Next stop - Germany

Well sort of. From here we're heading east until we get to Erica, then north east to a junction in the canals just south of Ter Apel and then we'll head south east on the Haren-Rutenbrock Kanal until we hit Haren in Germany. Assuming we're allowed in, we'rethen going to follow the Ems river north until we get to Dollard Bay and then we'll head back in to northern Holland. Then we'll head to Groningen and then follow the Noord Willemskanaal back down to Meppel and we'll have completed the loop. All up, this could probably take us a month.

Flags

A week or so ago I posted this photo on Facebook and Roger asked what the flags meant. I now can't find where he asked the question so I figured I'd tell everyone here. 

Bottom left on the mast is a pennant from the Marrekrite recreation authority in Friesland. They have hundreds if not thousands of free moorings in Friesland where you pull up along the side of the canal and stay for up to 3 days.  The grass is mowed and they have garbage bins there, normally in a pretty accessible spot with a bike track nearby.  It cost us 15 euro for the pennant for the 2017 year.

The one above it on the left is from Women Who Sail Australia which Belinda joined when we were on EverRest.

On the right of the mast is the Shaggers pennant from the Shag Islet Cruising Yacht Club which we also joined when we on EverRest.

At the front of the boat is a Dutch courtesy flag because we are in Netherlands.  And at the rear of the boat in front you can also see a Dutch flag which they are showing at the stern because their skipper is Dutch.  We fly the Australian flag at the stern.

Where are we now page?

The where are we now page is manually updated and I haven't yet worked out how to have it display us in the map.  Suffice to say when I embed the map we are at the centre.  If you zoom out you should stay centered and that will allow you to see where we are.  If you need to, just refresh the page.
If you want to know exactly where we are (or more precisely where my tablet is) let me know and I can add you to the list of people that I share my exact location with.

Electrical System

On Friday while at Oppenhuizen I tried the 24 volt battery charger (which charges the engine batteries) and it went up to 32 volts.  Not a good thing as this will destroy the batteries pretty quickly.
A bit of searching and I found AquaSolar just a 600m walk away. I was able to organise for someone to come out to the boat in the afternoon and run some tests on the electrical system.

End result of all that is that yes the charger was stuffed.  Dutch / English doesn't really matter, stuffed is stuffed. Also, both the 24 volt alternator and the 12 volt alternator are working ok but the wire from the 24 volt alternator to the starter was way too small and the 12 volt alternator wire to the batteries was also way too small.

For the technically minded the formula goes something like this (Amps x cable length) / (voltage drop as a % x volts) = diameter of the wire.

Anyway, I had noticed previously that we were really only getting about 20 amps out of the 12 volt alternator when we're running the motor.  63 Euro later for some cables which I fitted myself and we are now able to charge at 50 amps.  It means that in 24 hours when we consume about 100Ah, instead of it taking 5 hours of running the engine to charge again we will be able to do that in 2 hours.  Reality is we never sit there with the engine running just to charge the batteries but when we plug in at the next marina we won't be charging batteries.

 The blue wire shows the thickness of the old wire.

And the red wire is the size of the new wire.

Oh yeah, we paid 119 Euro for a new 24 volt charger that we will leave in the box until we need it.  I've tested it but in theory we should never need it.

Oppenhuizen

We're still in Sneek (kind of) and have been for a few days. I realise now that I need to be a little more specific about where we are staying so that we can go back over time and work out which marinas we have been in so that if we want to come back we know where to go.

I think its probably going to be a good thing if I include links to their website if at all possible.  Anyway, we've been staying here since last Thursday.  Main criteria was 'did it have a laundry' and the answer to that was yes.  Preferred criteria was 'electricity included and decent internet' and they scored on both counts.  At this time of year electricity included is good as the main heating we have is a little electric fan heater and we needed to get stuck in to doing some work on the internet.
Thursday turned out to be beautiful weather and the first load of washing was already dry by the time third was coming out of the machine.

A big old dutch farmhouse that has the office and home at the front and 6 apartments as well as toilets and showers for the marina and a café / bar.

We've been parked on the 'terrace' for 5 days and loved it.  Water and electricity included in the 14 Euros per night (inc tourist tax)

Sneek

Moved up to here so that we were closer to the shops.  Really no good reason to come up here but hey why not.  Same 'marina' as the other place in Sneek so same cost (Euro 17.50 per night) includes electricity and tourist tax for two.

Sneek

We spent a Monday and Tuesday nights here in Sneek

Not a bad spot right in town.

Transmission problems

Last year we did about 70 engine hours in total and we discovered that we had a leak in the transmission.  We went through about 5 litres of oil in 50 hours of engine running time.  We had some problems with it selecting gear when cold but mainly the issue was excessive oil leaking (ending up in the bilge) and a little bit of a milky white residue at the top of the dipstick.

The milky white bit is moisture mixing with the oil and I think that we still have a problem with the oil cooler letting a bit of coolant in to the transmission however it is a very small amount.  Something that we will monitor.

Main issue was the leak and Jacques suggested this place in Ijlst.  He also rang them for us on the Saturday and booked us in for the Monday morning.

The white powdery looking stuff is just because it's really cold after spraying with some degreaser.   Just to the right of the linkage is where the oil was pooling after leaking from the o-ring.
Apparently if these Borg Warner transmissions are leaking its really only one of three places.  The front seal ($$$), the rear seal (also $$$) or the o-ring which is very easy.

End result is one o-ring, one gasket, one new split pin and 2 litres of oil and an hour and a half later I part with 130 euros.  Very happy with this result!

Back to St Nik

We came here to St Nyk last year while waiting for the guys to finish their holidays so they could fix the exhaust and met some wonderful people. Came back again this year to catch up with Jacques and Ilona who lived in Canberra at one time. This shot is the official naming of the dock 'Steiger Hetloo' (rough translation is 'party dock') on the Friday.

Followed up on Saturday night with the official opening of the season and the choir singing late in to the night

And we're on the boat again

We got to Lemmer by about 0930 this morning and started to sort things out. Met up with Arjan and Joop to discuss things that they'd done over the winter and then we drove up to Workum with them to look at their new facilities. Very nice. Back to Lemmer in the afternoon and unloaded the car, then went shopping. Belinda now has a NL sim and phone number. Finished unpacking and stowed all of the shopping. My Wi-Fi antennae works like a bought one. Inside the boat just using my laptop and I get to see 6 Wi-Fi hotspots. Connected to the outdoor antenna and I can see 61 hotspots! I call that a success. Anyway, tomorrow we're off to Ikea for a few things and then we'll return the hire car and catch a bus back. We're looking at spending a couple of nights here in Lemmer then going up to St Nik to hang out for a week or so. One of the bonuses with that place is that we pay a flat rate of 2 euro per night for electricity. Means we can leave the heater on 24/7 if we need to. We're planning on doing a bit of work while we're there so we can catch up while the weather is still a bit variable.