once I have put some 30-40 hours of trouble-free sailing on the radar and plotter I believe my problems are finally solved!

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

All in all, it has taken me about 8-9 hours to install this damn radar cable. You can imagine if you have to pay somebody it would cost a small fortune. At least here in the West, this kind of work will cost easily Euro 100 per hour. They might have been able to do it quicker than me, but not by much I figure.

I find that an electrician takes about ten to twenty minutes to pull a wire where it had previously taken me two hours! But you have a lot more practice, and are probably a lot closer to professional than to my novice level.

I use curtain-hanging spring. Just like your thing, but only two or three mm in diameter. I'm thinking that the wider tool might be harder to push through, but would do a better job of clearing the way when pulling the actual cable.

Turning everything off. Goof idea! I have some conduit that comes out on my house terrace. No idea where it goes inside. It must be for telecoms or Satellite dish or something. One day I decided to try to find out, so I threaded quite a few metres of curtain wire into it. Luckily, my brain functioned a little, and I figured that it would probably come out in some wall box along with mains electricity, and I did not want a direct connection to my hand! I turned off the house main switch. And I never found out where the other end was.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

I'm thinking that the wider tool might be harder to push through, but would do a better job of clearing the way when pulling the actual cable.
.

Yes, correct. However, in this particular case, there are no conduits. So the spring has to find its way by being pushed in between various other cables and wires. That’s why a bought the slightly thicker spring. I felt it would allow for some harder pushing, without collapsing. In a conduit you can push hard, even on a small diameter spring. I also have a nylon wire spring. You can see it sticking out of the plastic bag in one of the last images.

I also used a long 4mm piece of round bar to sort of push a the existing cables/wires apart.

The main problem was picking up the spring when pushed through. Where it came out of the J bend was not directly near the opening in the cupboard. Pushing it through was the easy part. Finding where it was and getting hold of it in the blind was the main challenge.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Earlier this week, I took Sirion for a long day trip. Mrs. D is buy working on some new period dresses for one of her costuming events later this month.

I decided to take Sirion to Heusden, a lovely fortified town on the river Maas. That would take me past Woudrichem and through the Wilhelminasluis (Wilhelmina-lock). From Heusden I would sail west on the Maas and return home via the Biesbosch. A total of about 76 km, half of it new to me.



You will have seen me sailing up to the Wilhelminasluis in one of the earlier posts. It was supposed to be out of commission for 6 months, due to some problems. Somehow they managed to fix it short time and it is operating once again.

As I arrived at the lock, together with one other yacht, the lock doors were just closing. I called the lock operator on the radio, but he never replied.

Whilst moored, waiting for our turn, I walked over to the other yacht. They told me this is one of the worst locks in the Netherlands. Very slow and a very unresponsive lock-operator.



To be fair, I discovered my microphone was not plugged in correctly, so the lock operator probably never heard me. I plugged it in properly and called him for a radio check and he replied right away.

But it was still very slow going. I don't think I have ever seen lock doors move so slowly. I am not sure whether this is due to the earlier problems, or whether these things are always slow. One thing is for sure, there is a lot of negative comments on the various maritime Facebook Groups about this lock.

We made it through in about 2 hours! Sailing along the so-called "afgedamde Maas" is nice. I know this area pretty well, from cycling and from drives in my Spider.

I certainly know this location and this particular restaurant and the house behind the dike to the left. It used to belong to our friends Annelies and Cees, whom you have seen on this thread as well.





My original plan was to moor in the old city harbour in Heusden and have a look around. There are two large marinas, but the old city harbour is smack in the centre of the old town.

You pass underneath the little draw bridge. However, I could see it was already very busy with boats. Also, I had to be at the Biesbosch sluis before 20.00 hours. And I was expecting a lot of traffic there too.



So I decided to just sail on. Very pleasant, very sunny and very warm once I turned into the Biesbosch. I had brought some Heineken 0% beers. As you can see Heineken was expecting the Dutch National Soccer team to do better in the World Cup finals. Still orange cans of beer.



Reached the Biesbosch sluis by 18.00. Had to wait for about 10 minutes, so not busy at all. However, when I arrived at the Merwede Sluis at Gorinchem, it was total mayhem. I usually tune in to the lock frequency when I am about 10 minutes out. Just to hear what is going on, and what to expect. From what I could hear the lock had been out of operation for several hours. On both sides, some 4-5 barges were waiting. Their skippers were not happy with the delays.

