Update August 18, After 107 days of biking, the bikers made it to Amsterdam.

On Sunday May 3, 2009 Alex Mutselaar, Matthijs Houben and Mark de Vries started in Athens. On August 18, after over 4.500 kilometers by waterbike (through places like Rome, Marseille and Paris) they arrived in Amsterdam where they had a festive arrival, accompanied by waterbikes of the Canal Company. They docked at the dock of the Canal Company at the Stadhouderskade across the Rijks museum.

 

Update August 14, 2009 Back on Dutch waters!!

Last night around 2:00 am, Matthijs Houben and Alex Mutselaar crossed the Dutch border with their water bike at Sas van Gent! After this the guys will continue the last miles towards the finish.

Matthijs admitted , as a Belgian, to be excied to be 'back on Dutch waters' . At the same time, after everything that happened since the start on May 2, 2009 in Athens, for both guys it is still hard to believe they will finish their journey in Amsterdam this Tuesday and the adventure will end.

Alex: " It is almost unbelievable, but we made it after all."

Matthijs: "Just another 3 days and I will sleep in a comfortable bed
again."

The bikers are now docked at Wemeldinge. Tomorrow the men will bike to Moerdijk, Sunday they will sleep at Alphen aan de Rijn and Tuesday they will finish in Amsterdam.


Update August 10, 2009 'text message from Matthijs'

10/8/09 20:14 "We are both exhausted from biking. The weather is worsening, which is not very motivational. The canals keep on getting dirtier and the amount of locks seem endless! We hope to reach Gent Friday night, if the openings hours of the locks are on our side..."


Update August 9, 2009 'Biking through the dirt'

Even though the bikers gave it all they got, they did not make it on time to the second tunnel, so they missed the connection with the tugboat. On Sunday the tugboat does not run, so the bikers had to wait and used they day to repack the water bike and to rest. This canal is not in big demand, which results in an amazing amount of waterplants. For unknown reasons to Matthijs and Alex, a lot of stinking dead animals are floating in the water. It is very dirty water!
Result: 2 minutes biking; 9 minutes of removing water plants from the propeller.


Update August 7, 2009. 'Making the train'

After the fantastic reception in Paris the team is in high spirits. But the journey keeps on being a race against time. Right now Matthijs and Alex are biking fast to make it to 'the train.' The canal of St Quentin has a 6 kilometer long tunnel. Because the ventilation is bad, all ships need to be pulled through it by a tug boat. If the bikers miss 'the train' at 3:00 pm tomorrow, they will have to wait until Sunday
afternoon.

The Belgian, Wouter Koops (a good friend of Matthijs) is helping us out with much needed extra muscle power and will stay aboard the BTO Challenger until Sunday.

After that they will continue over the canal of St Quentin and the river of Escaut towards the border and Gent (Belgium).


Update July 21, 2009

Right now the team has help from a new biker, Joost, who will help the team from July 11 until July 26.

Because the boat ("Jungfrun of Kalkmar Sund"), who was pulling the bikers against the strong current had so many problems of its own, the bikers decided to hop from one tugboat to another, so progress could continue. The bikers finally reached Lyon, after a bit of delay.

During traveling on the Rhone the bikers had a large tree trunk (2 meters long) directly hitting the propeller. This caused the propeller to be almost pulled out of ht BTO Challenger and significant damage to the rest of the boat.

After lots of hitch hiking and breakdowns, the bikers are using their muscle power once again to bike over the French canals. A great feeling! And with Joost's help we make good times and distances! The team did decide to change the route because of the gigantic amount of algae in the water in some of the canals, like the Canal of Bougogne. The algae get tangled in the propeller, which blocks the propeller. So they decided

to take a longer route to reach Paris.
Next to that the bikers noticed that the French lock guards are working less hours than the water manual says. Because of this they can only bike

from 9:00 am until 7:00 pm. And they experience long waiting times at some of the locks. Because of the small size of the boat the dock guards often wait for other traffic before they put them through.

Paris and the finish of the Tour de France is coming closer quickly. It will be exciting to see how much progress the bikers will make the next couple of days.

 

Update July 8, 2009

After asking around a lot, the hitchb(h)ikers found someone to pull them some more. Eventually we received a pull by another boat three times.
With the last boat 'Junfrun of Kalmarsund' they will reach their destination. Right now the boys are being pulled by a 114-year old sailboat, without a mast, to make it easier to get through the canals.
The friendly Klaus and Gunter are planning to restore this boat. Like real pirates they are going to sail the world. Luckily,  these pirates may seem like pirates, but they are really sweet on the inside. And Klaus is taking care good of the bikers' health by cooking for them so they can restore their strength.

Lock after lock after lock makes the progress slow, but they docked past Avignon by now.

For a moment it looked like the antique boat needed a pull itself as well, when the motor loosened from the moter supports. But thanks to the ingeniousness of the team, the motor was put tight again with the help of attachment links. After this obstacle they could continue towards Valence!

Update June 29, 2009

After waiting for better weather for several days, the bikers did not wait any longer and left in spite of the bad weather. They left early in the morning to avoid the hardest wind.
This seemed to be working out until the wind got worse in the afternoon. Luckily we were passed by a catamaran, Massalee, whom we met earlier at Saint Tropez. He was friendly and helpful enough to pull us further.
The pull started with 7 miles/hour and ended with 1.8 miles/hour.
So far this was one of the most violent parts of the journey, even without biking ourselves. The waves were 3 meters high and the boat was tossed high upon the waves. The boat was hit so heavy by the waves that the navigation unit and stirring machine stopped working temporarily. Through every possible slit the water poured in! Towards the evening the captain of the catamaran decided it would be too dangerous to pull the BTO Challenger any further and dropped us at the nearest harbor, Mourillon.
The negotiations with the weather gods are in full swing again.

Update June 25, 2009

During the waiting period in St Tropez, Alex and Matthijs met a sporty enthusiastic Frenchman; Michael (also called Tarzan.)
Michael has sea experience; he become French Champion at sea kayaking for juniors twice, and he wanted to bike along for a day! We did not hesitate for a moment to accept this offer!
Together we left towards 'Le Lavandou'. The first few hours went easy, until the wind started blowing again for the last 5 miles. The wind was so powerful (wind force 5, a leftover of the Mistral?) that our speeds became reduced to 1 mile/hour, which is comparable to the speed of a crawling baby. But at least we had three people on board this day!

At arrival at 'Le Lavandou' the bikers were stopped by the customs authorities. But except for energy powder mixes and Multipower, no suspicious substances were found on board the BTO Challenger!

Right now, the bikers are awaiting better weather circumstances, again...

Update June 23, 2009

Meanwhile the bikers made it to Saint-Tropez.
This after two days of continuous biking with just the two of us...
Just when Alex and Matthijs arrived at Saint-Tropez, a mistral wind started blowing...
Until this wind has settled down the bikers will be trapped at Saint-Tropez.
A very friendly neighbor Christophe (and his cat) has decided to take care of the exhausted bikers!

June 18, 2009 "The landsman and the seaman"

Today was my (Mark) last day together with Alex and Matthijs here in Nice. Tomorrow I will fly back to the Netherlands and Alex and Matthijs will continue the journey towards Marseilles. An old Gaelic saying goes like this:

S beag ‘tha fios aig fear a bhaile,
Cia’mar’tha fear na mara b

The landsman (the man from the village) has no idea how the seaman lives.

After 46 days and over 886 miles of biking on the sea with wonderful and horrible moments, especially the difficult Ionic and Thyrenian Sea voyages, it is a bit more clear to me how it is to live on the sea......

June 16, 2009 From jail to France

After the bikers landed in jail at Gorgona, they arrived at Monaco at 8am. A class performance! Non-stop biking and a smooth wind free sea made it possible for the bikers to cross the Ligurian Sea in only 49 hours!!! This is 111 miles!

The isolated Ile of Gorgona was not a nature reservation like we thought, but a state prison! This is also why the harbor was not mentioned in the big Mediterranean Sea harbor book, but only drawn on the map. The team biked unsuspectingly directly towards the harbor, where they were intercepted by the Polizia Peneteria.

Due to our by now well-known ‘problema di motori’ the team received special permission by the commander to dock at the prison. The bikers received great hospitality with a tasty warm meal at the refectory and an evening tour of the island by jeep.

The bikers experienced again technical difficulties during the crossing from Gorgona to Monaco and had to have 2 one hour breaks to fix the boat on open water. The first time the guarantor pens were broken. And the second time the axle shaft became boiling hot! The bikers fixed the axle problem by thinking of a hand pump construction to pump extra water through the axle shaft to cool it down more. Two thirds of the crossing has been done biking and pumping at the same time! The extra hand cooling and the ideal weather circumstances led to record speeds.

After finishing this last exhausting sea crossing the real off-shore part of the journey is behind is. The journey towards Amsterdam will now be of a different nature. And Mark has obtained his goals: reinforce the team and make a safe sea crossing possible. Tomorrow the team will bike towards Nice, where Alex and Matthijs will continue their journey with just the two of them.

