The hangar-like building -not even the biggest one!- swallows us up without even blinking an eye. Because of the seize of the building Abus easily could have been Airbus.

Another reason, on top of the space-issue, was the black part of our hull – above the water-line. Back in the spring of 2013 -week 15 to be precise- the blacking-the hull-job in France was executed sub-standard, mainly due to the combination pouring rain and a painter from the 'plonker'-category’. A discount was granted to us – but of course we’d have preferred a good job. Now we yet pay the price, as the part of the hull underneath the blue colour and above the water-line has to be scraped down by hand(!) to almost bare metal. Only after that the repainting can be done. This gives you an idea of what it looks like.

Our rear-view from the position inside the hull-building building. It is as if the boat behind us (‘Fenna’) is chasing us. As one can see the platform outside is a bit crowded.

Inside the building we do not have a television signal. Therefore we watched the daily news on our laptop -the very one this text is made with- and decided to re-watch (we do not oppose to the qualification ‘binge-watch’) one of our all time favourites, being NYPD Blue – starting with the pilot, dating from 1993. Still a gripping tv-series.

On Friday the 18th we had been visiting Harlingen/Harns -and been at the library’s reading table, to flee from the boredom and deafening noise inside the hull-building building- hoping our ship would be ‘freed’ on our return. To our great relief she was replaced outside again indeed. This picture clearly explains the extra work on the hull.

A close-up, showing the shabby job that was done some 5 years ago in France. By a British owned yard, by the way.

Here’s the picture again that was used yesterday to explain the one-day postponement. This job is virtually done now (noon on Monday the 21st of May, 2018). The blue colour is shiny all around again, creating a nice feeling of contentment. Today we have been here for a fortnight. Maybe we’ll be back in the water before the next weekend, accompanied by an impressive invoice.

The lovely town of Harlingen/Harns now. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlingen,_Netherlands -of course even more in Dutch. This picture of its Noorderhaven was made last week. Harlingen’s/Harns’ closeness to the (Wadden)sea is illustrated here by the majority of boats being sailing vessels. Having said this, loads of motor-boats (tjalks, luxe motors, steilstevens, clippers, you name it) are cruising here, too.

Not only the library has been one of our ‘targets’, also the town’s museum, the Hannemahuis (see https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannemahuis - only in Dutch, Frysk and, believe it or not, Ukranian. This picture makes for a nice impression of the interior. We really liked it.