We finally managed to leave Harderwijk at about 20 to 4 on Friday afternoon. The hoses we had been waiting for had still not arrived so after a discussion they cobbled together a temporary hose for us that will work until we return next week. We were very happy to be out on the water again and got to Elburg at about 6:30 without mishap and moored up at a nice spot. Just after we arrived we were hailed by Veronica Hayes. I had been in contact with her when I realized that we might meet up with her at Elburg. She is in the Women on Barges group. We cycled over to her boat and had a very pleasant drink with her and her husband Richard. Hopefully we will see them again when we return on Sunday. Saturday, after Howard had a spot of fishing and we did a trip to the supermarket, we set off for some cruising as all our Elburg appointments had all been moved until Monday. We spent Saturday night at Ketelhaven. The engine was gettinga bit hot so we stopped after going through the lock there where the water level drops 5m. We went for a cycle to have a look around and then headed out for dinner at the local restaurant "Lands End". Our mooring had no power and we were not confident we understand what was going on with our electrics so we didn't want to cook dinner on our electric stove. The next morning was very foggy so we didn't leave until almost noon. Unfortunately the engine got very hot on the way to Elburg and we ended up mooring for an hour and half off a working dredger to let the engine cool down. Then we found a mooring a couple of kms further along the canal to spend the night. It was a bit dicey getting in as we didn't know how deep the mooring was - but we were fine in the end. It was only about 2 kms from Elburg so we figured that we'd make that in the morning starting with a very cold engine. We had a cold dinner and went early to bed to avoid wasting electricity. The next morning was misty but we had enough visibility to head out. But we first checked the engine again and this time found a leak in the water reservoir that was obviously causing our problems,. We put as much water in as we could and then headed out. But the engine heated up again very quickly and we moored again within 200m of the harbour mouth on a private jetty. We called Mandy who is arranging the refit of our boat, and she arranged a mechanic to come and see us. He took the reservoir away and tried to fix it - but it had been welded 3 times before and is very thin so even after the fix it was still leaking. We managed to limp into the harbour and now have shore power again so could have a shower and a cup of tea. We were able to have our arranged meeting with our electrician, and carpenter and with Mandy so we feel that we are well on our way to agreeing on all the changes we want on the boat. We will now leave the boat in Elburg until the reservoir is fixed and then Mandy will get someone to move the boat down to Hardehaven where she will spend the winter. Then Erik, our carpenter will bring her back up in the Spring and she will spend a couple of months here getting the work done. We are now packing up ready to leave the boat tomorrow. Here are a few images from Elburg harbour.
1 Comment
Lisette
13/10/2015 12:06:37 am
We were moored right where you are when we first visited Elburg last year. Very pretty around there isn't it?
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AuthorWe are sharing stories about and travels on our barge Moondance. Archives
August 2023
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