We are spending the whole summer on the Grevelingen. After all, we are going to stop working November 1 this year so we don't have a summer vacation planned. Instead, we are making it a "working vacation. The first part of the summer is especially hard work for Toine when the boat is on the shore for major maintenance. In the second part of the summer, we partly live on the boat, usually anchored somewhere on the Grevelingen. While we are "just" working.
From June 21 to July 26, the boat will be on shore in Brouwershaven for 5 weeks for major maintenance. For the last major jobs in preparation for our trip. This is hard work for Toine because he does as much as possible himself. First, the underwater hull must be completely bare to be able to apply coppercoat. The complete stripping is a huge hard job that Toine does half of himself in two weeks, respect👏💪😎 . For the second half, he fortunately gets help from CCA.
In addition to applying coppercoat, we also have all the rigging replaced (the iron wires the mast is attached to). For that, the mast has to come off. This is convenient, because it allows the boat to go into the hall which makes us weather independent for applying all the coats of paint. To apply coppercoat, it has to be dry for at least three days in a row, and in the wet July month it is not 😂.
When the underwater ship is completely bare, Toine finds out that many of the valves (in the underwater skin) are no longer good. We apparently suffered galvanic swarm current in the marina and that affected some of the valves. Partly because the insulator (to stop the current coming into the boat from the shore) broke down. We suspected this because for the first time the anodes were completely depleted. So we also replaced the valves. This costs Toine a lot of energy and is a setback in our tight schedule. The shipyard is closed for the entire month of August, so we would like to be back in the water before then. Toine keeps working on a tight schedule. Before applying all the layers of paint, Toine replaces all the valves. He regularly spends the night on the boat.
Once that's done, the construction can start. That's the fun part. Toine, together with Henri, applies two coats of primer. The first layer is gray and the second layer is light yellow. To apply the six coats of coppercoat, the whole family is called in 😎. This is because it is important to do it at a brisk pace and apply the next coat in time before the previous coat becomes too dry. "Wet on wet painting" according to Toine. That's why 3-4 dyers are needed.
We have a nice division of labor. Henri continuously mixes a little paint, distributes it in our bins and walks around himself with the brush for the parts we can't reach with the rollers. Eline and I roll one side together, and Toine and Marinthe the other side. We work from back to front, the girls on the scaffolding with wheels the high part and Toine and I the low part.
The first coat still doesn't cover at all. We knew that in advance. Only the third layer covers somewhat but the fourth and fifth layers are the most "satisfying" to do 😊. The sixth layer is biting through because then we are tired. After 5 hours of hard work, we are done. We did it!!!!! For Toine a huge relief to have come this far after all the hard work. Also very nice to be able to do this together as a family 😊☺️.Afterwards we are just in time for a delicious meal at Sailors Inn.
By now it has become lovely sunny summer weather and we are happy when a week later the boat is back in the water. With beautiful new rigging and also the new sails 😃😊. Everything stands better than ever and it sails very well we notice in the following weeks ⛵️👌.
The whole month of August we are on the boat from Sunday to Wednesday evening and in our apartment from Wednesday evening to Sunday. Thursday I always go to the office, Friday is my walking day, alone or together with Mieke. The Saturdays we have appointments in the vicinity of the apartment. Including a cozy BBQ with the other residents. So we enjoy the lovely summer weather while we are still at work. As if we live a little on the boat again ☺️.
We are at various anchorages on the Grevelingen and have nice encounters with friends including the TARA. They are our great example and have just returned to the Grevelingen with their boat after 12 years of sailing around the world. It is always very nice to see and talk to them because it gives such a good idea of what lies ahead of us. Especially since we have a lot of similarities in our view of travel and our family situation. They give us a good tip for a fan (brand Caframo, type Sirocco 2) which makes it very easy to keep the boat cool with very little noise. A few days later it is already hanging in the aft cabin 😎.
Other preparations we are making for our sailing trip is clearing out and rearranging all the closets and storage spaces in the boat. For example, we suddenly have a large now-empty storage space under our bed free for food supplies. We are also planning a first aid course for sea sailors (first week of October) and ordering a good offshore first aid kit. We also follow blogs from Snow Bear, Pat Panick, Aegir, Belafonte and Saphir. The first three boats are sailing the Viking route from Iceland through Greenland to Canada this summer. Something we might want to do in summer 2026. The Belafonte has been in Svalbard this summer and is now sailing south through Scotland and Ireland to Madeira. Something we may want to do in 2026 as an alternative to the Viking route. The Saphir has been in Svalbard for the second time this summer. It is great fun and educational to read the blogs of these boats and follow their track.
Besides all the boat work, preparations for our trip and our work, there are plenty of fun social activities with our daughters, family and friends. It is very nice that we can see our daughters regularly 😊🥰.
In June and July, Eline is doing her internship at the Casualty department in Venlo. She visits us regularly for dinner, we go for a walk together in Limburg and one afternoon to visit Grandpa Wim. Eline is on vacation with Jonas in Tanzania and Kenya for the entire month of August where they will climb Mount Kilimanjaro 🏔️💪👏. What a fantastic adventure. At the end of August we meet again in Düsseldorf together with Jonas and his parents. From the beginning of September she will be doing co-supervisions in Maastricht at 'mother and child'.
Marinthe returned from Asia at the end of June. We will meet her and Sam and his parents in Spain (at Sam's parents' vacation home) when we visit there by car for a weekend in early July. It's quite a long drive, but it's super fun to do. Marinthe goes back with us and Sam goes on to London to start work in mid-July. Marinthe is cozy with us for a few weeks 😃🥰. Until we take her to Schiphol Airport in early August for her departure to London for a new chapter in her life. They have found a nice flat in the city center in the Bermondsy neighborhood. We are going there the second weekend of August with a full car of stuff. Via the Calais-Dover ferry. Usually we sail there ourselves and see all those ferries. For the first time we are staying together with one of our daughters. We sleep there on an air mattress. How beautiful they live there! Very nice to be able to see and experience that. On September 3, Marinthe starts working at the Bank of England. Her first experiences are very good 😊.
With Inge I am going for a Sunday walk together and at the end of July the four of us will visit them. Good to see and talk to each other. What a difficult time they are struggling through; what braves ✊💪. At the end of August we have a cousins' meeting in Vorden from my mother's side. There have also been setbacks with others in the past year. That strengthens us again that it is good to carry out our sailing plan while we are still fit and healthy. Conditions can suddenly be very different ☺️.
We are going to Teun in Canada for 5 days the third week of September. Inge is going with us. We get a free upgrade to "premium comfort class" because of Toine's platinum status and because economy is completely full. That's a nice surprise 😊. We fly over the southern tip of Greenland towards Labrador. Will we be here in 2 years by boat? We just might. It is very nice to see and talk to Teun and family again. The weather is beautiful all week and we immerse ourselves in Canadian life with delicious meat from the BBQ during the regular family dinner at Helen's place, play games of pickleball, hike in nature, shop in a big mall, eat at a steakhouse and most of all chat with everyone 🥰☺️.
And so the summer is almost over. Only 6 more weeks before we stop working and start our lives as "early retirees. This is strangely enough still hard to imagine because we (especially me) are still living so much in the 'now' to finish work well. As a start to this new life, we will first go to Southeast Australia and Tasmania for a few weeks from November 1 before starting our long sailing trip with the SeaQuest in March 2025 😊☺️⛵️.