Ypres - Tuesday 6th May to Thursday 8th May 2025

A lovely marina about a 700 meter walk to the market square.

Marina Facilites:

Berth: 10 meter boat 12:00 euros
Electricity: 4 euros unlimited for the day
Water: 2 Euros for about 200 litres

Shower: 2 Euro for 8minutes

Key Card: 20 Euro deposit 

Markets on Saturday in the Market square

Ypres may have a difficult and dark past, but today it's a beautiful city that is worth a visit.

Ypres has a lot of WWI history, located on the front line of the war the city was completely destroyed during WWI. After the war, the city was rebuilt in the original medieval and renaissance style. Menin Gate, the 'In Flanders Field' Museum and the Tyne Cot Memorial are places you will want to see.

Not war related is the Yper Museum, walking the ramparts and the De Kazematten Brewery and the brewery underground tunnels. The opening hours for most are everyday all day but the De Kazematten, their hours are Tours on Saturday at 3:00pm, 4:00pm and 5:00pm, Additional tours on Friday at 5:00pm (April-November) and Thursday at 5:00pm (July-August) must book beforehand. We missed out but we will make sure we are in town on the right days next time. 

Love Belgium chocolate

Court House

Menin Gate from the top of the hill

Menin Gate at road level, one of 2 arches

Menin Gate - Australian soldiers names are on these walls

Menin Gate from the front

Toronto Police band after they did the last post 

The Ramparts is a system of fortification that surrounds the city, consisting of a moat, walls, and cannons used to defend against invaders. 

Diksmuide, Belgium - Sunday 3rd May & Monday 5th May 2025

Saturday, back at the marina in Diksmuide, met a lovely couple, David from Canada and Katherine from Fance, drinks on their boat then dinner out.

Sunday, great day to stay inside after our walk for a croissant. Very windy with a cold bite to it. Hoping it's the last bit of cold weather before the warm days stay around. 

Between Diksmuide and Fintele, Ijzerdijk 22 - Friday 2nd May 2025

Today is our first day of our 2025 Season, first week and a bit was not counted, it was all about cleaning and preparing.

We set off to Ypres (Ieper) about 20 kilometers from Diksmuide. Like the saying goes "Best laid plans". About 5 kilometers into the trip, Martin noticed the electric engine was starting to heat up. Keeping an eye on it, the decision was to turn around and wait for the part in Diksmuide.

(We had noticed as soon as we went into the water that the water pump for the electric motor wasn't working correctly. On Wednesday we had worked out the bit that needed replacing and were waiting for it to arrive. To be fair, the manual says we don't need to run the electrical system cooling when we are running on diesel. Not so!)

We stopped on the way to Ieper because the electric motor was getting to 40 degrees. The stop was a new dock in front of De Fot'oeil a Farm/Cafe/Museum. Have been told it has a beautiful and very large collection of photographic equipment.

Free with no facilities, also found out it's a very new dock and they were having an opening celebration on the 4th May and the dock was built for the kayaks. The cafe was booked for a private function, so we didn't get to see the museum. The function turned out to be for the opening of the dock we were on. A councilman came and talked to us, he explained the money for the dock, ferry dock and walking track in the center of Diksmuide was raised from different areas. The dock was designed for kayaks and small electric hire boats. He asked if the dock was strong enough for our boat, which it was. He then explained they are doing signs for the dock and will think about letting larger boats on the dock. Sun Chi was the first and maybe the only boat to stay here for a night. 

Diksmuide, Belgium - 24th April to 1st May 2025

Staying in Portus Dixmuda, Harbour 2. Harbour 2 is closer to the center of town. Last year we stayed in Harbour 3 which is an extra 500 meters to walk to get into town but there is less traffic noise.

Marina Facilites:

Berth: for a 10-meter boat for 7 days (week) was 72,00 Euros
Electricity: 1 or 2 Euros not sure what that gives you I will look into it before we leave, hopefully (1EUR = 3.143 kwh)

Water: 1 Euro gets you 150 liters

Shower: 1 Euro for 3 minutes of hot water

Washing machine: 1 Euro for every 30 minutes, if the cycle you choose goes for an hour you will need to add 2 Euros 

Drier: 1 Euro for every 30 minutes

Key to get into the Showers and Laundry is a 20 Euros deposit which you will get back once you return the key.

We arrived in Diksmuide on the 24th of April 2025 just after 12:00 noon, after a 13-hour flight from Singapore and 2 trains. We walked to our hotel, Hotel Pax, to drop off the bags to find they were going to let us check in early. So nice when that happens. After a shower and lunch in town, we walked to 'Recreatie in de Westhoek' to check on the boat. 

We found the antifoul we had done the year before was not the best work.

On Friday, 25th April 2025 Sun Chi is safe in the water again.

Sun Chi on hard stand

Moving Sun Chi under the lift

Sun Chi heading to the water

Sun Chi in Portus Dixmuda, Harbour 2 for the next week

First Week - Cleaning and preparing for the season

After cleaning the deck

Before cleaning deck

Plenty of leftover magnet and steel
strips to neaten up the
original flyscreens that were using Velcro

The flyscreen installed on the front hatch

Kit used to make the flyscreens

Every morning, we walked to the Market square for a croissant and coffee. 

