10 September. River Vecht. Utrecht to Weesp. 

I was so happy that the sun came out for my last full day on the boat. We had decided to get as far up the Vecht as possible, to leave a morning for a bike ride on Monday. Down came all the awnings, and the cockpit windows, for the ride up Utrecht's Oudegracht with its string of low bridges. So quiet this early sunday morning, compared to the gaggle of tour boats in the gracht yesterday. We passed not a soul except the odd pussycat on the wharves.

The lock out of the city is a huge one and hand operated. It takes forever to fill and empty so it was a fair old wait. We were stuck behind a German boat who constantly ground his bow thrusters to try and stay in place. Crikey! You'd think the racket alone would have made him quit. Anyhow we ended up stuck behind him for half the morning, grinding away and going WAYYYY too slowly. Much muttering from Skip until we came to a wide clear stretch and managed to get ahead of him.

We were stuck behind Captain Bowthrust for most of the morning.  

The Vecht is such a pretty river with so much of interest alongside the banks. You get a crick in the neck turning this way and that trying to see everything. Lots of lovely homes and gardens and of course hundreds of houseboats - from very swanky to, ahem, rather run down.

And every couple of kms there's another pretty little village with cutie bridges.

Naturally I had to look up property prices alongside the river. Unsurprisingly the fancy homes fetch multi millions but what was surprising was how expensive the house boats are - averaging out between 1/4 to 1/2 a million and that's without owning the bit of bank they are tied up to. They do come with a mooring, on the whole, for which one pays about 2000 a year rental. In many cases similar size houses along the river are cheaper than the houseboats. HUH. And with a house at least you can be sure it won't spring a leak at some point.

Huh? What was their architect thinking?

About half way down the river we stopped for a break at the small lock leading into the Loosdrecht lakes. There is a quirky café on the lock so we grabbed two chairs and whiled away some time watching the charter boats negotiate the lock. There are a couple of big charter operators inside the Loosdrecht lake and Sunday is their turnaround day so there were a lot of boats headed back to base after their week's charter. Most of them are glassfibre penichette's. Very roomy and with a different colour scheme they would make really comfy cruising boats. I imagine they sell them second hand.

We got to the bridge into Weesp at 16:02. The two minutes are important because the bridge man had just closed up for an hour's break. Bother, but we were eventually tied up inside the Weesp binnhaven by 18:00. Time for a quick walk and a final BBQ on the aft deck……

Tomorrow I shall be packing etc and we will head into Amsterdam on the train to spend the night with neice Heidi prior to my crack-o-dawn flight back to Lisbon. Skip will return to the boat and stay on for another week taking her back to homeport in Strandhorst and doing the usual chores of cleaning and winterising the boat. See how well planned this is on my part?

So bye from me. See you next year.

9 September. Hollandse Ijssel to Utrecht.

The 14km we had to do today should have taken 2 1/2 hours max, even taking into account the bridges and locks. Unfortunately we got stuck behind a Captain Slow on a narrow stretch and instead it was 3 1/2 hours. And it was raining again. Bother.

We were also in convoy with some Americans who were chartering one of the Locaboat Penichettes out of Loosdrecht. According to the information Locaboat had supplied them, some of Utrecht's Oudegracht bridges were closed which would involve a detour around the city on the hated Amstedam Rhine canal. Being Saturday, all the numbers I called were closed until monday so we decided to just go ahead and go to Utrecht anyway. Good thing too, because their information was wrong and the bridges were indeed all open. Phew. And better good news, the rain stopped just in time for us to drop all the awnings to get under the last fixed bridge into the passanthaven in the centre of the city.

The visitor's moorings at Utrecht are just lovely. Right in the middle of the Utrecht, a stone's throw away from the historic heart of the city. They are in a park, with grassy banks, lovely trees and paths frequented by joggers and dog walkers. Such fun to watch all the beautiful doggies pass by the windows of the boat. The price for a 10m boat is 16 euros including electricity (and showers if you want them) which is not exactly cheap, but considering the aspect and location worth every penny. The electricity points are cunningly disguised as dock planks so you have to look out for them.

