Slowly south through Holland

Sunday 14^th August 2011 – Holland and Charles’ 25^th Birthday.

Sunset over the Lauwersmeer

We left Norderney as planned in the mid-morning with just the last hour of the incoming tide against us; then we took the out going tide down the coast of the Frisian Islands.  There was little wind so the sea was pleasantly calm and we motored until the channel to Lauwersoog when we were able to have a short sail.  On arrival at Lauwersoog we were straight into the lock and out again in five minutes, that must be our record for the shortest locking through anywhere!  Once out into the Lauwersmeer we motored until we found a free staging for the night not far from the Willem Lorresluis.

Distance motored / sailed: 65 nm

Monday 15^th August 2011 – Northern Dutch Canals

James had me up early saying that the Willem Lorresluis (lock) opened at 7 am, we were there at 7.30 to find two red lights, so we began to wonder if it was a public holiday, as Belgium, and EU countries further south were showing in my diary as having public holidays.  It turned out that if you wanted to lock through before 9 am you had to arrange with the lock keeper the day before.  The locker keeper duly turned up at 9 am and let us through to the Dokkumer Ee canal along with three other yachts who were obviously in a hurry – this suited James as he could follow behind them at a good speed.  

When we got to Dokkum, I jumped ship with my bike and cycled along the tow path (not before I had got my hands black with grease from the bike chain which had come off and took me a long time to put back on).  However, I eventually caught James up and was able to take over paying the lock keepers, who put out clogs on a rod and line to collect their fees.  

Coming into Leeuwarden

Paddington by a restaurant we would like to stop at one day!

James photo of the 1st bridge into Leeuwarden

I cycled 16 miles into Leeuwarden where we stopped at a good supermarket beside the canal to do a large shop including more wine!  We then made use of the holding tank pump out facility and free water to wash the boat down etc.  We managed to leave the centre of the town before 4 pm when all the bridges close for the rush hour period but we still got stuck at the various out of town railway bridges and did not leave Leeuwarden until 18.30 which was quite frustrating.  We eventually pulled off the Prinses Margriet Canal at 8pm into a side canal with free staging for the night.

Distance motored: 36 nm

Tuesday 16^th August 2011 – to Amsterdam

Another early start heading south through the Prinses Margriet canal to the lock at Lemmer then out into the IJsselmeer and down to Lelystad where we added some diesel and were reminded of how expensive it is here about £1.32 per litre so we only put a little in!  Diesel was the one thing in Norway which was quite reasonably priced at around £1.10 a litre!  Then we locked out into Markermeer for the motor across to Amsterdam, where we cleared the bridge and the lock (Oranjesluizen) by about 20.00 but were not allowed to tied up there for the night so we found a wall up a ‘back street’ and tied alongside another boat that seemed unlikely to move!  Actually, it was rather pretty and there was a lovely sunset through an attractive bridge!
Distance motored: 68 nm

Our berth in Amsterdam and above

Wednesday 17^th August 2011 – more canals to the Kaagenplassen

Once again it was another day of motoring down canals, first the North Sea Canal, from there we turned towards Haarlem, knowing that the Spaarndam Bridge on the A9 motorway only opens three times a day, we were there with nearly 2 hours to spare for the midday opening and as the waiting posts have no way of letting one get ashore, James thought we should go back to a very rickety disused staging he had seen, it was too shallow to get completely alongside but we managed to nose in enough for him to get off for a short walk.  However, when we tried to leave we were well and truly aground.  In the end I got off and managed to push the bow off enough for our strong engine in reverse to get the boat back into deeper water.  I then had a run down the road to find a place where James could get the boat in close enough for me to climb back on!  I had thought that at the worse I could walk around to the Spaarndam lock to meet him.  However, in the end he was able to nose into a wharf near the bridge and I scrambled aboard under the stanchion wires.  Once through the bridge it is a short distance to the lock which since we were there in 2009 has been rebuilt and the lock keeper has a very nice new building beside the lock where one goes to pay the toll.  

Haarlem

Then it was on to Haarlem where there are ten bridges to be negotiated, with payment / bridge toll being paid about 3 bridges in.  Once again James dropped me alongside a wall to go and make the payment and then went through a further two bridges before I found a suitable place where he could get alongside enough for me to jump back aboard!  

We want one of these, seen just before the Sassenheim Bridge

After the bridge!

The next wait was at the Sassenheim Motorway Bridge which again only opens during three periods in the day, so we had a couple of hours to wait for the 18.30 bridge, which let us out into the Kagenplassen - one of our favourite lakes, southwest of Amsterdam, where we returned to a favourite anchoring spot for two nights.  The water is very shallow not much more than 1.8 metres anywhere so it was nicely warm and I was able to have my exercise with lots of swimming.

