Planning
the trip

 

This picture was shot at December 10th 2010 showing Bibbi II totally covered with snow at the Tångudden ships yard in Gothenburg.

 

2008

I bought a new hood. The old one was bought 1997/98 for the 1998 trip on the European canals.

 

2009

Nothing much happened this year. I had planned to work with the exterior during the winter, but it was an exceptionally cold and snowy winter. So there was nothing I could do.

 

2010

Ingrid and I travelled around Europe in our car, spent the summermonths on the boat in Rixö by our son Robert and helped him renovating his house. During the autumn I worked on our own house and with our garden.
During the spring Ingrid and I renewed our Inshore Yachtmaster Displomas, which was necessary to get the Canal Diploma during the autom. This Canal Diploma is nowadays mandatory when sailing on the canals in continental Europe.
During the autumn I also renewed my VHF-certificate so that it now includes the use of DSC.

Bibbi II was lifted ashore in mid November and the first thing i did was to dismount the heater and take it to service. It had not been working for some years and now I wanted it to get in proper shape and took it to a workshop. Got it back after quite some time, but must wait for warmer weather to be able to mount it again.
The old generator was dismounted from the engine. I need a stronger now when I use either a PC or a plotter for the cjarts and navigating. The new generator, about 50% more efficent, will be mounted in spring 2011.

I also want to get the fan in the stove changed. It works rather harsh. I guess the dismantling will have to wait for warmer weather too. The boat is all covered with snow when I write this in late December.

In December I spent quite a lot of time to find digital charts for the European Inland Waters and to find a VHF compatable with the ATIS, Automatic Transmitter Information System, used on the European Inland Waters. It is mandatory to have such a VHF-station onboard, but as it is not mandatory in Sweden, so the equipment stores in Sweden have none or very little knowledge about these systems.
I feared I would have to change my fairly new DSC-VHF to a new ATIS-VHF, but efter days visiting shops and asking with only vague answers I directly phoned the agent for Cobra equipement and asked them. (I do have both a mounted VHF and a handheld VHF from Cobra onboard.) The agent did not know but promised to find out and called me back after a few days, telling me that their new handhelds was ATIS-prepared. So I order one and they promised to confihure it for ATIS befora delivery.
I did fairly easy find the charts I wanted, but they were of a kind that my PC-based plotterprogram can't handle. I found a program that would work but that was rather dear.
So I looked at a plotter with charts for canals and found that quite easy. And when I compared prices I found that the total price was almost exactly the same for either a new PC plotterprogram plus charts and a new separate plotter with charts. So it was actually a question of best value for the money. I ordered the plotter . . .
When at it I also bought an AIS-reciever and made sure that both this and the plotter could use the ATIS-signals. This is very good as I then can see all cormmercial ships around the canalbends on my plotter! This way I can easily keep clear from them.

During the autumn I have also looked through all the handbooks and charts I used during our trip in 1998. I will bring all of them and use beside the electronic charts. I have also bought quite a few new books. The ones I had covered mainly Germany and now we plan to sail mainly in The Netherlands, Belgium and France, passing Germany to and fro. So it has been necessary to get some new books about these three countries.

For the work done during spring 2011, look here!