I heard the lock operator tell them, the lock had been fixed. So all sounded good, the skippers told him they would be starting up and casting off. By the time I arrived, I found myself in between 3-4 barges. The lock operator told me I would be the last one it if I could squeeze in behind them. That was ok. But then two minutes later he came back on the radio; the lock had malfunctioned again. One of the barriers of the bridge would not close. All of these things are computer-controlled. If the barrier doesn't close he can't proceed to open the bridge or the lock!!

So I decided I would sail around Gorinchem and try my luck at the Linge Sluis. Passed through in under five minutes of arriving!!

I spend all of yesterday morning on Sirion cleaning the outside. You can't really tell in photographs, but she got really dirty and the hull was all streaked. Here she is all shiny again!



I am planning on going to Amsterdam in the next couple of weeks. By sheer chance, I discovered these days you need a so-called "passing through vignet". You pay Euro 42 and its valid for three years.

It is an active vignet, in the sense, when sailing through Amsterdam sensors pick it up. I am not sure why, I think the council wants to have a better idea on how many boats actually pass through per day or so.



So I stuck it on, the mandated port stern of Sirion. Yes, I know its crooked. Very annoying!!



Today I might return to Sirion. Still some more cleaning and some odd jobs to do.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Today I spend another 3-4 hours on Sirion doing all kinds of odd jobs. Part of owning a boat is maintaining it, which means endless cleaning and a sheer endless list of small and big chores to do.

The first little job I did was on the stove/oven. It came with this steel protective plate. But that had never been properly fastened. I drilled two holes into it and secured it with two little bolts. Won't go anywhere and I have also solved one of the annoying rattles!



Next, I spent some time with the FM radio antenna. As you might recall I replaced the old Radio/cassette player and I got myself a new FM antenna too. I tried out a few different spots. But they are all underneath the instrument panel, so sub-optimal. But I think I might have found a decent spot. Cant really tell until I start sailing Sirion.

Most of my time was spent on the starboard wiper. Both port and starboard wipers developed a small leak. When sailing in the rain I noticed some drops underneath. I started with the starboard one first. Because I thought I knew where the leaking was coming from. The slave pivot point!

Here are the motor and gear.



By simply removing one screw I could swing it out a bit



Here you see the wiper from the outside. The main pivot point is the actual drive shaft. The wiper is kept vertical by means of the double arm, that pivots on a small slave pivot point.



Managed to undo it all and sure enough the slave pivot had seized up. This means it started to rotate the complete mounting bolts when the wiper was operated.



It took me about an hour to loosen up the pivot mechanism. Still not perfect. I might have to take the complete wiper mechanism apart and take it home to my garage. For now this will have to do. I will also see if I can get spares.



I installed everything with plenty of grease, new O-rings and some waterproof kit. I had a good look at the port wiper, but I could not figure out from where the leaking was coming. I will wait for the next rain shower.

I also lubricated the aft seal of the prop shaft. Once a year you are supposed to inject 1 cm3 of special seal. I have this nifty little tool which I can stick, very carefully, underneath the seal and inject the grease.



I have noticed water in the cabin bilge. I have tried to locate the problem before. It isn't much at all. Not even enough for the bilge pump to pump out. But it is annoying and I like to keep the bilges as dry as possible. This is also an area with a lot of plumbing. The water heater with various pipes, connectors and so on is all located just above the bilge. I have repeatedly checked for dampness on all the connectors, pipes and so on. At one point I thought it was maybe the relief valve that occasionally let through some water, but no!

So I dried out the complete bilge and put paper towels everywhere. Hopefully, that will tell me where the leak is occurring!

I still have some 15 more odd jobs on my to-do list! But nothing urgent.

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Ask me where I’m going!😀

[Jeroen]

Over the last 6-8 weeks we have had a number of friends and family staying with us. This is what you get from having an internationally spread out family and group of friends. Nobody visits us for just coffee. They all come and stay for several days. Good fun though. And we took them all out on Sirion. Usually for a nice relaxing day up and down the gorgeous river Linge. Very relaxing, but I have shown many images of the Linge on this thread already.

Last week I took Sirion out for a day by myself and did a 75 km trip across the river Merwede and through the Biesbosch.

