Saturday 6 August. We woke up a little later than usual, following a disruption in the night. The “pesky mosquito” referred to previously had invited several of his family and friends to join him in his feast— the feast, of course, being US. All three of us had already been bitten, so we had spent a lot of time and effort before retiring in exterminating no less than five of them, and then shutting all the windows and hatches, to avoid further bites while we slept. This was a mistake! At about 3am, the gas detector went off, and shrieked us awake.
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| A "Gay Pride" float meets the ferry |
There was no actual cooking gas, as this had been turned off as usual, but spurious products, still air and ultra-sensitive detectors conspired to declare that there was a problem. Re-setting the alarm and turning on a circulating fan allowed us to get back to sleep, only to dream about giant mosquitos in gas-masks attacking the boat.
A note here on one of the morning pastimes, which was checking out the newly-acquired “OZI” mapping software, in a package which includes charts for the waterways of Holland, Belgium and France. It is a superb tool, and should make “channel marker confusion” a thing of the past.
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| At the Aeolus BBQ |
In the afternoon we saw Hayley off on the train to Schiphol, and then took another turn around the city centre, which was busier than ever due to the annual “Gay Pride” parade. There was pink everywhere, and the more outrageous the get-up, the better, it seemed.
It was a short visit, however, as we needed to be back in time for the Aeolus Yacht Haven barbecue, where we were received and treated like members of the family, and where we had hilarious and wide-ranging discussions around the dining tables, the bar and the DIY bbqs—a very sociable event indeed. We retired early to the boat to tidy up for tomorrow’s adventures with the “Travelling Thompsons”
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| Jan, who is Friesian, just happens to have a flag |
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| Gill gets stuck in |
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