So plans are made to change aren't they?

If you were paying attention earlier you would have noticed that we haven't exactly followed our planned route.  What can I say, we're flexible, really flexible. This is the actual route we have taken.  

Anyway, a conversation a couple of weeks ago led to a discussion about what are the things we want to do over the next 5 and 10 years and for me having an electric boat (or diesel electric hybrid) has always been up there if and when we can afford it. We decided to take the boat up to Lelystad and see the distributor for Greenline boats in Lelystad. Suffice to say, we like what we see.

Cutting a long story short, we've decided that we will sell Ardella and get a second hand Greenline 33 that has an electric engine that can do 4 knots on the canals (which is about the speed limit anyway) and a diesel engine that can do 12 knots which would be fantastic for the more open waterways.  In addition to being ideal for here in Europe it is also a boat that we could easily bring back to Australia (on a container ship) and use on the east coast of Australia.  Pretty much, any where on the east coast of Australia we could use the electric motor within the bays and rivers and then use the diesel engine to get between the bays and rivers.

All things electrical

Well, it's now been a couple of weeks since we replaced that pesky battery and the voltage regulator.  I'm happy to say that with a new battery and the regulator keeping things properly charged when the engine is running things are looking brighter in the cabin :)

We're on our 4th day here in this canalside stop and haven't run the engine in that time.  Weather has been a bit hit and miss with sun / clouds / rain and the batteries are still at 97%.  Nothing to complain about there. When the solar is running at full tilt it puts about 15 amps into the batteries.

Getting the 60kg battery in and out was a bit of a challenge but not insurmountable.  4" square hardwood lying around with a couple of stainless fittings and some spare rope and I had a really usable pulley system.

Raising and lowering the battery one stair at a time means that it's always under control.

And eventually it makes it here.

And this is the voltage regulator that was only charging at a maximum of 13.8 volts.

The regulator has now been replaced with one that gets the voltage up to 14.5 volts.  The end result is that instead of us arriving at a marina and plugging in the power and immediately charging the batteries, when we get there and plug in the batteries are already charged. 

Taking out the garbage

So we've been seeing these bins and never knew how they got emptied until the other day. Some of them are for general public use others are for residents and you need to use a card to get the thing to open so you can drop in the rubbish.

And this is what it looks like underneath.

And we all know what happens to the rubbish in Netherlands.

Utrecht

On our way in to Utrecht (coming from north to south) on the Vecht river.  These guys on the houseboats really have the life.

We were able to go all the way through town however there's nowhere to stop and I really had my work cut out. All of the bridges are 'only just' and we had the canvas cover down. Oh yeah, and it started to rain just as we went through the first bridge.
Anyway, we got through the whole series of bridges (about 20 from memory) and found a spot where we could tie up for 6 hours and then went for a walk in to town. We saw one of these buses on the way in and I managed to get a photo and video on the way back.

Lunch

After a big walk in the morning I figured we were ok for a drink with lunch.  This is just outside of Gouda (famous for the cheese of course) at one of those spots where we can park for free for 3 days.