COUNT DOWN TO LIFT OUT - or the end of this year’s saga

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We returned home to Drimmelen in glorious sunshine and were met again by our favourite harbour master...Marie Louise. We had a lovely passage back in the sunshine, lunch for a final time in the Biesbosch where we used the box moorings in a more convenient than the accepted Dutch way and then mooring up in OUR spot in Drimmelen with the power station as our view from the deck – sounds awful but we have grown quite fond of it!!

We had 36 hours to do everything necessary to leave Isabela in her winter home for the next 6 months. So in true Schroeder fashion we did a list of jobs that this entailed...the rather fluid total came to 40. We also have a list of what we are leaving on Isabela, what we have to bring back to her and what jobs are to be done over the next few months! The first challenge was how to order the jobs that Paul needed to do like winterising the calorifier and the fresh water and emptying the poo tank, with continuing life on board with water and loos available. We have managed to collect a lot of stuff on the boat over the last few months so all that had to be packed and loaded into the car. At the same time we had to plan to move Isabela first to the fuel and then the pump out and then to the lift out, at the same time giving up the Sep key thus potentially locking ourselves out of the marina while loading the car, or potentially locking ourselves out of the loo block after the loos on board were no longer in commission.

Suffice to say that things got a bit fraught by the Thursday morning.....we thought we had loads of time having worked through the day before but then Paul was trying to drain the water while Heather was trying to clean the loos etc and it could only get worse. We had filled with fuel (Joop working very hard to ensure our tank is as full as it can be to stop the diesel bug) and pumped out. Returning to our temporary berth for the remaining hour and a half in which time Paul had to do the calorifier and freshwater, and Heather is still trying to clean with no water, Paul takes up the floor boards (why is it that all men want the floor boards up all the time?) and there is a distinct smell of diesel ... something has gone wrong with the overflow and there is a quantity of diesel in the bilges. Paul investigates ... the overflow on the filler has become disconnected and diesel has flowed down the side of the pipe into the bilges. The engine has to go on to use up some of the overflow and Paul gets down to mop up and clean out the bilges. Then a man from the boat directly behind us...but about 50m behind us.... starts shouting. Paul has to go round the pontoons to find out what he wants thinking that he can see something wrong with Isabela. The man says we have to move or turn the engine off because we are killing him!! We have not made any enemies in all our time in Holland to our knowledge so we decide to move the boat in response to this rather extraordinary demand albeit reluctantly and with a lack of grace on Heather's part. We move 4 berths down and the man comes to "help" and when we are tied up again he says "at least I will live now"!! Paul goes back to the mopping up.



Unfortunately the calorifier still had to be done. The previous day Paul had made a tail for taking the water out of the calorifier and into the bilges so the smell of diesel could be further eliminated. However we haven't done this job before and it all took a long time, probably about an hour. We then had to put the antifreeze into the fresh water. We had diluted some of the 8 antifreeze containers but not all and of course we had no water so the next job was for Paul to do the clever bits with the calorifier and bilges and Heather to go back and forth from the loo block with extra water there being no readily available hose connection.



In the meantime when we filled up the harbour master Joop had insisted on loaning us and putting on to Isabela a rather large but typically Dutch bike for riding back to the car from the lift out - a substantial distance - and we then spent some time working out how the chicken and the fox both cross the river which given the level of stress around felt like an extra unneeded challenge. The problem was that Isabela would go to the lift out with us on board, driving straight into the slings. She would then be left at this level ...how do we get off let alone a bike? So if we took the bike round to the lift out followed by the car, it would be available when we got there but would take both of us to do it in order to collect the car. It was all too complicated so the bike was lifted off the boat and wheeled back to the HB.

We were running a little late for the lift out but a phone call to Mr Snoek confirmed he was happy to receive us when we got there. So we motored over in fairly windy weather (but nothing like it had been on day one all those months ago when Isabela was lifted in). Mr Snoek was waiting for us and told us to drive on to the slings. He then lifted Isabela and drove her out of the water, with us still on. Paul had had a conversation with him the previous day to confirm arrangements and he had said he had not been able to sleep the previous night for worrying how to lift Isabela because of her bilge keels. We were able to show him both photos of Penton Hook doing it and himself back in May (when he had not seemed worried at all) and he was considerably reassured. In fact the lift out went superbly even if Heather felt rather insecure being on a boat that is moving but out of the water and with the bows considerably higher than the stern. Maybe Isabela can plane?

