Today we are as close to our non-floating home as we could have been… we are moored in Amsterdam‘s Sixhaven 🤯 Let’s take a step back … what had happened?
We left Hoorn in the morning with some sun, some rain sprinkles, and a moody wind: somewhere between 6-8kn dead from behind… nothing that our ROCI likes. Hence, we motor sailed. Mainly happy to have started our journey. While passing by picturesque Marken, and coming closer to Amsterdam, our electronics gave out weird beeps. We checked, only to find that our GPS was not working which is built into our brandnew plotter!
After some phone calls with George Kniest (our trusted boat shop) and eventually the manufacturer, Raymarine. It was clear that we had to go to the shops and we altered course for Amsterdam. While we came out of the locks, we received a sudden call from our sailing friends from Gandalf: are you just coming out of the lock? We can pick you up in 30 mins. They were watching over us on AIS.
Said and done, very happy, grateful and relieved, we skipped lunch and ventured to the shop. We could reproduce the error on spot, and with green light from the manufacturer, we could even replace the device right away. We were actually anticipating a lengthy repair, and that we would have been required to put a temporary fix in place.
We are very grateful for our friends watching out and the excellent service 😉 Chauffeured back to Amsterdam by Jan and Annelinde, we enjoyed a late lunch-dinner, and replaced the device: all is working again and so the journey may continue tomorrow …
Closing off the evening with some games over which Simba is watching … making sure that nothing goes unnoticed!