Sunday morning finds Em all wraped up in her drysuit, gloves, new Rooster boots and socks, and on the water in Groningen for the second day of the second autumn Optimist training.
The forecast is for 16 or 17 knots this afternoon. 'Em's weather', the other kids shout. Em grins.
Friday morning and the sun is shining. We folded the wheelhouse down, started the DAF and motored round the city and on to the quay in front of our workshop. Though we've still got three weeks work to do on the ORa et Labora we have lots to do aboard our own barge. That's what we'll be doing this Christmas holidays.
Bungs in the oak floor, so that Mariska can oil the floor. Then that's one more thing we can tick of the list, going into the last couple of weeks on the 'Ora et Labora' project.
Down to Amsterdam on Saturday with Don and Gijs, to see Brother Richard playing with the Neil Cowley Trio in the Bimhuis. Marvellous place to see anyone play and a really great gig by the NCT. Watching them play with a backdrop of trains, trams, cars and the Amsterdam skyline behind the was surreal.
It's a shame Gijs' iPhone camera couldn't capture what was going on outside, but thanks for the pictures anyway [see two more by clicking on this one].
I spent Friday in Rotterdam, with Bart en Willem of Driewerf, looking at a Belgian barge and talking to the owner about a possible project for next year. The rear cabin where the skipper and his wife lived is just as it was when built in 1954 - except for the two unshaven blokes on the sofa.
