The "Russian Bear"
A bit of boat stuff this week. I'm hardly thinking of anything else because of the upcoming trip to Maastricht. But, "the best laid plans"...
We have a boating ban from Saturday onwards due to the "Russian Bear" - or Winter from Siberia. The major shipping canals like the Prinses Margriet Canal are still open for commercial shipping, but all the rest are not to be used - in an attempt to help the ice to form for skating!
... and so, I am not able to take the boat to Grou for some work. I was going to try to fix the (leaking) fuel tank - but it has stopped leaking, so I just have to fill it to about 3/4 and see what happens. The motor is going to be looked at under warranty - the water-pump impeller-shaft has to be replaced at their cost - they discovered that a harder metal should have been used (something I would never have known until it was too late).
Oh well, it would have been cold, in any case!
Near Beetsterzwaag is Nij Beets - an old canal was re-opened 3 years ago and the locals are now providing a mooring for "boat tourists".
I was quite taken by the words of the local spokesperson:
"Mar no moatte we se ek wat biede, funen we, om te soargjen dat se hjir oanlizze."
I just love the written Frisian, especially when I can understand it!
"But now we have to offer something, in our opinion, to ensure that they (boat tourists) can moor here".
There will also be a toilet block, free electricity and wifi.
NAP
(might be a bit boring! This was part of my boating exam that was quite complicated - when having to calculate the clearance of bridges, for example, if the water level has changed for some reason. It never seemed to be a problem in Friesland but now that we are going further afield, I thought I'd better brush up on it.)
Normaal Amsterdams Peil (NAP) is a vertical datum in use in large parts of Western Europe. Originally created for use in the Netherlands, its height was used by Prussia in 1879 for defining Normalnull, and in 1955 by other European countries. In the 1990s, it was used as the reference level for the United European levelling Network (UELN) which in turn led to the European Vertical Reference System (EVRS).
Mayor Johannes Hudde of Amsterdam in a way came up with the idea after he expanded the sea dyke after a flood in Amsterdam in 1675. Of course a dyke should be storm-resistant to protect a city against flooding, and in this case, a margin of "9 feet and 5 inches" (2.67 m - margin is defined in Amsterdam feet) was deemed enough to cope with rising water. So he measured the water level of the adjacent sea arm, Het IJ and compared it with the water level in the canals within the city itself. He found that the water level at an average summer flood in the sea arm (when the water level reaches its maximum, not counting storms) was about the same as the level on the other side of the sea-dyke, plus the margin of 9 feet and 5 inches. (The original Dutch measurements were 9 voet and 5 duim - "foot and thumb" )
The relatively constant water level in the canals of Amsterdam, called Amsterdams Peil ("Amsterdam level", AP), equalled the level at summer flood at sea in the sea-inlet, which changes throughout the year. AP was carried over to other areas in the Netherlands in 1860, to replace locally used levels. In this operation, an error was introduced which was corrected (normalised) between 1885 and 1894, resulting in the Normaal Amsterdams Peil.
"At that time, each region had its own level, the Frisian Summer Level, the Delfsland Peil, Rijnlands Peil, and each water board and many cities had its own, and it was a mess from our perspective", says Petra van Dam, professor of State Water History at the Vrije Universiteit - in With the Eye on Tomorrow .
"On 18 February 1818, King William I issued a decree to say: it is now over, and Amsterdam is being taken over for the management of the major rivers."
The 0 level of the NAP is roughly equal to the average sea level of the North Sea. The highest point in the Netherlands is close to the 3-country point on the Vaalserberg, 322.5 meters. The lowest point is at Nieuwerkerk on the IJssel: -6.78 meters.
In the capital, Mayor Johannes Hudde had already placed white marble stones in the Amsterdam locks in 1684 to measure the water level.
"Hudde thought it was important to set the zero point for Amsterdam once and for all, by measuring the water level of the IJ for a year and taking the average of the summer flood level, which became the Amsterdam Peil."
Originally the zero level of the NAP was the average summer flood water level in the IJ just north of the centre of Amsterdam (which was at the time, in 1684, the main shipping area, then still connected with the open sea). Currently, it is physically realised by a brass benchmark on a 22-meter pile below the Dam square in Amsterdam. The brass benchmark in the Amsterdam Stopera (combined city hall and opera house), which is a tourist attraction, is no longer used as a reference point.
