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Showing posts from March, 2019

Meet the Crew#2

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Today is Mother's Day and Julie's special treat is a quick trip to Brussels to see her grandson, Alfred (oh, and his parents Cat & Chris too) From Bruges, it's only an hour and about 100km to Brussels so it's an easy Sunday afternoon visit. But, after tomorrow, we'll have abandoned the car in Bruges meaning that 100km becomes several days journey! Motherhood and Grandmother-hood are high up Julie's priority list so this was an ideal afternoon for her.  Boating is pretty high up her list too and she's really pleased that we're boating to Brussels over the next fortnight. Incidentally, Alfred looks battle scarred - the result of a bike wheel in tram track catastrophe yesterday. His Dad is pretty sore too.

Getting Ready to Cruise

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Monday 1st April is the official start of the summer cruising season and we'll be leaving our winter mooring in Bruges to head east. But first, Taddy needs to get ship-shape.  We spent Friday cleaning her after a winter getting mucky.  It's been a mild winter and that encouraged the green stuff.  A few hours with a pressure washer and a hard working Barge Woman soon had Taddy looking her best again. Saturday was time to make sure everything works.  A run over the engine and the other bits of equipment made sure we can go forward, backwards and sideways in as controlled a fashion as the helmsman can manage.  We also dug out the summer ropes and fenders which were kept nice and clean over winter.  Then we've rigged the flags: red ensign on the back with EU flag as well (bit of a statement there), Belgian courtesy flag on the mast and the Barge Association pennant so we look like we belong. Friday evening was spent with the route planning software.  We're...

On our Way

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The house has been scrubbed, the water and gas is off, and the car (expertly) loaded. And we're off on a train 3 hours earlier than planned. An interesting drive. Past the huge M20 lorry car park being created by our incompetent government (empty).  And then past huge lines of lorries queuing for Calais almost back to the Belgian border and being held ransom by French customs officers who fancy a pay rise. Arrived at our boat in Bruges mid afternoon. Everything looks fine after the winter but spent an hour replacing the water pump which had failed. Lucky we carry a spare. Boat is now full of stuff. But that can wait until tomorrow. After all, it's red wine Wednesday and we're relaxing in our wheel house.

Meet the Crew #1

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Let's start by introducing myself. I'm Cora the Idiot hound and this trip is all about me. I'm 4 years old and weigh 35 kilos. I'd like it to be more but the female one keeps me on short rations. You can only bulk up so much when foraging for horse manure. Anyways, I like to meet new people and give them a good pawing. Over the next 6 months, I'll be mostly adding dirt and hair to the boat.

Welcome to the Tales of Taddy

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Hi Everyone, Follow the tale of 28 tonne Taddy, Julie, Rob and Cora the Idiot Retriever as we head off for 6 months of barging around Europe.  The UK may (or may not) be leaving Europe but we certainly aren't! We've spent the last 3 months sorting out our lives in Winchester ready to escape to Bruges on Wednesday 27th March and back to our lovely boat. Follow our blog here and we're trying to link in Instagram as well - TaddyTales.  Please follow us.