Week 228: Bring on 2025
We return from our two week break in Australia to settle back into Belgium and start thinking about the challenges ahead of us for the new year.
And we're back!
Karina and I had a wonderful break in Australia. We travelled to Queensland, then drove with my parents to South Australia. We spent Christmas on the River Murray, then a few days with her parents in the Adelaide Hills before we flew back home to Belgium.
Scenes from Christmas in Australia. And of course, another boat! Karina's Dad bought the Mustang in his retirement and so of course, we had to go and visit that too.
We arrived back early on New Year's Eve after 30 hours of travel, so unsurprisingly, we crashed and stayed in bed for the celebrations. There were a lot of fireworks up and down the street, so clearly, people were having fun, but we just needed to sleep.
After all the travel, we decided to take it easy for the rest of the week. It's time to relax, have some us time, write, snooze, and relax. It's the calm before the storm; the coming year will be busy, and we need to take a break while we can. Besides, the shipyard is still closed, and most trades are on leave, so it's a good time for a breather.
Of course, we couldn't abandon Delfine! We headed out to the shipyard to take stock and make sure everything was okay after a few weeks away. Generally, she's in good shape. But, of course, she's a boat! There's always bound to be something...
Back to Delfine, covered in ice on a chilly Belgium morning.
We've been fighting leaks for a while and, for the most part, have them under control. After our absence, two more appeared. Both are on the main dog hatch. Interestingly, there's a small gap in the insulation; cold air is forcing its way in and freezing! Ice was building up in the corner overnight as the cool air froze the warmer (moister) air inside the boat. Then, as the Delfine warms during the day, water drips to the floor. It should be simple to fix with more insulating tape in the gap.
The other issue was the shore power had switched off. Not a big problem. The new Victron System worked exactly as designed – when the shore power disconnected, it stopped the inverter, so the batteries were in good shape and weren't drained. I couldn't quickly see why the power wasn't working, so I've left it until next week. I did go to start the generator to top off the batteries, but that battery has gone flat. There's something there to diagnose. I suspect there's some issue with all the changes, and it's being drained when it shouldn't without something to maintain its charge. Fortunately, we have Martin, who will be back next week. There's something very reassuring about building a collection of experts who know your boat and systems intimately.
After the general warmth of Australia (although surprisingly, it was very wet and cool in Adelaide after Christmas), it was a shock to adapt to temperatures hovering around zero degrees Celsius here at the moment. We purchased thick winter socks before we left, but when working on Delfine, and she's around 5C internally, that's not enough to prevent cold toes! It looks like we're going to need more warm gear.
It was very grey and wet after Christmas, but we had some stunning days later in the week.
With a stock take of Delfine done, we could spend the last few days relaxing—mostly. We've been enjoying the warmth of the apartment and doing some planning and budgeting, which can sometimes get the heart racing!
There's a lot ahead of us. While it's calm right now, it's going to speed up quickly. The builders will be getting serious and due to start in Feb. We're going to complete the demolition. There's painting (how will we do that with the boat iced over!) and a lot more varnishing to go. Endless projects that need research (got to get onto the toilet selection for the stern cabin). Furniture to shop for, a chef to find, various certificates and permits to organise and a cruise experience to build.
One small step this week was finding locally made, biodegradable hair and body care products for the guests. We want something low-scent, beautiful to use, elegant packaging, and ideally supporting a small local business. We discovered ray. here in Gent and purchased some products to try.
And that's just the physical part of preparing for guests.
We need a website, probably sooner than we think. At some point (and soon), we will need to start taking bookings, which means an itinerary. We need to manage the gap between where we are (a building site) and where we will be (a luxury hotel experience afloat). How do we convince people to book when we're not finished? Ideally, we will start running tours as a trial in April.
Um. That's scarily soon.
And, of course, we still have Matilda to sell, which will mean a trip to Greece and a sea trial (hopefully soon).
There's a lot to go. But today? It's Sunday. We're going to relax, stay warm and enjoy the last day of our break (it feels strange having a "break" after 4 years of essentially being on break). On Monday, the hard work starts again.
We're looking forward to it! 2025 promises to be a fascinating year, and we can't wait to share it with you.
Until next time,
Tim and Karina