 |
| Egyptian goose scavenging by the boat. Got any bread? |
14.4°C Sunny and
hot all day, very light breeze. Mike took the mast down to get under the low
bridges and we set off at 9 am. Said tot ziens to the neighbours on Isis. Under
the first bridge, then a left turn on to the Lange Wetering. Lots of small
cruisers were moored along the canal on the wooden stumps provided and in neat
offline basins. A long line of houseboats stretched along the right bank, some
were three storeys high. A cruiser set off from the next little offline basin
and zoomed off in front towards Almere Haven. As we got closer to the basin
another cruiser came out heading in the
 |
| Half-built hotel. Almere. |
opposite direction and another came
down the canal towards us as we were passing the junction with the Krome
Wetering, which leads to the lake in the city called Weerwater. Two cruisers
were below Almere Haven sluis, the first one went into the lock and, although
there was plenty of room left in the 20m long chamber, the gates closed behind
him and shut the second boat out, he moved down the quay and we tied up behind
him. The skipper came to say hello – we’ve met before! It was the cruiser
called Excess, whose crew we’d met at Hoogeschmilde when we called there for
water. All smiles and laughing, we
 |
| In Almere Haven sluis. Flevo |
had a natter on the quay, mostly in Dutch as
he didn’t speak English but the words we didn’t know in English she translated
for us. They went up the lock (they were staying in the haven for water and a
bit of shopping) and I sorted out the washing while Mike connected up the
Markon drive. The lock lifted the boat about 4m up to the level of the
Randmeeren lake called Gooimeer. Mike shinned up the ladder to pay the keeper
2,50€ for the lock, then we headed out through all the moored boats in the
haven and turned left into the channel leading to the Gooimeer. It was 11.30 am
already. By the entrance there was an underwater pipe bubbling air into the
water to oxygenate it. The surface of the lake had a green growth of algae. By
the entrance channel a fishing boat was anchored while it washed its nets.
Turned right heading northwest for the Hollandsebrug which carries the motorway
across from Muiderberg onto Flevoland. There were sailing boats and cruisers
and speedboats galore. An empty commercial called Adriana overtook us 2kms
before the bridge. As we approached the bridge we could see there was
 |
| Almere Haven |
lots of
work going on to build another bridge with a diesel-powered pile-driver and
loads of earth moving plant. A loaded boat called Jomajo came through the
bridge, Spes-Vera and Contentus were unloading sand by the bridge and Maaike
likewise on the far side before the bridge. Under the bridge and out on to the
southern end of the Markermeer, a light breeze powering many sailing boats. It
was busy. We headed out for Pampas Island as the weather was so good. Lake
 |
| Fishing boat washing nets. Gooimeer |
insects were in almost plague proportions, tiny flies and mossies in their
millions. Fortunately they didn’t bite, just made themselves a nuisance. I made
some lunch and we just had time to eat it before we arrived at Muiden and went
into the Grote Zeesluis – the keeper had kept the gates open for us and we
filled the last bit of the chamber – opposite our friends with Excess again!
The lock emptied (yes, downhill by about 20cms off the sea lake on to the river
Vecht) and the long footbridge
 |
| Clouds over Gooimeer |
over the two lock chambers swung open (a young
lady carrying a baguette under her arm sprinted across and made it just as the
far barriers came down) and all the cruisers raced off to the next bridge,
Rijksbrug, which had a 5m clearance without being lifted so most of them got
through it and we followed. More building work for the new road that will cross
next to the Hollandsebrug, more pile-drivers and cranes and earth movers. Mike
took the mast
down and the sunshade so we could get under the next couple
 |
| Pile-drivers. R Vecht at Muiden |
of
bridges. Under the railway bridges where several large high boats were waiting
and into Weesp. Wide narrowboat Water Melody went past, a large Dutch flag
fluttering at the rear. Ducked under the bascule bridge with the ensign off,
then Mike put the flag and sunshade back up as we could get under the rest with
them up. The river seemed to be full of small open motor boats, travelling
fairly sedately up and down. Took photos again of the two windmills in Weesp. A
person wearing a wetsuit and an orange swimming cap was swimming along the left
bank. We overtook (unusual for us as
 |
| Loaded boat on Markermeer |
we’re always the slowest) an open motor
boat and then a cruiser which was dawdling along far right of the middle, we
got dirty looks for overtaking him on the wrong side. Spotted a round fortress
on the left bank that I hadn’t noticed before, it had a large café next door to
it and a rusty canon in front of it. Next to it was the entrance to a little
canal that we had marked on our chart as “opens for two hours on a Wednesday “.
A police RIB went past us heading in the opposite direction just as a small
cruiser was overtaking us,
 |
| Moored on R Vecht near Nederhorst |
the police officer indicated that he should slow
down (the river has a limit of 9khp) Close to the village of Hinderdam where
there is a lake by the canal there was a commercial called Union moored, it was
unloading sand which was being pumped into the lake using a big pipe (maybe
they were filling it in??) We moored on a quay by Charley’s café at the end of
a long sprawling village called Nederhorst den Berg, slotting between the
cruisers on a three day mooring. It was 4.10pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment