Our French & Belgium friends came to see us off on our early morning departure from Erquelinnes.

The sun was shining and the harbour looked idyllic but we were very happy to set off with a smile and a wave.

We try to wear life jackets when we cruise, so have bought good comfortable ones. Here Lawrence is modelling his Spinlock life jacket, whilst waiting in a lock on the Bossuit.

2016 was a good year for spiders and we had thousands of them, Lawrence had just thrown this huge one off the boat, but as the boat went down in the lock, it threatened to jump back on!

We exited the lock under a small bridge and left him behind.