After our disaster in the last lock, we took stock and had a "wash-up meeting". We see no point in the Captain and crew screaming at each other, that "It's all your fault" if insufficient instructions have been given, feedback not presented etc. In short, we try not to argue, we really do have a meeting, analyse what went wrong and then *formulate methods to deal with the problem, next time.
* This all sounds very pompous, but we try to talk; and then understand, each others boat handling problems. We have to live and cruise together 24 hours a day in a confined space from now on, so this is quite an important point for us.
Not far along from Hedel we spotted a huge lake on our port side, with grassy banks that looked most inviting. This was "de Goude Ham" a vast gravel extraction, now completely given over to water sports. Covering many hectares it was ideal, in that designated areas are set aside for swimming, sailing and even specific moorings for people with dogs! The name stems from it's peculiar shape, being somewhat like a giant pig! We popped our nose in and tried to stop behind a German boat; the several male occupants of which, were clearly near the end of a day's "Business Jolly" - Crump! about 4m from the bank we hit bottom, and this was an official mooring? They had a video camera running, it all added to our feeling that this 'damn boat' was not the one to own.
We dug ourselves off the mud and pottered further round the lake, Colin not feeling too hopeful that we would ever find a deep enough mooring for this unusable boat, one that we can't handle in locks, it being too big; too heavy, too high and now too deep etc. etc.
Then a friendly 'Harvenmeester' beckoned us over to an empty set of finger pontoons and assisted us to tie up. At least we were off the bottom here. The peace of the place descended upon us and we enjoyed a magnificent sunset, over a good meal and glass of wine. Perhaps this boating life wasn't going to be all that bad after all?
For a couple of days we just enjoyed the tranquility; and Simba, the long walks, around the lake, into the little town of Appeltern, or across on the ferry to Megen, where a real old-fashioned mobile food shop toured the streets most afternoons, (Good cheese and JP Cheney wine, very cheap). We never had more than two other boats the whole time we were on this mooring and even they didn't stop too close to us.
Needing a 'boost' Colin decided to mend the Log, (the marine equivalent of a car speedometer) which had not worked since day one of our ownership. Assuming a paddle-wheel problem, he lifted the engine room floor plates to find the through-hull fitting. Our engine room is lit by several fluorescent tubes. Since we were devoid of shore power, we had our mains invertor; switched on (Dutch = Omvormer, this provides 240-volt AC mains from our 24-volt DC boat batteries) to keep things lighted.
The paddle-wheel came out OK and it was not spinning as freely as it should, so a repair seemed to be no problem, when BANG! There was a strange noise from below the floor opposite (no honestly!) to where Colin was working, the Omvormer made a loud buzzing noise, the engine room lights dimmed, then went out and a rather spectacular display of fireworks and smoke came out of the Omvormer - Colin was plunged into darkness. This did not look so good?
Doom and gloom literally set in. This looked and sounded expensive and way beyond our abilities to fix. Added to the problems in the previous lock, our boat handling abilities (or it seemed, our total lack of) and the fact that we seemed either too high to pass under bridges, or too deep to moor anywhere convenient, Colin was very close to tears at this point, this life was not for us, he felt, and we simply couldn't cope with it. But we had made this choice and we have to manage on our own, so he removed the Omvormer for a closer look.
Fortunately Colin has owned several Austin Mini's in the past, he thus was well versed in the art of removing bolts that were impossibly located, also the Omvormer weighed a considerable amount and was fed with DC cabling that would not be out of place in an Arc-Welding shop. We carefully isolated it electrically, removed it and took a look inside. It was very clear that major surgery was the least required. Most of the big input transistors had exploded and had parted company with the main power driver board, but behind that, was a very complex circuit board of such technology that it was obvious to us that we would not be able to fix this one by ourselves.
We hastily emailed a good friend of ours in the UK, asking if he could look up "Mastervolt" on the Internet and see if there was a local agent we might be able to contact?
The response was good, and bad and then good again. Yes it was made in Holland
(Amsterdam) and there was a local agent, in Oss, about 8Km's away, but replacement costs
were likely to be at least 1,800-2,000 Eur. Since our unit dated from 1994 we had very
little hope that the manufacturers were likely to want to fix it now? But we rang
their agent anyway.
We cannot speak more highly of the company we contacted. Despite not being used to dealing
with pleasure craft enquires - Their receptionist originally suggested we should call their
other depot in Northern Holland, she then put Colin through to the Managing Director
himself. He could not have been more help, unfortunately he did not have an engineer who
could come out to us today, but as we had removed the unit, was it possible we could bring
it in to them? He was sure there was no bus service to Oss from where we were; but they
would be happy to help us, if they could? We also had; via the internet, some options to
buy replacement units in the UK at less price, however if we added to these the cost of
revamping the engine-room layout, new brackets, cables etc? - We chose to visit Oss.
Out came our trusty shopping trolley and off we plodded. This involved a ferry crossing of the main canal and Urszula asked for two return tickets - as foot passengers. It seems one-way was the only option sold, but upon our return 5 hours later, the ticket-collector handed Ula two new tickets with a flourish and said "Retour !" - Never say that the Dutch have no sense of humour - It was a highlight of our day.
The storeman was less optimistic than the MD, when we arrived with our faulty Omvormer.
He felt that Mastervolt would take an age; even to give us an estimate and then the repair -
Well who knows?
We left the faulty unit, along with our mobile No. and walking back, inevitably we got lost
and down came the rain, "It all adds to the fun don't it"? But our morale had truly hit
rock-bottom.
Amazingly, these guys could not have been more help, next morning they rang us, they had faxed Mastervolt in Amsterdam, organised a courier and shipped off our Omvormer. The following day they'd had an estimate for the repair - circa 300 Eur. I asked if they wanted us to pay up front, "No, we know that you need it, so you will pay us upon delivery" Just compare that with the service you would get from Comet or PC-World back in the UK?
So could we really survive; moored in a lake, miles from anywhere without power, water and so forth? Our friends had quite reasonably asked this question, since Freedom is a power and services-hungry vessel. We still had Benjamin, our diesel generator of course. If we were careful, flushing the loo with our washing water, we found we only needed to turn him on for electricity once a day. Our two water tanks depleted fairly quickly (according to the gauges) but 10 days later, we were still OK; hardly self-sufficiency, but enough to convince us that we could survive "out in the wild".
Our old Omvormer came back, but almost completely replaced internally. By this time we found out that there was a bus, (a Ford transit) from Megen to the centre of Oss, 'Retour'. The other occupants were none too pleased at this non-Dutch speaking English couple, whose shopping trolley took up all the luggage space and had a heavy load to boot. We kept very quiet on the way 'home'. As soon as possible the Omvormer was re-installed and at last, we could flush the loo again!
Our repair company were appalled at their own cost for the invoice; I'd added a new MCB (fuse) for the generator, some replacement cabling and a bag of cable-ties to the bill by now, so we think they forgot to add the Dutch equivalent of VAT and also omitted the courier costs, what a service? We cannot thank them enough for what they did for us, especially at a time when we were at our most vulnerable.