Hello again, and a warm welcome to you after our six-month break, during which we have re-acquainted ourselves with Australia, with our family and friends (and a few visitors too), and also enjoyed our Antipodean summer.
We even managed to find ourselves a new home in Perth (after being technically ‘homeless’ since October 2021). The property transaction settled on 23 December 2022 and we started moving in on 24 February – what joy – we are almost finished !
So, what about the important stuff like the 2023 travel plans, we hear you say?
Well, we are planning to be in Europe for the regulation 90 days this season, arriving in late April and departing late July, so as not to exceed the 90-day Schengen visitor visa restrictions (which we did in 2022 . . . . . . fortunately without repercussions).
In making our plans, we have mulled over our own experiences in recent years, as well as those of other ‘boaties‘ like us, including factors such as:
- current water levels in France, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium;
- declining spending and maintenance on much of the French inland waterways (and some signs of the same in Belgium);
- the rising incidence of weed (clogged props, blocked cooling water intakes, etc.) being experienced by ‘boaties‘ like us, particularly in France; and
- the need for us to travel long daily distances (with little in between) if we were to try and access the beauty of north-eastern Germany.
We have decided to minimise the risk of unforeseen delays, stoppages and major changes in route, and so we will spend our season in the Netherlands, except for an initial detour from Wessem along the Albertkanaal in Belgium to re-visit Antwerp for a few days (we felt we did not dally long enough in this beautiful city in 2022).
This strategy will allow us to revisit quite a few small Dutch towns and villages where we felt we may not have spent enough time in our first two seasons (2017 and 2018). We will also try and stay longer at key locations, so that we can explore the surroundings by bike, bus or on foot. As you can see, approximately 1,100km over about 11 or 12 weeks means that we will not be hurrying this season (not that we ever consciously hurry along on Lady M anyway).
But first, some work to be done on the underwater hull
When we lifted Lady M at the end of last season we discovered quite a number of small rust spots on the underwater hull (i.e. probably more then 40 – Eeeek !). We are pretty certain they were caused by stray current due to a faulty shore-power cable connection, which unfortunately went undiscovered for about three months last season, and was then immediately rectified.
Suffice to say that Tim’s first week at Wessem, where he will be assisted by our son David, will be spent grinding away and epoxy coating the rust spots, followed by hull sanding, priming and replacing the anti-fouling. It will be a busy (and dirty) week for the two of them, but a great father-son experience too, and it has been well-planned so we are quietly confident that Lady M will be back in the water by the time Elaine arrives on 1 May.
The starter battery and house batteries (an upgrade from 440Ah to 600Ah) are also going to be replaced which, together with our existing 380W-24V of onboard solar panels, will enable us to be a little more independent of shore-power when we want to “go bush”.
David is also taking the opportunity to see some of Europe and is planning to spend a few days with Mum and Dad on Lady M before spending two to three weeks in Germany ahead of returning to Perth from Berlin in late May.
As you might expect, our first blog post from Lady M in May will include a photo (and probably video) update of the hull paint job.
The annual ‘Sculptures by the Sea’ – Cottesloe Beach, Western Australia
We were once again fortunate to be able to enjoy the annual Sculptures by the Sea exhibition which is one of Perth’s largest free public events, attracting about 180,000 visitors each year, and staged at Perth’s famous Cottesloe beach.
This year was its 19th exhibition, which took place from 3 to 20 March, and the weather was just perfect.
Empty pushchairs . . . . giant lobster . . . “Honey, where are the children ?“
Anyway, such are our plans at this stage – we hope you have enjoyed this brief update, and we look forward to having you aboard for our journey in 2023.
Our travels aboard Lady M 