Week 41

 Week 41 Including a bit of boat stuff

Toilets in Boats

Since 2009, it has been prohibited to discharge untreated toilet water, but according to the ministry, this is violated on a large scale. The aim of this amendment is to oblige owners of pleasure craft to seal the valve in the pipe between (the holding tank of) their toilet and the hull fitting when closed. This makes it impossible to discharge untreated toilet water below the water level and forces them to have the storage tank pumped out at a receiving installation. If there is a purification installation on board that has a type approval, or if it is guaranteed that only urine is discharged via the toilet, the sealing obligation does not apply.

The introduction of the sealing obligation makes the discharge ban more enforceable.

I can imagine that the more practical, sometimes ingenious, boat owners will still find a way around it. The lack of pump out stations is obvious but even then I have only ever seen ONE boat actually doing it...

We have a toilet that separates 1 and 2 - being a flat-bottomed boat, there was never any room for a holding tank.

1 -  pump out by pushing a button

2 -  simply remove a plastic bag

Resting Birds

From 1 October, the Province of Friesland will place yellow buoys at various locations in the Frisian lakes and the Alde Feanen ( a National Park near us). These buoys mark the bird resting areas for a large number of special bird species.

The bird resting areas can be recognized by yellow buoys with blue stickers with a shoveler (a type of bird) and the text "I rest!". The buoys are located in the Natura 2000 areas Snitser Mar and surroundings, the Wite and Swarte Brekken, the Aldegeasterbrekken, the Fluezen and the Alde Feanen. They are not located on busy shipping routes or in the shipping channels, but along the shallow edges of the lakes. The busier shipping routes and shipping channels remain accessible.

Waterfowl overwinter in bird roosting areas

Various vulnerable water birds, such as the shoveler, nun or teal, like to overwinter in the Frisian lakes. In the winter period they gain strength here and build up a layer of fat. They use these reserves to fly to their summer areas to nest there.

In order to maintain peace, it is important not to enter the areas marked with buoys. Even when there are no birds to be seen. Disturbance occurs sooner than is visible. Birds become stressed, stop eating and in extreme cases they fly away. Sometimes a boat a few hundred metres away causes enough unrest to disturb the birds and even make them fly away. But small vessels, such as canoeists, SUPs, wing foilers and fishermen, can also cause disturbance. Every time the birds fly away, they lose some of their built-up reserves. With too much disturbance, birds can eventually start avoiding an area. That is why we ask water sports enthusiasts not to enter these areas between 1 October and 1 April.

New Lock Gates at Lauwersoog

On most mornings, I get the newspaper for Janny's Mum...occasionally I get to read a small portion of it - this story got my attention....

In a "world first" the lock gates at Lauwersoog have been replaced with a new "experimental" lightweight concrete.

They weigh 18 tons each - which would have been 25 tons if "normal" concrete had been used. The size of each door is 7.3 x 5.3 metres. The new design (and material) has been in development since 2018.

It took 2 days to finally place the gates, as minor adjustments had to be made on the run.

One of the developers said that he secretly hopes that a boat will run into one of the doors - just to see what happens :-) They calculate that the new material is 5 to 7 times stronger than the old timber and metal gates.

Ship sinks near Maastricht

The Northern Lights

Janny came home late on Thursay night after volleyball and was able to catch this on her mobile phone - she said she couldn't actually see it without the camera - but a family member from Dokkum had said to have a look...

This one from Dokkum....

These from behind our house - looking north towards Dokkum :) at about 2330hrs

Around the Farm

New Client

We have a new client - can't work any more - and so they arrange "dagbesteding" (Day Activity) as a means of social support. Between us we have to find something to keep him occupied and interested. We shall see - so far, he looked like he was enjoying our end of day games session, so that's a start.

One of the things that occurs to me is that we can accommodate a few more Day Activity Clients but only up to a point - otherwise we would have to employ somebody extra and expand into the larger recreation room - which would then need to be heated. 

It also looks like all our kids are growing up, so that will also come to an end unless we get some additions. A transition to just day clients might not be such a bad thing - as usual, we shall see...

More Insulation

The outside wall insulation project in Apartment 3 - at this stage I was still thinking to box the pipework in - stupid in hindsight - so we decided to re-arrange the heating after all...we had quite a few excess radiators that we had removed from the house.

Blue "breathable" plastic with air gap behind...

Insulation then a  yellow "non-breathable" plastic - with joints sealed

Here we decided to tackle the heating...

Drain the radiators and pipework

Remove the pipes

Then wooden sheets (all leftovers)

The small radiator is going under the window - the larger one (left, high up on the wall) is to be removed totally)

Then plaster sheets - easily screwed onto the backing sheets

The horizontal bit under the window is an oak plank heavy enough to hang the radiator on...

In this tiny bedroom the radiator under the window is to be removed. The smaller one (only just) allows room for a single bed (or a bunk bed) AND some insulation on that outside wall.

The Travelling Family  (they didn't get it from me)

Grandchildren Callum and Tom came this year as a small part of much larger travels. We caught up with Georgia in Amsterdam a few years ago - and she has only just returned from another "European Escapade".

Paul and Heather currently in Japan.

Cheryl coming here in December

Ben going to Buenos Aires again - he travels as though he is just hopping on a daily bus. This time for modelling work - and he can keep going with his new Government job (contract just extended for another 6 months) - he just has to be up at 0500hrs for "meetings".

And we hope to see Madeline next year...

Ben, Janny and I went to Groningen on Saturday - we "discovered" a new section of the "binnenstad" (inner city).

The Prinsentuin (Princes Gardens)

This place was for sale - have to look up the asking price...

With a posh restaurant...and a nice cuppa...

We went further into the main shopping area - scouting places for Cheryl to buy warm clothes for her winter visit :-)

Not sure what this is about....Groningen is very much a University City with a diverse population including overseas students. (Lots of English spoken). Last time I looked the population is around 200,000.

It's only 35 minutes away by car, so we have decided to have a much better look around in future.