I have also spent two full (very full I might add) days at our marina doing my Harbourmaster apprenticeship. It was really good fun, very interesting and I learned a lot from the harbourmasters that coached me during those two days. One was the current chairperson of our Marina, the other one, was the previous chairperson. Both have been a member and very active in our Marina as volunteers for many years.

One of the main duties of the harbourmaster is to receive what we call "passer-by-yachts". We have a few berths received for visiting yachts. During the summer season, many of our members leave for days or even weeks on their yachts. We use the empty member berths to accommodate passers-by-yachts. It is an important source of income for our Marina. The harbour master needs to keep track of all berths, the coming and going of all yachts, welcome them, help them moor, and connect to shore power. Do the admin, run the cash register and another billion other things. (e.g. looking after the various marina facilities, toilets, water, electricity, safety aspects, selling ice-creams, keeping track of bicycle guests can use, dealing with boats on trailers etc etc.)

On a busy day, we might have 40-45 yachts leaving and arriving. Every single one has different dimensions, length, width, and draught. And so do our berths! So it is quite a big puzzle to fit everybody in.

Next year I will do a special write up about being harbourmaster for a week!

On Saturday I got a call from the harbourmaster on duty. The volunteers from the "green team" had been cutting the grass. And somehow they managed to cut through several shore power cables, including mine. It caused a complete blackout of all power across the marina! They managed to restore most of the power by simply resetting the respective circuit breakers. However, they did not want to restore power to the section that had our shore power cable connected.

You might recall, my shore power cable fits into a special pad-locked protected outlet. Although the padlock and key were provided by the marina, they did not have a spare key. So they could not unplug my shore power connector with its cut-off wire!

Long story short, we managed to unplug my connector eventually.

I managed to refit the connector to the shore cable. It is almost a meter shorter now. Luckily, it's just long enough to be still used. But if they cut it one more time, I will have to think of a different solution. I don't like to splice a shore power cable.



Later this week Mrs. D and I are out for a four-day trip on Sirion. Next week I will be taking out Sirion by myself for another three-day trip. I am visiting Wijk bij Duurstede on the river Lek/Nederrijn for a maritime event there.

I have also made arrangements for Sirion to be taken out of the water and put back into the same hall where she stayed for the last 13 winter seasons or so.

Lift-out is scheduled for the 31st of October. I have also arranged for some service and maintenance work to be done before lift out. I am pretty sure I could do it all myself. But I'm letting the yard handle it, whilst I will be watching. So I will know for next year.

Depending on the weather I am planning to make that last trip back to her old marina and lift out a 3-4 day trip too, going via the canals in Amsterdam!

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Mrs D and I just returned from a four-day trip on Sirion. And it was a glorious trip. The weather was outstanding, sunny but not too hot, the food superb, we explored several new towns, met up with other boaters and to cap it all, the Dutch Air Force treated us to our private airshow whilst sailing on the river Maas!

We did about 240 km in four days. Every day we did about 6 hours of sailing. We were leaving around 10.00 o'clock and tying up in different marinas daily.

The main towns/villages we visited were all along the river Maas.



We had to take a bit of a detour on the first day as the Wilhelmina locks near Andel have been closed for maintenance for two months. Which meant going through the Biesbosch lock and sailing along the edge of the Biesbosch. Not a problem, it does add some time to the trip, but it is very pretty.

Sirion in the Biesbosch lock behind some other yachts.



A couple of hundred meters after we left the Biesbosch lock we overtook this lovely steam paddler!



As always gorgeous sailing here.



As the weather was so nice, Mrs D decided our Downey covers could do with some airing.



Our first port of call was Kerkdriel. The main reason for going here was to talk to the local yacht carpenter about some of the teak wood that needs replacing.

We docked at around 1600 hours at one of the three local marinas.

.



All three of them are huge marinas with excellent facilities. I chose this one as it also has a pretty good restaurant. Well, it turned out to be an outstanding restaurant. We had a superb dinner! Overlooking the marina, we could see Sirion! Really nice, these days strictly non-alcoholic beverages and wine for us.





The next day the carpenter, Jos, came aboard and we discussed the work that needed doing. It will be done early next year, probably early April.

At around 10.00 o'clock we cast off again. We sailed for several hours, very pleasant when all of a sudden we heard a low-flying chopper.