After sitting on the boat for 2 days straight my feet were itching and despite the return of the rain, I put on my rain jacket, grabbed by brolly and took off for an hours walk around town. I could have walked for another hour at least but the sun came out and I knew Skip was itching to launch the dinghy again.

Beers, wine, cheese and a couple of brollys in case and we set off up Utrecht's little canals……

8 September. Alphen to Hollandse Ijssel.

Not a lot to report today. It poured incessantly all day long. As there was nothing we could do ashore, we figured we might as well make good progress towards Utrecht, 62 kms away. 

Our route took us down the Gouwe River to the city of Gouda, which we skirted. For 3km we were on the tidal stretch of the Hollandse Ijssel until we passed through the lock back into the controlled section of the river. 

This is called a Hefbrug and it can lift to 34m to allow tall sailing ships through.

This is a particularly pretty waterway - quite narrow, very rural but dotted with lovely village and small towns, including Oudewater touted to be the prettiest town in the region. 

There was quite a lot of commercial traffic on the Gouwe today. I guess this chap is a Bon Jovi fan.

We would have loved to explore, but it was pointless in the torrential downpour.

By the time we got halfway down the Hollandse Ijssel, we had picked up a bit of a convoy (5 boats) which always makes getting through the bridges easier. That is, in theory, unless the front boat forgets to press the button calling for bridge service which happened here. We did feel sorry for the poor chap on the boat in front of us who spent all afternoon out in the downpour steering his boat. His wife, inside, kept passing him up glasses of what looked like rose wine.

The river authorities are doing quite a bit of dredging along this stretch so we passed a lot of these sand barges, loaded to the gunwhales, carrying away river silt.

By 4:30 after 50kms we had both had enough so we pulled into the Marnemoende yacht club for the night. Very smart yacht club with a FANCY restaurant where there was a wedding reception. Happily they also had a laundry :). Expensive price for marina mooring at 17 euros including electricity and wifi. Showers etc also included. A wash and dry were 6 euro.

7 September. Leiden to Alphen a/d Rein.

Not a bad day weather wise. Better than we had expected from the forecasts. The odd isolated shower but for the most part it was sunny and dry.

Nothing of interest much to report about today's trip down river with the exception of an incident at this bridge. It was taking a little while to open so a boat from behind us came roaring, impolitely, past us.
 "I guess he is low enough to get through." I commented.
Ahem - NO. He bumped his way under the bridge. Bang, bang, bang on his folded down mast. And amazingly he didn't even slow down!

Our route was a great 15kms so we were'nt in too big a hurry.There aren't too many moorings available in Alphen so we eventuallty found a spot up the side canal to Woudbrugge. Nice mooring right in front of a bridge. Free too, although there aren't any facilities unless you count the church (feelin' blessed) and a bakery. 

We put the bikes ashore and took a ride down canal to check out the town. Mostly a modern place so not too exciting for us tourists. As black clouds were threatening again we decided to head back to the boat and have beers aboard instead of ashore. We have been trying out all the local beers as we go around the country. All in the name of research, you understand.

Skip screeched to a stop on the ride into Alphen.
"LOOK!"
So we went into the showroom and looked, mouths agape.
They had over 40 classic american cars, in pristine shininess, on display. Average price - 40 000 or so although there were a couple of special beauties for over 100 000.

Ha ha - Skip remembers drive-ins like this.

How about this for a HIFI system.

6 September. Haarlem to Leiden.

Because we were up with the birds, i.e. 8pm :), we decided to join the morning convoy moving through the city's bridges on the first opening after the morning rush-hour close time. From the previous morning we knew they would be congregating at our bridge about 9:10, so we were ready to join the back of the queue when they arrived. 

This morning's convoy headed out from Haarlem.

This morning we were 7 sailboats and 5 power boats. Great, as on the whole the bridges would all open as the convoy approached, except that the sailboat in the front was puttering along at a snail's pace which meant that the whole lot of us bringing up the rear had to do the same. It is considered most impolite to overtake especially when you know that they will all catch up to you at the next bridge. Much complaining from Skip as we battle to do anything under 7kph. 
"Now I know how the F1 drivers feel behind the safety car!" he moaned.

