Tuesday, 2nd July, 2019
We awoke to a fairly bright and breezy morning with lots of clouds scurrying across the sky. After our first cuppa, we went up for a shower and returned for breakfast. Once we had tidied away, Chris checked the charts for our short trip to Bruinisse. Chris had spoken with our Dutch neighbour, who we were tied up very snuggly to here, and he wasn’t leaving until early afternoon, so we had to have a plan for leaving our berth. Chris started the engine and we untied all our lines, apart from the spring line, which Carole kept hold of. She then walked the boat along a few metres before climbing aboard just before Chris turned the boat. It then just took a slight push away from our neighbour and we were clear and away. Our plan had worked.
We continued out into the buoyed channel of Krabbenkreek where the wind was light and as we had no deadline to meet, we got out the genoa and switched off the engine. We were making between 1 and 3.5 knots through the water which was very pleasant. However, when we made our turn into the Mastgat, our speed dropped to zero and we had to put the engine on again and put the sail away. We were soon approaching the Grevelingensluis, which was the lock we would have to go through to go to Bruinisse. We were the first to tie up on the waiting area, but we were soon joined by other boats and by the time we got in the lock, there were about six or seven of us. Carole successfully tied on our spring line, but Chris had a bit of trouble at the stern with the wind or something, but eventually we were safely attached ready for the lock-in. We weren’t sure we had actually moved up or down, but within minutes, the lock gates opened and we were away.
We motored past the first marina and entered the second and received our berthing instructions from a smiling lady with an iPad in hand. We went on the hunt for M62 and as usual, Chris reversed into M while Carole sought 62. Once found, we realised it wasn’t just a straightforward pontoon berth. It had a short pontoon on one side with a piling post on the other. We got ourselves ready and Chris reversed into our space with Carole ready to jump off with the spring line. What she hadn’t taking into account was the fact that the piling post would be a hindrance to standing in her usual place to jump off and there was a very brief moment when she got wedged between the post and the boat and thought she was going to be ejected into the water. Luckily she managed to keep her balance, just, and still jumped off and secured the spring line. It was then she noticed that Chris hadn’t undone the back ready to get off with his lines. A few minutes later we were neatly tied up wondering what all the fuss was about. Chris will be checking for bruises later. (Ouch, Chris confirmed that the bruises are big so Carole must not be used as fender in future).
We visited the marina office and paid our dues for two nights, plus some tokens for the laundry. This isn’t a cheap marina but the facilities and environment are worth the extra. After lunch, Carole filled the trolley with two machine loads of dirty washing and disappeared to the laundry room. Two hours later Chris came up to help carry it all back. Job done, Carole now put her feet up while Chris cooked a tasty supper of savoury mince, mashed potatoes and fresh carrots. A bit later Carole washed up and we then settled down to watch a bit of TV. The WiFi here is excellent, so we made the most of it. Bedtime soon came and tonight we swapped bunks to see if Carole could get a better night’s sleep. It was cooler and everything was still, so all boded well.
Wednesday, 3rd July, 2019
We both slept well in our different beds and Carole was up first making our morning cuppa. We had no particular plans today, apart from a stroll into town later on. We sat tapping away on our blog and once Chris had posted, we had a bit of breakfast. Once tidied away, we went up for a shower. The facilities are excellent, lots of hot water and lovely big cubicles with a huge bench and a sink all to yourself.
We returned to the boat where Chris did some work while Carole hand washed a big pile of white socks, etc. (not enough to warrant the cost of a machine). Once pegged out securely in the strong wind, we had a bite to eat for lunch. Chris then suggested a stroll out, but Carole felt 40 winks sounded more attractive and Chris didn’t argue. Two hours later, feeling much more refreshed, Carole got up and made a nice cuppa.
We then took that overdue stroll into town, walking a bit further in than we had done before and discovered a supermarket in the market square. We bought a few bits and pieces, including some Liptons English breakfast tea bags as our supply of Sainsbury’s red label tea bags is running low (Carole underestimated how many we would need for our trip). Chris also spotted Liptons Moroccan mint tea bags (Carole’s favourite weird tea bags) which everyone at home appear to have stopped selling. We couldn’t make up our mind what to have for supper, so we opted to try the Fray Bentos steak and kidney pie we had in the cupboard. By the time we got back to the boat, we reckoned we had walked a good 3 or 4 miles in total. Carole put the oven on, peeled the potatoes and opened the pie can and can of peas and supper was on its way. Half an hour or so later, Chris plated up and we sat down to eat. Supper was a disappointment. Potatoes and peas were fine, the pie filling was ok, but the crust was inedible. Never mind, we had to try it or we wouldn’t have known. To make up for it, Carole washed up, made a nice cup of coffee and opened her packet of chocolate nougat to share. We then watched the last two episodes of A Summer of Rockets, which had a very satisfactory ending, before heading to our beds well past midnight.
We have now added WiFi Details to our Blogs. hopefully this will be useful if you need to update your systems and upload photos etc.
Wifi Details
Stability V Good
Signal V Good
Speed 9.5Mbps