June 9, 2009: Route change!
The team had a wonderful arrival at Anzio last Sunday. They were welcomed by the alderman of Sports & Cultural Matters and the director of the Civil Archeology Museum. After that they finally made it to Rome! In the afternoon the bikers had a flash visit of Rome.
This morning the team left Rome and headed to the harbor of Cittavecchia. Due to the bad luck with the equipment the last couple of weeks the team decided to change their route.
The bikers will not do the Corsica-Monaco sea crossing, but will follow the coastline North with daily distances of 30-40 miles, biking 10-17 hours a day. The route will be passing these places: Civitavecchia, Porto
Stefano, Elba, Livorno, Genua and st Remo, towards Monaco. This means more miles added to our journey, but also a safer, more responsible
choice.

June 4, 2009
Again,  bad luck for the BTO Challenger!! This morning, after the electrician tested the battery one more time, the bikers left with a bright blue sky and a southern wind in the back to finish the last 22 miles towards Porto Touristico di Roma. As if it is not meant to be to reach Rome, after one hour of biking, a piece of the transferrer broke;  the last one of two spare pieces. It probably got damaged from the heavy waves biking from Capri to Nettuno. Luckily two young Italians understood our waving arms and sign language and pulled us back to Porto di Anzio. The Guarda di Costeria had us sign a few official documents and was he was ever helpful to find a solution! The team hopes to have acquired the new pieces for the BTO Challenger at the end of the afternoon and hopes to arrive in Rome tomorrow afternoon.

June 2, 2009 update
The team left the Isle of Capri and headed for Rome Sunday morning (May 31, 2009.)  At first it seemed to become a record speed part of the journey, thanks to a strong south wind in our backs. However, by evening the Italian weather Gods had enough of it and turned against us.
Today the bikers reached Nettuno after 3 rough days. Nettuno is about 60 km south of Rome. The team was really tested by the elements (wind speed 8, meters high waves, lightning and heavy rain.) And they are experiencing big problems with their electricity supply. With only 8% energy left in their battery it would be irresponsible to keep going through the night. Next to that, their Active Radar Reflector broke down. Without the Active Radar Reflector the ferries and big container ships cannot see the BTO Challenger on their radar, which let to a few critical moments already.
We hope to have both problems taken care of by Wednesday June 3rd, so we can continue biking towards Rome.

May 29, 2009 Update
The team arrived today at the Isle of Capri after a tough crossing where they had to wait for the right sea conditions.
Rob Wink and Ricardo Verde from Schenker took the ferry from Naples especially to bring parts to us for the BTO Challenger. With the parts, the team could fix their windmill which took most of the afternoon.
(We need a properly working windmill to create enough energy on board the BTO Challenger.)

May 26, 2009 Update
The bikers are heading the right direction and are in shape. After climbing the Stromboli volcano and taking a great picture there with the Villa Pardoes flag the team descended to continue their journey towards Naples. The team wants to complete this part of the journey in 4 days, weather permitted.

May 21th, 2009 Update
Team BTO is doing great, thanks to the wonderful caring hospitality of Mariet and Klaas on board the Alberdina. Alex, Mark and Matthijs are looking forward to giving it all they got again, after the pull through
the streets of Messina towards the Stromboli. The last few days were spent in having all the damage fixed on the water bike. Meanwhile, of course, the team members will keep in excellent shape as well.  ;-)

May 17th, 9:00 am update
The team arrived in Italy after a violent crossing. Tomorrow they will partially pulled to the Street of Messina, because the weather is too horrible to keep on track themselves.

May 12th, 7:00 pm update
The boat has been fixed,  thanks to Marina Lefkas and a days work by mechanics from Sailand Yacht Services!

May 12th, 11:00 am update
After a super day the team arrived at Marina Lefkas last night. Because of technical problems with the propeller and traction they cannot continue. The boat is lifted up by hoists right now while the Greek mechanics are doing everything they can to help the team on their way.

May 10th, 7:52 pm update
Team BTO arrived last night at the harbor of Poros, after a cumbersome mile which took two hours. After receiving advice from local experts (including David) the team decided to cross the Ionic Sea from the island of Corfu instead of the island of Kefallinia. This route is not shorter, but safer because of the strong north-west wind and current. Tonight at 2:00 am they will continue their journey.    
The new route: 
From the harbor of Poros they will travel to the island of Levkas, then
along the coast to the island of Corfu. They will pass between the island of Corfu and the Albanian coast. At the top side of the island of Corfu they will cross to the 'heel' of Italy. The delay the bikers will have because of this will make reaching the deadline of May 31th in Rome extra exciting!
The bikers face an extra 186 miles.

May 9th 9:37 am update
Team BTO has been peddling since yesterday morning 11:00 am. They change shifts continuously and are expected to arrive in about 30 hours after 64 miles of biking. When they reach the  harbor of Poros, they will have gone over 150 miles since the start. The team members are feeling well, except for some muscle aches and tiredness!