Happily after 10km or so we came to a rail bridge which was high enough for us but shut fast for another couple of hours so the sailboats were all going to be stuck for awhile. Vroom - we roared past. Well, not exactly but we were able to get back to our normal cruising speed of 10kph.

 The old Leiden city gate. Our boat was moored just around the bend...

We found to our delight that the same moorings on the grassy bank just inside Leiden's ring canal were available so we found ourselves a good spot under the trees. The rain that had been spitting down at intervals through the morning cleared and the sun came up so the bikes went ashore and we took a ride through the lovely historic town center before it was beer o'clock and time to put feeties up on the aft deck. Skip bbq'd a gammon joint on the weber. Plenty of leftovers for sandwiches. Yum. 

 We stopped at this cafe for a coffee and beer. Market stalls were set up along the road. 

Giving the special offer cheeses a suspicious sniff. Some were getting a bit past it but I did find a couple of good deals on french cheeses. Nice for a change from the usual array of Dutch Goudas.

6 September. Haarlem

We decided to stay another day in Haarlem. I spent the morning wandering around town, mostly window shopping, while Skip stayed aboard and played with his new dinghy. He got it pumped up, motor checked, fueled, locks attached, lifting straps attached and YAY ready to go. 

After lunch on Zoe we had the grand launching, with beer instead of champagne, and took off around the small canals of Haarlem. Actually a couple of the canals are not so small but the low bridges mean only small or low craft can get through. Photos below .....

4 September. Almere Haven to Haarlem.

We were delighted with our find of a 3.5 HP Mercury outboard motor at Almere Haven this morning. OK, so we won't be doing any water-skiing :) but it is light and we only want to putter down small canals so it will be adequate for our little 2.6m inflatable guppy. And it was a good price. Happy.

Not so happily, our fresh water pump packed up just after filling the kettle for breakfast coffee but before the morning showers :(

Drat. We took a wash in a bucket of river water - it is, after all, perfectly fresh water just CHILLY and got busy with Mr Google to try and track down a replacement pump.

We started, natch, with the boat shops and marinas near Almere but because we require a 24v pump and not a 12v pump (which everyone had in stock) we ended up moving further and further afield until we bit the bullet and headed back to Amsterdam yet again (third time this trip) and found exactly what we wanted for 85euros at Dekker Watersport. I mention the price just because one of the other marinas had one for 511 euros (HOW MUCH!!!!!!) which we immediately rejected.

The Ij or Noordseekanal at Amsterdam. These are the size of boats we shared the canal with.

In case you ever wondered how the barge drivers see over all the cargo they carry around, this is how it's done. The whole wheelhouse lifts up hydraulically so they can see over the top.

So we left Dekker just after 4.15 pm and, as we were now west of Amsterdam, we changed our route and headed down the Spaarne  to Haarlem. We arrived at the first of the cities' 9  bridges just as they were due to reopen at 18:00 after their two-hour rush hour close.  We waited and waited and waited. No buttons to press, no numbers to call and an increasingly irate Skip who was ready for his evening beer by now. I won't repeat the language.

After about 20 minutes we gave up and dropped all the awnings and windows and managed to scape under. The next bridge was also high enough but the next was no more than 1m high, so no ways. There were no moorings available between the bridges so not a place to stop either. I then had a brain wave and found, in my map folder, a piece of paper were were given last year by the Haarlem harbour master with bridge times and phone numbers of various harbour authorities etc. So I called the first number on the list and got a nice chap who, after some confusion, told me he would contact the bridge people for us. Well, dunno who he was but it sure got some action. Within 5 minutes a bike screeched up to the bridge, it opened, and the next couple of bridges were opening as we approached them. The bridge keeper at the last bridge then shepherded us to a prime spot on the charter boat wharf, where normally pleasure boats are forbidden, with free electric. So whoever I spoke to was obviously high up the food chain.

Moored up in the centre of Haarlem. We are in splendid isolation as this is supposedly the charter boat quay and pleasure boats are usually not allowed here. The other side of the canal is chock-a-block with boats.

Supposed to rain tomorrow so we have no particular plans other than Skip REALLY wants to blow up his dinghy …