Treading Water
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Early July, and we were moored in Amersfoort as Nicki was setting off back to the UK for a couple of weeks in July, and it was an easy location to catch a train to Schipol airport, flying out to Southampton. Unfortunately, just before she returned to the UK we found a lump on Milly’s leg that gave us cause for concern, and following a visit to a local vet a cell sample was sent off for analysis – a few days after Nicki left, the vet contacted me to say that sadly the tests revealed a possible cancerous growth so I arranged for Milly to have an op to remove it a few days later.
In the meantime, and as I would be on my own for a few weeks, I decided to arrange for a Kabola engineer to come out to the Amersfoot mooring to service the boiler (some things I’m happy to do myself but I figure that every now and again it is worth letting the experts take a look), as well as take the opportunity to work on the boat myself on other issues. The engineer did his stuff and said that these type of boilers were trouble free and just needed to be looked at every couple of years, so all good.
After the service I moved to one of the free moorings outside of town again (Malebrug) where the dogs could have good walks and I could get some of those ‘other’ jobs sorted. However, with Milly’s op in mind, I had to go back to the mooring in town (although I was getting ready to do that anyway as our friend Simon was due to join me for a few days); her op seemed to go well and I took my first Uber trip to get her back from the vet. She seemed quite good after the op and just needed a bit of after care.
The following day Simon arrived from the airport and we spent the next couple of days in Amersfoort. It is one of my favourite places and very easy to relax and enjoy yourself there.
We drank, ate and explored.
Simon was only staying for a few days so we aimed to pack a fair bit in, and we left Amersfoort to cruise down the river Eem joining the Eemmeer, stopping at Spakenburg for lunch before heading off to Zeewolde where we spent the night. We did struggle a bit to find a mooring because it was quite late when we arrived but it was all good in the end.
Next day we took the short journey over to Harderwijk where we stayed for a couple more days until Simon had to head back, making the most of his time by drinking (a bit more), enjoying the sunsets and visiting the Van Dokkum Museum/gallery that Nicki and I had been so impressed with on our last visit (even buying a print of one of the artist’s paintings.)
At this point, it became apparent that the water was not heating up from the boiler – since the engineer’s visit several days ago I hadn’t been aware of this, as we were getting hot water from running the engine – and so a day later the heating engineer was back, only to discover that the boiler had not been bled properly! Luckily it was a quick fix.
That same day Nicki was due back, and it was quite late in the evening when she finally arrived back on the train, returning now to Harderwijk – the move to Harderwijk made her journey a little longer but all seemed to go OK although there were some fuelling issues at the airport that slowed disembarkation from the plane, followed by cancellation of the first train out of Schipol!
Next day we moved on to a group of islands nearby for a few days of relative isolation. Boats came and went as it was a popular area for day outings with its dedicated swimming and barbecue areas. The island we were on was big enough for the dogs to get reasonable walks and enjoy swimming off the beaches. I also went in the water and took the opportunity to look under the boat – all looked good with no mussels attached to the underside, and although the anodes are starting to look worn, they will probably be OK for another couple of years. They do look easy enough to replace as they are bolted on and just a foot below the waterline.
Next we set off across the viaduct outside Harderwijk to Elburg where we stayed for a few more nights. Elburg is very popular and despite getting there early there were only a couple of spots available, so much so that later in the day a yacht rafted up next to us for the night. Elburg is very pretty but I’m not sure it would make it into my top ten. Not enough coffee shops for my liking.
After a restful few days, we were back on the water and setting off to Ketelhaven just off the Ketelmeer, luckily mooring up before the rain set in for the evening. The mooring was quite pleasant, alongside a quiet estate of bungalow type properties, with a decent walk for the dogs along the dyke fairly nearby. We did call into one of the private houses nearby to buy some of their honey, a small compensation for the complete lack of shops in the area. Other than that there did not appear to be anything else around, but as the weather for the next few days was looking a bit wet we decided to stay put for a while before carrying on to Zwolle where we are due to meet up with Lucy who will be joining us for a week.
