29th April 2016
Durgerdam to Haarlem

I am tired of telling you about the chilly starts, so ... it was a lovely, blisteringly hot morning with nothing but blue skies. I wish. The day did differ from the rest though, in that it has blown a hoolie all day, which made manoeuvring quite interesting at times. 

Clive found the passage through the city´s commercial port quite interesting - for me it was ho hum. 

Amsterdam´s commercial port has miles of engineering works etc. lining the river.

On the other side of the city, we went up a small canal, turned right sharply and tied up outside a big boating centre called Dekker Watersport. 

Tied up outside Dekker waterport

We had been warned that their prices were quite high and we would be better off buying online, but skip only needed a few bits and pieces in the bolts and screws department and for these their prices were pretty competitive.

Skip happily wandered around for an hour

...while I browsed the maps.

We also bought a boarding ladder to hang over the side as I battled in some of the low places we moored last summer. Dekker´s basin is really very small with only a 4-boat dock out front. The wind was now gusting up around 30 - 40 knots from the side, but skip masterly got us out of there with minimum fuss and no dings. Unfortunately the weather was so awful, no one was outside to admire his skill !!

The shipping got bigger. We stayed well clear.

How´s that for a close shave?

From Dekker to Haarlem is only 16 km but it has taken an age as some of the bridges shut from 16.00 - 18.00 (rush hour) so we are still sitting waiting as I write this. We are hoping to get moored and go ashore for dinner later. I think I´ll take something out the freezer just in case.