A scale measuring the water level in a polder near Zoetermeer, Netherlands. The level is 5.53 meters below "Normaal Amsterdams Peil" which can be translated as Normal Height Datum of Amsterdam. This equals more or less (but not exactly) 5.53 meters below sea level;
more than 18 feet.
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The lowest point in the Netherlands (7 metres below NAP)
The Zuidplaspolder is a polder in the western Netherlands, located northeast of Rotterdam. It reaches a depth of 7.0 metres (23.0 ft) under the mean sea level. This makes it, along with Lammefjord in Denmark, the lowest point of Western Europe and the European Union.
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Flood-post at Maassluis
NAP + 3.75 Storm surge 1 February 1953.
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...the German Wolf...
Over the past few years there have been newspaper and televison reports of "sightings of wolves", or at least one wolf.
Last week there were three sightings (of probably the same wolf).
There have been three confirmed sightings of wolves in the Netherlands so far this year, website Nature Today said on Wednesday. On Wednesday morning, a wolf was spotted in several locations in Gelderland and was caught on video walking along the edge of fields. A wolf was seen in several places in the east of the country around the beginning of January and again in Twente in early February. ‘In general, wolves are wary animals so it is likely that the Netherlands is visited more often,’ the website said. ‘However, there is no sign yet that wolves have made the Netherlands their permanent home.’ The first confirmed sighting of a live wolf on Dutch soil since 1869 was made in 2015. A dead wolf was found in Flevoland in summer 2013 but research showed it had probably been dumped there. In March 2014, the government announced the wolf will be a protected species when it returns to live in the Netherlands. This means farmers will receive compensation from a special fund if livestock is attacked and killed.
Around the Farm...
Cold, basically. The insurance companies have advised that wood heaters (such as ours) should not be used IF you have a thatched roof (such as ours). The extreme cold is also extremely dry and being late in the season, many chimneys have a soot build-up which could cause sparks - all a bad combination! We have a spark arrestor on our chimney near the thatch...
The moles can still dig...
The oak trees are being pruned...
We had to move Daniel's caravan inside and "pack it in" with mattresses. He has a small heater inside. We don't have any apartments free at the moment, so we had to think of something! We've had the mattresses "in storage" for 10 years, so this is not such a bad thing to be able to use them. Later this year we'll use them as proper insulation for the new work shed - where the caravan is.
A field of solar panels
I was a bit early to pick Lucas up, so I stopped for some photos...
...and the koala!
...the German Wolf...
Over the past few years there have been newspaper and televison reports of "sightings of wolves", or at least one wolf.
Last week there were three sightings (of probably the same wolf).
There have been three confirmed sightings of wolves in the Netherlands so far this year, website Nature Today said on Wednesday. On Wednesday morning, a wolf was spotted in several locations in Gelderland and was caught on video walking along the edge of fields. A wolf was seen in several places in the east of the country around the beginning of January and again in Twente in early February. ‘In general, wolves are wary animals so it is likely that the Netherlands is visited more often,’ the website said. ‘However, there is no sign yet that wolves have made the Netherlands their permanent home.’ The first confirmed sighting of a live wolf on Dutch soil since 1869 was made in 2015. A dead wolf was found in Flevoland in summer 2013 but research showed it had probably been dumped there. In March 2014, the government announced the wolf will be a protected species when it returns to live in the Netherlands. This means farmers will receive compensation from a special fund if livestock is attacked and killed.
Around the Farm...
Cold, basically. The insurance companies have advised that wood heaters (such as ours) should not be used IF you have a thatched roof (such as ours). The extreme cold is also extremely dry and being late in the season, many chimneys have a soot build-up which could cause sparks - all a bad combination! We have a spark arrestor on our chimney near the thatch...
The moles can still dig...
The oak trees are being pruned...
The kids are getting bigger! We have to buy some bigger gumboots for a couple of the kids...
We had to move Daniel's caravan inside and "pack it in" with mattresses. He has a small heater inside. We don't have any apartments free at the moment, so we had to think of something! We've had the mattresses "in storage" for 10 years, so this is not such a bad thing to be able to use them. Later this year we'll use them as proper insulation for the new work shed - where the caravan is.
A field of solar panels
I was a bit early to pick Lucas up, so I stopped for some photos...
...and the koala!