Wednesday race night in the Kagger plassen

Distance motored: 30 nm

Thursday 18^th August 2011 – at anchor

Other than swimming it was a day to read books and relax.

Friday 19^th August 2011 - Entertaining

Sheryll & James

We had arranged to meet a long standing friend – Sheryll Smith, who we met years ago in the Grevelingenmeer when she and her Dutch ex-husband used to have sailing holidays there with their children who were slightly older than Jeremy and Charles but nevertheless they all got on well and having an English mother there was no language barrier.  So we moved the boat to Kaag Island where we were able to moor for a few hours at a marina and take the ferry across to meet Sheryll who drove to meet us and then took us to Lisse where we treated her to a Chinese Rice Table.  Then it was back to the boat for tea and cake!  After Sheryll left we motored the short distance to the Westeinderplassen and found a free berth on one of the Islands.  Again the water is very shallow so nice and warm and I was able to swim daily.

Distance motored: 9 nm!

Saturday 20^th August 2011 – Amsterdamse Bos

This morning we decided to motor up the canal through the Nieuwe Meer in sight of Schiphol runways and went alongside some staging at Schinkelbos where we could get the bikes out for a ride.  However, poor James had to spend a hour of so repairing my chain guard before we could cycle to Amsterdamse Bos, a lovely recreational wooded park about 10 miles from Amsterdam.  Being a Saturday it was lovely to see the park so well used: games fields, goat farm, rowing canal, children’s play areas and paddling pools plus a very good pancake restaurant that we always enjoy visiting for lunch, this time it was a very late lunch!  Once back on the boat we returned to the Westeinder Plassen to anchor for the night and I had another swim.

Distance motored: 12 nm

Sunday 21^st August 2011 – Dinghy up and missing my Aunt’s 90^th birthday party!

Most of the day was spent at anchor relaxing.  I did manage to ring my Aunt in the morning to wish her a good 90^th birthday and I was sorry to be missing the family party, with all my cousins, as we rarely all get together these days.

However, during the afternoon we did blow the rubber dinghy up for only second time this year and certainly the first time the engine has been used for at least two years and we went on a trip around the various small islands and waterways primarily to see if there were any suitable spots we could move to. Once all the weekenders had left, we up anchored and in the end returned to the same island we had been at on Friday, time again for me to have another swim in the lea of the Island as it had been quite windy all day and the main lake was choppy. 

Monday 22^nd August 2011 – continuing south

I got up early to have a 30 minute swim before we left the Westeinderplassen soon after 8 am to continue south down the canal system.  We had a stop at Alphen der Rijn, where we always like to shop, however, I had not realised that most shops do not open until 1300 on Mondays (seems quite civilised if inconvenient for me), so we could not visit a good cheese shop we like but luckily the supermarket was open.

We then joined a convoy to continue down the canals through various bridges and just made the lunch railway bridge opening at Gouda, and then it was a very full lock out into the Hollandsche IJssel.  Again we managed to get through the Algera Bridge at Capelle a/d IJssel before the 3 hour break for the afternoon rush hours shut down from 1600 – 1900, we were getting rather short of fuel so we were glad to be able to fill up from a barge just the other side of the bridge and were even happier to find the diesel 10 cents per litre cheaper that at Lelystad, so we completely filled up and with water as that was also getting quite low.  Then it was on slowly to Alblasserdam for the 18.30 bridge before full throttle to catch the 19.16 bridges at Dordrecht.  We then continued on to Oud-Beijerland at the north end of the Spui River where we arrived just before 9 pm and the Harbour Master was still around to collect our berthing fee of 10.90 euros including electricity.

Distance motored: 53 nm

Tuesday 23^rd August 2011 - Oud-Beijerland

I awoke (James was already walking) to the sound of thunder, lightening and torrential rain, which continued until midday, by which time we had decided to stay here for another night, particularly as the tide to the Haringvliet would be against us in the afternoon and I wanted to find the library where I could use the Internet but this did not open until 1300 hours.  So as we have electricity and water available, I spent the morning was spent catching up with some washing.

Oud Beijerland by night

By the afternoon the sun was out and very warm, so were able to have a walk around, we have been here two or three times in the last 25 years but it is still a pretty small town on an island.  I was able to sort my Internet banking out at the Library but of course on returning to the boat I found James had found a free WIFI site which had only started working during the afternoon for a few hours!