Walking to the Market square every morning we saw the Golden statue 't Manneke uit de Mane, which symbolizes West Flemish humor. It is a statue of a little man holding up a book in front of the moon. That booklet is the Flemish almanac 't Manneke uit de Mane that has been published since 1881 and is full of funny stories. There is also an association with 'knights' attached to it that receives the latest edition every year. In the background is the town hall and behind that is the Church's bell tower.

13 May St-Jean-de-Losne to Longecourt-en-Plaine

Time to catch you up on today. Belinda will finish off the issues we had in St Jean de Losne but this post is about the travelling we did today.

This is the high-level view I get for todays travel. You can see that it is pretty much a straight line for today leaving St Jean de Losne and we're now about halfway to Dijon.

As we're going along, this is the view that I get. It also shows things like the speed, and particularly battery voltages and current draw. Important for when we're running on electric.

This next picture shows a bunch of stuff. Sorry, it'll come out big but I needed the resolution.

The yellow is our start and finish for the day.

The red circle is the bridge clearance. So long as it's more that 3.30m we're good. If it's less than that we need to fold the mast down. One day I'll show that.

The 2,705 in blue type (in the green circle) shows the distance in meters between the two locks. In this case it's 2.7kms.

Circled in purple is a PK number. This is a km marker in the canal. Sometimes they count up, sometimes they count down.

Circled in blue is 72, La Bietre (2,47)

This means that it is Lock (Ecluse) 72 at La Bietre and the height difference is 2.47m. The green dot means that it is manually operated.

 

Link to a video of Martin helping to open the lock

Saint Jean de Losne - 3rd May 2024 to 13th May 2024

Friday 3rd May 2024 - We arrived at the marina before lunch to find the Sun Chi already in the water. Now the work begins, checking engines, unpacking and finding a place for all the new stuff we just had to bring and cleaning 7 months worth of dust and grime.

Sunday 5th May 2024 - Moved the boat to the marina berth going through our first lock (Ecluse 76 S de Saint-Jean-de-Losne)

First Lock of the season.

Monday 6th May, we returned the hire car, we then caught the train back to Saint Jean de Losne and walked the 1.2 kilometers back to the boat in the rain, let the fun begin.

Tuesday 5th May, Time for the engine maintenance.

Replaced

 Prop Shaft Boot is our first job to be done next winter.

Wednesday 8th May 2024 - today is a public holiday, Victory in Europe Day. It makes the official end of World War II in Europe in the Eastern Front.

Link to Video of VE Day in Saint Jean de Losne - Hope the video works

Saturday 11th May 2024 - we had plans to head to Dijon, but, yes there is a but, as we were leaving our mooring, we heard a tapping noise coming from the drive shaft or propeller area. We made the decision to head to the marina lift out area, this meant going through the lock. Normally this isn't a problem. Today there were two guys manning the lock. We entered, they closed the gate behind us, we got one line on and in the process of getting the second line on when Martin heard water. The guys had started to fill the lock without asking if we were ready, which we weren't. Martin went back to the helm to use the engine to help control the boat and I stayed at the line at the bow. Not the best experience in a lock, but not the worst.

David, the marina owner came to have a listen and agreed with us. We will be lifted out Monday morning to check what is causing the noise, we are hoping it has something to do with the new weed/rope cutter David has installed for us or something simple. Fingers Crossed

Sunday 12th May 2024 - Mother's Day in Australia, not much happening here. I did some work.

Monday 13th May 2024 - Eary start as we were not sure when we were going to be hauled out. We were the first out at 8:30am so just as well we didn't do our normal slow start, with a cuppa in bed. David didn't even take us off the bridles, once Sun Chi was out of the water, we saw the weed and once they started to remove it, they found a fishing lure. We place Sun Chi back into the water, started the engine, good news there is no sound.

Boys removing the weed.

Fishing Lure in the shape of a frog.

Once back in the water, we did a quick trip to the Supermarket and left as soon as we were back at the boat.

Dijon here we come.

 

Overnight on the QEII, Dubai

Landed in Dubai at 1330 local time and took an uber to the boat where we stayed the night. Checked in and then had a couple of hours to rest before we started the 1 hour tour of the boat.

Here's a couple of photos of the cabin. They upgraded us to a deluxe room with a sea view.

View from one of our portholes.

Time for a cuppa.

Welcome chocolates and fruit

1 hour tour of the boat started with a quick run through and then we entered near one of the two rotating car lifts.

Our tour guide, Greg.

Original room 

The rest of the original room

Thickness of the door to the car storage entry.

Car on the rotating lift to take down to the lower deck.

Then wound our way up to the bridge. There's some pretty old technology up there.

2024 plan

So, this is the plan for 2024.

Left Brisbane this morning and arrived in Singapore a few hours ago. We're staying overnight about 15 minutes from the airport.

Back to the airport tomorrow morning for a 0940 takeoff landing in Dubai at 1300 local time.

Tomorrow night we're staying on the QE2 which is now permanently docked in Dubai.

Early start the next day leaving Dubai at 0800 and landing at Gatwick at 1230 local time. Then a local train up to St Pancras and the Eurostar across to Paris.

Another night in a hotel in Paris on Thursday before taking a train on Friday morning down to Dijon and then a car hire for a few days which will allow us to provision the boat more easily.

The only bit that we have planned for the remainder of the trip will be less than 90 days in France before getting into Belgium where we will be taking advantage of the bilateral agreement between Australia and Belgium which allows us to stay for up to another 2 months.

We'll find somewhere to winter the boat and then fly direct from Brussels to the UK on our way home in September.