[Jeroen]

A friend of a friend had lent me a car radio. He had several, but I picked this one because it had a good connector with all the wires connected. So easy to wire it into Sirion.





So I hooked up the black and red DC power wires to the old plug on Sirion old radio. Switched on the power, nothing!!

After looking a bit more closely I noticed that the wiring on this new plug is incorrect for the radio! I suspect that this plug does not belong to this radio at all. I will have to try again.

Also received the new antenna



Hooked it up and it made no difference at all.

Oh well, as they say, back to the drawing board!!

So I was done radio trouble shooting within 10 minutes. I decided I might as well take Sirion for a little tour along the river the Linge by myself. Weather was half decent as you will see.

Just some images of the river Linge. The longest river in the Netherlands (15km) and one of the prettiest too. I have been riding my bicycle and my Alfa Spider on the banks of this little river for the last 7 years. Everything looks very different from the water.

Our Marina is at what can be considered almost the end of the Linge. From the marina, it is a few kilometres to the locks at Gorinchem, where you enter the main river Merwede.

Going upstream from our Marina, there will be various tiny villages on both sides of the river. The first small town you will come across is Leerdam. It is known as "the city of glass". https://www.visitutrechtregion.com/e...-city-of-glass

It has, you guessed it a Glass factory.

It also has some very pleasant houses, built right onto the water as you will see



Apartments, but with a very nice view of the river.



This is how the "other half" of Leerdam lives, as they say!



At one of these large villa's I spotted this very nice little boat. I have no idea of the brand/model. But I like it, it would be ideal for my son and his family



We will see some more of Leerdam on the return leg.

I came across this small river cruise boat. It is based out of Leerdam and takes passengers on the Linge. This area of the Netherlands is also known as the Betuwe and is famous for all the fruit that is grown here.



After about an hour and a half I reached the village of Asperen. Our good friends Berndt and Loes live here. Berndt and his oldtimer cars figure in my fiddling with car threads. There are two adjacent locks here. Not particularly wide. Only five meters. That cruise ship I showed earlier is able to pass these locks with only centimetres to spare on each side.

A little easier with Sirion. With fenders out, its just under four meters wide.

Just as we passed through the lock.



I turned around and sailed toward the other lock



Passed it too without any problems



These double locks are controlled by means of automatic traffic lights. So you wait for a double green light before entering.

These are called locks, but in essence, are just gates that can be closed to protect the area behind from too high water in the river Linge.

It was the time for Ducklings and sure enough, there were plenty. A couple of times I had to stop to let a family of ducks cross in front of Sirion. I never stop for ducks normally. They are pretty dumb animals, but they are smart enough to get out of the way of a boat approaching, but only at the last minute.

But when I see a duck family with ducklings that are about to cross I will slow down. It's so cute and I am not convinced the little ones will be able to scatter from Sirion's bow on their own.



Back passing Leerdam once again. These are pretty regular houses for the Netherlands. What makes them stand out is of course the fact that they are built right onto the water. With an individual mooring for each home owner!



I sailed into the centre of Leerdam. You can just about see the old city wall. The jetty is owned and operated by the local marina. I often ride my bicycle here, stop for a coffee, and watch the boats. This time I was the one being watched.



The main bridge for the provincial road into Leerdam. The yacht coming towards me, was going very slowly. I was not quite sure whether that was because he was not sure about his height or depth. What is remarkable is that there are no markings or signs on this bridge showing you were to pass. I will need to check my almanack to see if I can find any information. Although I knew I could easily pass underneath, I was not so sure about which entry to take depending on depth.



Here you see two barges. They are moored in front of the glass factory. These are the largest barges that are allowed to sail on the Linge. They bring sand for glass making. We see barges passing about 3-4 times a week!. The linge has an average depth of about 4 meters. Which is plenty for these barges. The barges, when loaded have a speed restriction of 6 km/h. All of the Linge has a speed restriction of 9 km/h and some stretches only 5 km/h.

Note the traditional windmill on the right of the image. Every town/village in the Netherlands will sport some traditional wind mills.



Leaving Leerdam behind us



The weather was improving gradually. Very pretty and very relaxing sailing at 9 km/h on this gorgeous little river!





Skipper D at the helm!



Gorgeous!



This is the dike on the northern bank of the river. It is higher than the one of the south bank (where we live). Apparently the reason is the landowners north of the river were more concerned about flooding than the ones in the south. Also, in those days the northern part was more wealthy, so they had more money to spend.



I was surprised about how few boats were out on this sunny Sunday. But there were a few.



Look at this!!





This little house/shed is a former 'weighing station'. I am a member of our local historical society. We have a lot of information on it. It is owned by the council, but we have the key and are allowed to use it for displaying some of our collections. Every year all museums and places of historical interest open their doors to the public for free. We open up this little place. We will have volunteers that provide information to visitors. The Linge is very popular with cyclists and walkers, so we always get a lot of visitors.



These contraptions are known as "blokhutboot". It is a little timber hut on a pontoon. It has a little engine. You can rent them, very popular and a nice way to explore the Netherlands by water.



After three and a half hours I was back at our marina. Having done less than 25 km. I have shown some images of the parking lot of the marina where all the boats get stacked for the winter. Last Saturday all those boats were put back into the water. I had wanted to attend and help, but I had already promised to help my friend Berndt who sold a couple of his oldtimer cars. See my fiddling with cars thread for the story on those.

It does mean we have a lot more parking space.



