engine trouble

  Falling behind a little. Too busy to write and wifi is not great here, catching up now. We travelled on into Zwolla the next morning, got handy moorings in the centre. Beautiful old fortress town. Picked up our friend Deirdre, stocked up with beer and wine and got underway. Heading downstream on the river Ijssel, we made good progress, meeting big cargo boats along the way. Heading out onto lake Ketelmeer, we have a head wind pushing small waves against us, so we’re getting a feel for what she’s like in choppier water. We need to turn south not long after entering the lake and have two options. The Veluwemeer, or a canal in the low lands of Flevoland. We decide on the canal. That way we get both as it takes us out halfway down the Veluwemeer.

   These lowlands are completely reclaimed from the sea and are now mostly automated farm land, 5m below the lake level. These dykes were built in the fifties. We met people who remember the work being carried out. In fact, our boat Adriana, may have been involved in the construction. Her cargo in her early days, from the time she was built in 1898, was reeds used in the construction of the dykes.

  Next morning we enter a lock chamber and are raised back up the 5m to the level of the lake again. We stopped at the town of Harderwijk to take on water and other provisions. Off again down the lake, everything going great. We were witness to a fabulous display of old Dutch Sailing boats, performing some race. Continued on past them, great activity on the lake.  Engine stops!! And smoke coming from engine!! Ok, we’re on a lake with no power and drifting. Fortunately, we drift out of the shipping lane. We could try drop the anchor, but we managed to tie off to a buoy.

Engine had stopped because of overheating, and we found a belt had come off (fan belt). So we waited a while for the engine to cool, topped up the water level and refitted the belt. Off again, but it wasn’t long before the engine overheated again, so we limped into a nearby harbour where we found moorings.  It was Saturday evening and we needed to replace the belt, so we’re stuck there till Monday .  As it turned out, it was a fab old fishing village with a fleet of well-maintained heritage boats. It was like going back in time. We had a great time in Bunschoten-Spakenburg. I had to cycle off to the next town to get replacement belts, in order that we could continue our trip on the Monday Morning.