2015 waterway cruise update – improvements and planning

Shangri La wintered in Zwartsluis

From nothing happening to a sudden flurry of activity!

Time for an update on what is happening ahead of our 2015 cruise.

At least the plan hasn’t changed again, and we still intend to head for St Jean-de-Losne.

French canal maps

I contacted them and to cut a long story short, have booked Shangri-La 2 in there for the winter, and have paid a deposit!

So we are committed.

The port captain there was extremely helpful, and after a huge amount of emails I have ordered and received all the charts or canal maps we need for the Belgian and French sections of the trip.

Stern rust removed and repaired

At the moment, I am back in Zwartsluis where Shangri-La is wintered.

Staying at a B and B as she is still in the shed.

Already done a whole lot of repairs and upgrades.

Martijn from de Kranerweerd has renewed a whole lot of old fresh water piping.

The bad rust spots on the stern, which I started repairing at the end of last year, have been finished and filled and smoothed.

Stern and swim platform

I have finished off the painting.

And looking good.

Getting a good paint match to old paint is never easy, but with the help of Jeff from Bonsink, not a bad effort.

Also painted the non-slip deck grey on the swim platform and back deck.

Of course, the problem with this is the rest of the deck now looks terrible and will need to be done soon.
All in good time.

New teak wood for gangway

Our new teak gangway wood now fitted. Also looks amazing.

On the planning side, being a master mariner or shipmaster by profession, I am a bit of a stickler for detail.

So, as I did last year, I have got my planning spreadsheets going.

Basically, I want to know fairly accurately, taking into account locks and bridges, how long the actual travelling or boating time is going to be.

Then, I can see how much time we can afford to stop off along the way.

Not too bad a paint match

So – that’s it for the moment.

Bon voyage.