Week 210: Keeping up momentum

After we completed the blog last week, we went out to experience more of the Ledeberg Festival, which was underwhelming but still fun.

The big highlight of the festival is the sound and light parade, which consists of kids on floats featuring various fairytales and stories. We stood and watched for a while until we realised that the floats were mainly coming up our street anyway, and we could walk past the rest on the way home.

Sunday, we decided to head down to Oudenaarde by train. There's nothing particularly special about it, other than it's yet another historic village, but it's significant as this is where we have our winter mooring for Clair de Lune. It seemed appropriate to check it out. It was a good thing we had all day! The train we wanted to catch was delayed, but with nothing better to do, we persisted and eventually found our way there.

The mooring site is in the middle of upgrades, so it's both "good" and a mess. It depends on where you are standing. On Google, we noticed a building that was blurred out right beside the mooring. As we were standing there, we thought, "That's quite a lovely building... tall brick walls... lots of cameras... hang on... it's topped with barbed wire..." Yes, our mooring is next to a prison! Still, spaces are limited for barges of Clair de Lune's size, and we are fortunate to have this one.

On Monday, we headed off for the train again. This time, we took an Uber to Gent-St-Peters and then a train to Brussels Airport. It's a smooth ride of around an hour. From there, a quick hop over the channel to London Heathrow and off to Marlow, near Reading.

The purpose? We visited the Sailing and Navigation School at Bisham Abbey to do an Inland Waterways Handling Certificate on a historic Dutch barge. Essentially, this is a very roundabout way of getting a valid license to pilot Clair de Lune. The Belgian waterways certificate is only offered in French or Flemish, which is challenging. However, we can do the IWHC in the UK and then transfer that to an International Certificate of Competence (ICC), and we should be good to go, at least for private use.

Aside from the regulatory aspects, we're also big fans of training. We know we have much to learn, and we fully expect Clair de Lune to handle differently from Matilda. Le Coq, the 17-meter Dutch barge we trained on, is no Clair de Lune, but she's still 4 meters longer than Matilda and weighs around thirty tonnes.

The first thing we learned about steel barges is that they hold a lot of momentum. Honestly, this was one of the hardest things to adjust to. We're both very familiar with how long it takes Matilda to stop from a coast and with large props, we're able to arrest her forward momentum quickly.

That's not the case with a single-prop steel barge. Le Coq likes to coast. She took almost 100 meters more to slow than Matilda. And, of course, even then, she can still do a lot of damage (30-tonne steel boat!) if she hits something.

But within a few hours, we were handling her in and out of locks, the basics under control, learning how to spring on and off of moorings without a bow thruster, park upstream and use the pivot point to turn both the bow and the stern to fit into a lock. Incredibly useful, and we're both very excited about now taking what we've learnt to apply to Clair de Lune.

At the end of the first day, we were exhausted and crashed into bed asleep after an average pub dinner. The next day was more of the same. A long cruise, learning the etiquette for the locks and how to pass through, then demonstrating a few knots, showing off our newly acquired skills to bring the boat home by ourselves and then we passed. A fancy new RYA IWHC in our hands.

Next step, applying for the ICC. This meant sending more money, photos and other details to the RYA so they could issue and send that to us. As we need it quickly, it's even more money again! We've become very accomplished at spending these days.

On Thursday it was back to Belgium. A full day of travel for a one hour flight and we were back home in Gent. Our bank cards arrived while we were away, so now we have Belgian bank accounts which is yet another positive step forward.

Friday, Karina and I walked into the city, and I went to the dermatologist. You might recall I had a Basal Cell Carcinoma removed from my ear in Greece about seven months ago; unfortunately, it's come back! They also spotted the beginnings of a second one on my other ear (I had this second one burnt off, but it wasn't entirely excised). Nothing dangerous, nothing to worry about, but they need to be dealt with, so I'm waiting for an update from their plastic surgeon on Tuesday, who will advise the correct next steps.

We've made good progress with several agencies and have now selected an architect and a branding agency to help us move forward with the plans for the designs and refit of Clair de Lune.

One thing we wanted to point out is that Clair de Lune will not remain the name of the barge, but, in good sailors' fashion, until she's properly renamed (which will happen in Belgium when she gets hauled out and resurveyed), we're keeping it under wraps! For now, we'll keep referring to her as Clair de Lune, but we know it will change.

This week, I have an appointment to finish off my resident permit application, and then we're ready to head back south to Clair de Lune. We're still not exactly sure of the timing, but most likely, on Thursday - Sunday or thereabouts, we'll be down in Digoin on Clair, dragging all our purchases south and making sure she is ready to go for the big trip north, which will start the week after. We'll most likely rent a car, drive down, return to Belgium and then catch a train back south.

The unknowns are just what arrangements need to be made with the architects who need to bring a 3D scanner to the barge in order to make accurate internal measurements.

Things, as always, continue to hold their momentum and move forward! We feel like the initial rush is slowing down, and now we can focus on relocating to Clair de Lune and the grand journey north along the canals.

Until next time,

Tim and Karina