I used my new check lists for the first time. Pleased with those. I am on the look out for some additional fenders for our little jetty. I am planning to visit a couple of watersport shops later this week and see if I can find some that will work for Sirion.

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

It has been a lifetime dream, for me, to live on the edge of water! At least until 2015, when we suffered urban flooding. And, over recent decades so much damage, worldwide, from rain and flood. Never mind the obvious stupidity of building on a flood plain, seemingly safe places have suffered.

Seems to me (I'm envious!) that the Dutch are so used to water, reclaimed land, low-lying land, etc etc, that they are completely used to living with it, handling it and managing it. It is in their veins!

Has unexpected flooding been a problem in the Netherlands during recent years of ever-more-extreme weather?

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Has unexpected flooding been a problem in the Netherlands during recent years of ever-more-extreme weather?

The last major flooding happened on 1st of February 1953. 1836 people lost their lives. It was a combination of a southerly storm force 10-11 and spring tide. It resulted in more than 150 dike breaches. A very large part of the Netherlands was flooded.

Although this was a major disaster it certainly was not the largest flooding. In earlier centuries flooding happened a lot more, with more casualties.

The Dutch government put a massive program in place known as the Deltaworks. It ensured in the next couple of decades many old dikes got strengthened, new dikes were built, all kinds of flood gates were installed and so on.

Since, there have been no flooding from the sea. These days we worry more about flooding from the rivers! In early 1995 the level of all major rivers were so high they were in danger of breaching. Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated, including the area where we currently live.

Again, a huge program was put in place to strengthen the river dikes. They have also looked at the flood plains and came up with something called “ruimte voor de rivier”. (Room for the river).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_f...r_(Netherlands)

The problem with the rivers is due to climate change, obviously. It is also expected to get worse over the next decades. Partly due to climate change. But also as the Germans and the French are finally getting their act together. They used to have terrible flooding. Which was great for us. Less water in the Netherlands. But they have started their own river programs which might mean we are getting more and more water.

Work on our coastal and river defence system never stop ‘s. These are billion Euro programs lasting for decades! Very few Dutch will worry about living below sea level and or the thread of a river. But there are some changes. These days certain areas are designated as no build area, because of potential flooding. I don’t recall that ever being a criteria, just about everywhere in the Netherlands potentially can flood. But these days, for instance where to build new extensions to a town, is definitely a thing.

When you live in the Netherlands and pay taxes, you also pay something known as “waterschapsbelasting”. The money collected goes towards water management. Eg dikes, major waterway infrastructures, drains and so on.

We also have local “waterschappen”. These are the governing bodies for everything about our water infrastructure. Every four years we get to vote for who sits on it.

So, whereas the Netherlands is always busy with protecting itself from water, it is not something that keeps Dutch people awake at night. Everybody is used to it. Currently there are huge dike strengthening works ongoing at the river Waal. Just a few kilometers south from us. They are broadening, strengthening and raising the dikes. Takes many years, many years of disruption for the people who live on the dikes. That is just how it is.

Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

The last major flooding happened on 1st of February 1953. 1836 people lost their lives. It was a combination of a southerly storm force 10-11 and spring tide. It resulted in more than 150 dike breaches. A very large part of the Netherlands was flooded.

In 1953, the east coast of England, or, at least, the Thames Estuary (for non-Europeans: an area of coast bigger than it sounds: it includes about a dozen other rivers) were also flooded with loss of life. I would have been 7 months old at the time, so I could not possibly remember it, but it lives in the cultural memory. It was bad, but I think Netherlands was much worse.

Work on our coastal and river defence system never stop ‘s. These are billion Euro programs lasting for decades! Very few Dutch will worry about living below sea level and or the thread of a river. But there are some changes. These days certain areas are designated as no build area, because of potential flooding. I don’t recall that ever being a criteria, just about everywhere in the Netherlands potentially can flood. But these days, for instance where to build new extensions to a town, is definitely a thing.

Wonderful. So much more advanced than UK.

I was born, if not on the wrong side of the Arabian Sea, then, at least, on the wrong side of the North Sea

[Jeroen]

A few more little jobs on Sirion. I got another radio from Cees, but again, no success. I cant get these radio's to work. Very odd. I am going to take it back to my garage and hook it up to a 12VDC and see what happens.

I also came across a very odd problem with my brand new Raymarine electronics. I happened to notice that with the VHF radio switched off, I also lost the GPS and AIS signal on the plotter/radar. Which is very odd, because the plotter has its own dedicated GPS.

I checked the network connections and it seems the primary GPS input has disappeared. So I called Michael and he helped me, remotely, trouble shoot this peculiar issue. It looks like either the GPS unit itself of the cable might be damaged.







I took the GPS antenna off the mast. On Monday I will drive over to Michael and we will test the GPS in his shop and take it from there.

Here is another job I have been meaning to do for a while: Spot the difference





I took one of the hair dryers we use against the condensation on the windows to the stern. These are plastic stick-on letters and they came off real easy.

I was not quite sure whether the city name on the stern of the boat needed to be its home port or the owner home town. The internet is divided about this matter. However, somebody pointed me to the actual inland waterway rules and regulations and it is very clear: On small recreational vessels as they call it needs to be the owner's home town.

However, mate Mrs. D has decided the official rules are wrong (must have been written by men, as she claims), so we are going with the home town of our marina. Arkel. I will be ordering some nice stick-on letters this weekend.

I have also bought some repair kits for a few of these small damages. See how that goes.



I am going to do another job this weekend and get Sirion ready for Tuesday. A very good friend of ours, Miriam is joining us for a day touring on the river Linge.

Jeroen