Freezing

Ice and snow have caused this weekend's Optimist training to be cancelled.
We drove to the club to collect Kwark and take her to the workshop. We had to put her in the van on her trolley; she was frozen to the foam rubber!

Suddenly it's winter

I drove down to Lelystad on Thursday evening to have supper with David. As I drove home very small snowflakes fell.
This morning we woke to a white world, 3 inches of snow had fallen.
The forecast for next week is for nights with minus 8 or 9 degrees. Are my ice skates sharp?

Two down

Eric steers the 'Vriendentrouw' away from our wharf and back to his mooring in Heerenveen, following the 'Watergeus', who left us yesterday morning.
This leaves us with a couple of days work aboard the 'Harder' in the foreground, then off to No Limit Ships for this winter's 'away game'.

Harder

'Harder' is a North Sea fish and the name of the tjalk belonging to colleagues Willemien and Siebe.
With a new addition to the family just around the corner it's all hands on deck to get things done.
I'm working on a place for the washing machine and fridge, cupboards and a desk.
It's fun, more like a relay race than work; pick up where someone else left off, do your bit then hand over again.

Three more tjalks

From left to right, 'Harder', 'Vriendentrouw' and 'Watergeus'. I'm not going to make the mistake of trying to identify the province they were built in. I did that once before and got myself into trouble.

The two on the outside are ready to leave us through the Antwerpen bridge, the first on Friday morning, the second on Saturday. The Watergeus will be back in spring so that we can finish the rear cabin.

Now a week's work has to be done aboard the Harder before we pack our tools into the trailer and start our new winter project, 'on location'.

Serious bikes

Em and I both bought sensible bikes this weekend. This is Em's, a Batavus Beagle with dynamo lights, mudguards and panniers for lots of school books. 

More battens (thanks Dave)

Today is a day full of strange S-shaped battens under the rear deck aboard Watergeus.

Bekassinen warmth

Clocks gone back, force 6 wind, rain hammering on the deck cloths ... mmm, wood burning stove.