Special mention should be made of the new shower faucet that was installed in the forward heads & shower area. The previous faucet had not survived a vigorous vinegar bath the previous winter and looked decidedly shabby. Also, the on/off and thermostat buttons moved with difficulty. Time, after 28 years of loyal service, to be repalced. Hallberg-Rassy Parts supplies a new generation of faucets, but whereas my neighbour Gerrit of HR53 Sophia managed a simple plug 'n play with his new faucet, on Ngahue IV it was more a question of plug 'n nightmare! A special wall-bracket was ordered from Sweden to fit the tap - which certainly looks much nicer (even if much bigger) than the old one.

By the end of May, Aqualift's boat hall became quite empty with just Ngahue IV left as the last of the three HR53s. But the area underneath the boat has not become less cluttered! One of the last jobs - quite suddenly decided after sorting out the poor electrical connections to the forward navigation lights - was to replace the Aquasignal filament lights with Hella LED lights. To my delight these Hella marine products are designed and made in New Zealand! Because of their moulded construction, the electrical contacts should never suffer from seawater ingress. The new lights are made of white plastic - so they don't rust. The old Aquasignal ones were stainless steel and had a more expensive look. But the electrical conncetions tended to 'go' after a couple of seasons. Now all navigation lights on board are LEDs. The LEDs use about 10% of what the old filament lightbulbs did - so we could even turn the full set on instead of the single toplight. That should improve our visibility at night.

Because of renovation distractions around the house, Ngahue IV hasn't taken centre stage so far this year. Her return to the water finally took place early-mid July 2024, an absolute 'lateness record' for me. Our (late) Summer cruise took us to Ipswich, Chatham and London (Saint Katherin's). After this Ngahue IV returned 'inside' for the winter.

The first leg of our holidays took us in a partly nightsail from Nieuwpoort to Ipswich. Ipswich marina lock was leaking and therefore the number of passages through the lock were much reduced outside the HW period. We were told to hang around for more than 4 hours before we would be let in. Eventually we were let into the lock for 9 p.m., forced to tie up to the dirty lock wall because of a number of very poorly parked other boats in the lock. Oh well, this wasn't Holland where the lockmaster would have bawled out the miscreants!

From Ipswich we went to Chatham - a day early to avoid 24 knot head winds. But with no wind available, the trip was completed under engine. In Chatham we found ourselves moored next to HR412 Luce de Mare who had done the ARC Plus with us in 2019! A small world...

We needed to leave Chatham at approx. 1 a.m. to get to London's Saint Katherine's in time for their locking times. Tides were at neaps, so we didn't get too much tidal push to help us along. A trip up the Thames wouldn't be complete without hitting a couple of logs or getting something around the prop. Last year we hit about 5 or 6 logs, including two VERY BIG ones. This year it was a sizeable chunk of rope and netting around the prop. This made for some interesting moments as we manoeuvred to get into Saint Katherine's lock with no stopping power and limited forwards thrust! Then followed getting into our assigned berth as our folding propellor again failed to open enough to stop the boat. Also at one stage the rudder jammed with all this stuff rammed against it. Our youthful neighbours enjoyed the scene and probably thought we were some silly weekend sailors on a far-too-big boat...

By the time we left Saint Katherine's a wekk later, neaps had become springs and we rushed down the Thames, hitting the 10 knots speed mark. At the same time, London VTS told us off for being too far in the middle of the Thames. Each time we dodged a log or branch in the river, we seemed to be carried more towards its centre... After clearing the Thames tidal barrier, the presence of logs and big branches diminished and we could keep a better course and stay well near to the starboard bank. The subsequent night sail saw us arriving in Nieuwpoort at LWS (we were only just after the equinoctial springs). We have never entered Nieuwpoort or our berth more gingerly - literally with centimeters to spare under the keel! Even the fuel pontoon at the beginning of the marina, normally a deeper part of the Ijzer river, is, we discovered, definitely not in the deepest part of the VYN! The picture of Himself at the fuel pontoon payments machine is quite typical for nautical activities these days: have your debit card at the ready at all times!!!

... this page will be added to throughout the remainder of 2024