Look at this!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIRp...ature=youtu.be

This Apache helicopter was out on manoeuvres. It was practising some low-altitude nap of the earth flying. We also saw it making countless "strafing" manoeuvres in a nearby field. Very spectacular.

https://youtu.be/rr6IkANoPJI?si=U5Bm41G95QKE6Eo5

The Apache pilot and gunner entertained us for some twenty minutes. There is a large Apached base at Gilze Rijen, less than 20 kilometres south of where we were sailing. Right opposite my old office! The next day as you will see later, we were entertained more, this time with planes, compliments of the Dutch Airforce again!

We were really surprised at how pretty and attractive the river Maas was. Fairly wide, with little current, and some commercial traffic but a lot less and much smaller barges than we had encountered on the river Waal.



Not all pretty, these are some of the outskirts of the town of Den Bosch.





A few little shipyards and drydocks along the way.



Around midday, we arrived at the locks at Lith. This is a massive facility, both a dam and two large locks.



I contacted the lock on the radio and they told us they would be ready for us in 15 minutes, so we tied up to wait.



After 15 minutes the lock opened and some yachts came out. By then several other yachts, two tugboats and a barge had also arrived behind us.



I called the lock operator again to check who he wanted to come in first. First the two tugs, then us, all other yachts should wait, then the barge. However, I was the only yacht with a radio it seemed. We let the two tugs go in first, but all the other yachts followed after us.



Which meant that the barge had to manoeuvre in with all the yachts in the lock already. Not a huge thing, just slow and time-consuming.



Look at the walls of this lock, you can see we will be lifted about 4-5 meters up!!

Here we are leaving the lock behind us and continuing on the Maas.



We came across this strange-looking vessel. I looked it up. Although it is a Dutch navy registration it is a diving training and support vessel of the Dutch army.



This guy was tacking with his sailing yacht on the river. It is allowed, but that doesn't mean you should do it. I gave him a wide berth. Technically he should have given way to us as we were following the starboard side of the river. But there were several other yachts and a barge near, so I made some room for him.




Endless pretty villages along our route. A friend of Mrs D lives here, right on the waterfront!

[Jeroen]

We continued sailing, amazed at how pretty the river Maas is. So much to see. Of course, this being the Netherlands, Windmills galore!



As we were sailing peacefully, all of a sudden we heard low-flying aircraft. Turned out the Dutch Air Force was still doing manoeuvres. It was 7 ship formation flying behind each other. They came round several times. There might have been other countries airforces involved as well.







Our port for that evening was Ravenstein. A tiny formerly fortified town. We have explored quite a bit here, usually when driving our Alfa Romeo Spider but somehow we never made it to this particular little town. It has a tiny marina called "windkracht 13". (Wind force 13) About 35 moorings. There were some other passerby yachts too. But this is late in the season, you can get a mooring for overnighting just about anywhere with no problems.



When you arrive at these marina's the harbour master will assign you a berthing. Some will come out and help you with the mooring lines. Once you are properly moored you walk over to the harbour master office to pay for the marina fees. Check the procedures for electricity, toilets, passwords for the gates and the Wifi and so on. I always chat to the harbour masters as they tend to have a lot of local knowledge. What to see, what to do, where to eat and so on.

So we went ashore and walked into Ravenstein. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravenstein,_Netherlands

This is a very Dutch thing; A mobile cheese shop!



This is something you will find in our home area as well. It is a little "give-away and or exchange box". You put stuff in it you don't need. Mostly used for books and magazines, but you might find food in there too.



The first thing we visited was the local "city garden".





At the city garden, they also had a small tannery museum. It was closed but some of the exhibits were placed around the garden.



We strolled on, some pretty streets.









There is very little left of the original fortifications. They have some old ruins of the wall and some cannons on display.



As so often in this part of the Netherlands, huge church. This is the province of Brabant, a fiercely Roman Catholic area. Every village, no matter how small, builds its huge church!



it doesn't look like it but this was one of the original city gates many centuries ago.



There used to be a castle here, but it was destroyed a long time ago. There is nothing left to see. But they put up this interesting sign. If you position yourself correctly you can still see how the original castle fits into the scenery.



With castles and nobility came birds of prey for hunting.



I am not sure if this is known/used in India? Look at that window in the middle first floor. It has a mirror fitted. In Dutch it is called "the little spy". It allowed the occupants to see who was at their front door, without having to walk down the stairs.