But there were still jobs to do. Mr Snoek had suggested that Paul winterised the engine on lift out. So as we were wheeled up the slip Paul went back down the bilges, which were still smelling of diesel and Heather turned the engine on and off. Heather does as she is told but is surprised when a face suddenly appears outside the stern canopy window. Mr Snoek has called the engineer in response to Paul saying we have a problem and he has climbed a ladder up to the poo tank ....he goes down into the saloon and agrees the diagnosis - yes he can mend that and clean everything out so she does not smell of diesel all winter. Paul continues his work and suggested that Heather goes to find the trimmer because we have to have some new canopy windows, so down she climbs(Isabela has stopped moving at this point) finds the "sailmaker" who also comes on board. Yes of course he can do those repairs. He will look at the detail next week and get an estimate to us.

Finally the jobs are completed and we can descend from this angled boat. Mr Snoek has already finished jet washing the hull and she is not looking too bad. He is going to quote for doing the antifouling; we have already bought the antifoul because it is cheaper in the UK and he and Paul have a conversation about the need to change all our anodes to aluminium. All Dutch boats have aluminium anodes in brackish water. He is also going to quote for cleaning and polishing the hull. All of this sounds extravagant but the cost of the inside berthing for 6 months is less than half the cost of Shepperton and it is hard to work out how we could do it ourselves without staying in a hotel for some considerable time.

We take the long walk back to the car and go to our hotel for the night in nearby Made. A great meal starting with mussel and mustard soup and finishing with liquid Epoisse cheese gave us a nice treat after a rather stressful day.

The next morning we returned for a last time to Isabela to find that Mrs Snoek had already cleaned the whole hull and Mr Snoek was about to move her (ie Isabela and not Mrs Snoek!) into her new home. Mrs Snoek said, having given and had accepted a quote for the cleaning and polishing, she would get the job done and then wrap Isabela in cling film- and she meant it!

The engineer was also around, the diesel smell was if anything stronger on revisiting, but he confirmed he would look into it ....and review the prop and repair if necessary.....and redo the bearings on the rope cutter. At the moment we would have to say that we are very impressed with the friendliness and efficiency of all the services at Drimmelen.

Mrs Snoek wished us happy Christmas as we left! On our way out Paul went and spoke to Henke, the guy in charge of the marina whom we had met once on day one and who went out of his way to check out how we were and to wish us a good winter. A good send off!



It has been an extraordinarily indulgent summer in that every month since May apart from August we have spent several weeks on Isabela. But that is surely how a boat should be used if it is possible – and how retirement should be used at its best, also if it is possible. I think we feel a bit flat for the moment but the business of returning home will I am sure buck us up.

As we did 5 years ago we have pulled together a few numbers which may interest similarly nerd-minded people but interestingly 2014 has lots of similarities with 2009.

In 2009 we spent approx. 2 months in Holland and visited 52 different places. We travelled 913 miles in Holland (but also did the journey from UK and back). The average cost of mooring in both years was almost the same at about €12-13 per night. In 2014 we have stayed in 43 places apart from the 3 places we left Isabela in while we were in the UK. We travelled for 926 miles in 9.5 weeks (how’s that for a holiday!!) But then if you consider that in 2009 we were getting €0.80 to the pound and we are now getting nearly €1.25 interestingly the whole holiday has been significantly cheaper. We did do the calculation of what the difference in cost between our UK mooring would have been for this period and what we have spent – and we came up with the bizarre figure of saving about £80! The big saving is during the winter 6 months where lift out, high pressure, indoor storage including polythene wrap and relaunch will cost us £1,800 compared with 6 months at Shepperton including lift and relaunch.



All that is left is for us to thank those people who have stuck with this blog – we hope you found it interesting – and as ever we can thoroughly recommend the Dutch waterways to anyone with an interest in boats – of any form!!! In fact the sad bit is that we see very few British boats over there.

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Photos

Our Two Dutch Trips
Pink is 2009
Blue is 2014

The Level of the 1953 Flood
Heather would be under water

Yacht lowering Mast
Yachts need to be able to lower mast to get under some non-opening bridges

Biesbosch Mooring on our last Day
Note misuse of box mooring - but nobody else was about

Isabela Lifted Out
You can see her in the distance to the left of the Cooling Tower

A Polythene Cover
Well we would not want her getting dusty