14-16 September We are very fortunate as friends that we made in Namur offered to visit us and help wit our cooling problem, so at about midday Dawn and Marcel arrived. They were on their way home to Venlo in the Netherlands from the coast. Dawn generously gave Pete and Wendy a lift to the station while Howard and Marcel started to look at the problem again. It looked as though the pump wasn't working so they set off and were gone a few hours. They had been to a chandlery and a "pump specialist". They had worked out that the pump was installed incorrectly and was mis-aligned. So they rectified that and confirmed that it was now working, but it wasn't getting enough flow of water from the inlet. Where we were moored we were accumulating a lot rubbish between the boat and the wall - which was the side of the inlets. So we turned the boat around. Then I volunteered to go for a swim to see if I could clear the inlet. It was very murky and cold. Also there was a bit of a flow, so we set up a rope that I could hold to maintain my position. I used the broom and also dived under the boat to try and clean the outlet. It was quite difficult as I didn't really know what it was exactly that I was cleaning. But the outcome was that I succeeded in clearing the outlet so everything was fine - oh - except the toilet, whose inlet was also blocked. But Howard cleaned the filters so that was working again too. To celebrate we went out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. We were so lucky to have made friends with Dawn and Marcel who have been so generous and kind to us. We are looking forward to spending more time with them next year. In the morning, Dawn and Marcel heading off home, and we set off on our journey only one day behind schedule. Our journey took us through Charleroi, which was very run down and industrial. We went through 4 locks and we are slowly getting into a routine for locks that is working for us. We stayed overnight at Marchiennes-au-Pont just the other side of Charleroi. We went for a bike ride, but it was grey and depressing so we returned to the boat. This morning (Saturday) we had to retrace our steps a couple of kms to get to our turn off. We had three locks today, each with floating bollards, which makes it much easier. We reached our mooring at Viesville at lunch time and then went for a ride along the canal, stopping at the supermarket in the next town. At the check-out we got talking to a chap and his nephew, and he invited us for a drink to try the Belgium beer. We had a very pleasant time with Dennis and his nephew Xander, and we gave Xander a box of chocolates for his birthday which is coming up. As I write this blog post, Howard is fishing. What a lovely afternoon.
1 Comment
Xander
27/9/2017 05:52:47 pm
Hey nice to have written something about us. I've forgot to watch on the canal. We love your website's organization. Thanks see you 😀
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