We decided to have dinner on Sirion. Mrs. D had brought various nibbles to eat. In Dutch, we call this "borrelen". A "borrel" is a drink (any kind of drink), but the verb "borrelen" means having a drink and eating little snacks like these



We had a wonderful day and went to bed early. Sirion all lit up for the night!

[Jeroen]

The next day we started our return home. We were going to sail the same way back as we came. The weather was still gorgeous!

And still more to see on the river Maas. It's funny how many new and different things you see when returning along the same way.





We left the river Maas for a very short detour onto the Goudenham. it is sort of a little lake connected to the maas. Several large marinas and various holiday homes, camping sites and so on





Of course we had to pass through the lock at Lith once again. Going down 4-5 meters this time!



At one of the many little shipyards I noticed this ship. I am not sure, but I think it is an old German rescue/fire fighting vessel. It is in desperate need of some TLC.



Dutch yachting comes in all sort of sizes and shapes.



Cows (actually steers) are still out in the field and they love the river!



Gorgeous little tug!



Of course, endless ferries, big and small. This is a typical size for these rivers, for all traffic including cars, trucks, busses, tractors and so on. Most of these ferries on the Maas are kept in position by steel wires. You need to be careful not to pass too closely.

We saw a German Yacht passing to closely and they snagged the wire. Luckily they were going very slowly. He reversed and that was it, no damage was done. Maybe to his props, I would not know. But every year there are multiple incidents where the lines of these ferries get snagged and snap!



We decided to overnight in Heusden. We know it very well. It is a very attractive old fortified town. The old city walls are still in place. It has some nice attractive shops (e.g. antiques and brocante and so on) and some excellent restaurants.

Here we are tied up at the excellent marina in Drimmelen.



Again, this is a massive marina with some huge ships about.



The harbour master office is an old ship's superstructure and bridge mounted on a pontoon! Pretty unusual, but it does look cool!



We strolled into town and walked around a bit. Lovely old buildings.



We went with the restaurant recommendation of the harbour master and were not disappointed. We had a lovely meal. This image was taken around 20.30. Still light and still warm enough to sit and eat outside. We had a big three-course meal and some non-alcoholic beers and wine. These days they are pretty good.



The next day we continued our journey home along the Maas. We decided to stop for lunch and bunkers at the marina of Drimmelen. Not sure these days, but at some point in time the marina of Drimmelen was considered one of the largest in Europe.

Here is Sirion tied up at the Bunker station. We took on some 175 liters of diesel.





Many of these large marinas have special jetties for passing yachts that just want to spend a couple of hours onshore. For shopping or for lunch. So we moved Sirion to this special, free of charge, jetty. All the yachts you see in the background are for sale! This end of the marina is a ship brokerage.



Have a look at their website to get some idea of the yachts for sale!

https://www.sterkenburgyachtbrokers.nl

We walked over to one of the restaurants right on the river and had a nice lunch. (again no alcohol of course)



Mrs. D got an interesting plate. We both ordered "kroketten". A dutch snack, lovely on bread. The standard portion is two kroketten on two pieces of bread. But Mrs D ordered a special, just one kroket and one piece of bread. So the kitchen must have decided the order was meant for a child!!



After lunch, we sailed into the Biesbosch and back home. We got lucky at all the locks. Biesbosch lock and the Merwede lock were opening just as we arrived!



We use the last twenty minutes on the Linge to get the boat sorted for arrival and clean up all our stuff. Mrs D will take the helm so I can sort out my special lines I made for our home marina. As they are made to length it makes berthing very easy. But I take them off as we go on longer trips as they wont work in other marinas.



The last few kilometres on the river Linge before we are back to our home marina.



All in all a very successful trip! My next trip is this weekend. I will be taking Sirion by myself to Wijk bij Duurstede for the "lekkodagen" a big maritime event. About 4-5 hours of sailing on Saturday morning. I cant leave before 8 o'clock. The bridges have more restricted opening hours from 1st of October onwards. Just something to take into account when planning these trips.

Jeroen

[antony5279]

This is such a beautiful post. It brings back memories of my stay in the Netherlands preparing two yachts for races. The first one was prepared in Medemblik, and I had an apartment right next to the yacht. The second yacht was prepared in Den Oever.

One of our yacht designer friends took us around Amsterdam on his little boat one Sunday.

I hope to repeat your trip with my family some day!

[BudhaBaba]

Throughly enjoyed the read. Thank you for sharing!