8th May 2016
Enkhuizen

Ok, so I´ve skipped a day. Mostly due to idleness on the part of your blogger.  The hot weather (25 yesterday and today) makes me lazy.  We managed to get away from Medemblik shortly after 9am.

When we left early for the couple of hours trip down to Enkhuizen from Medemblik, there was already a steady stream of boats leaving the harbour.

Sails everywhere.

It is a long weekend here and the hot weather has brought out every sailor in the land. We were concerned about finding a mooring in Enkhuizen and wanted to get here early hence the 9am start. The meer was full of sails, but still a dull trip, as all meer trips are. 

We´ve never seen so many yachts in one place as Enkhuizen. There are two huge marinas, with 700 berths apiece, as well as the 4 town havens which are also full of boats. Then there is the wharf for sailing barges, schooners and klippers. Very picturesque.  

The 16C dromedaris has been guarding the entrance to Enkhuizen for 550 years.

We were directed to a good spot in the Oosterhaven by the harbourmaster. "It´s quieter in there." he counselled, and he was right. It is very tranquil other than a couple of coots who demand treats all day.

Waiting for bridge keeper at the entrance to the Oosterhaven in Enkhuizen.
We had been there awhile when a friendly dog-walker advised us to call them on channel 12 for service.

Oosterhaven, Enkhuizen.

We cycled out to look at the traffic at the two big locks on the Markerwaardijk, the 30km dijk which splits the Ijsselmeer from the Markermeer. We´ll be passing through there in a day or two. Being a sunny Saturday afternoon there was a steady stream of mostly sail boats passing through the locks. The locks are big and are in fact what they call a "Naviduct" as they are built above the 6 lane highway in a kinda big trough. They were packing in about 15 yachts each pass. Lots of yelling and boat-bumping going on, always good entertainment for spectators :).

Watching the show at the locks. Most of the time we were there, there were 15-16 boats going through at a time.

The sailing barge fleet, Enkhuizen.

This is a charming town. It was one of the three East India Company towns and most of the houses and buildings that lean over the streets in the centre date from the 16th & 17th centuries. There is a happy holiday buzz in town and the street cafés are all full and there is a long line outside the ice cream shop. Naturally Skip had to join the queue.

Canal-side houses. The one on the left is for sale so, of course, I had to look it up on the Estate Agents website. It is huge, built in the 1600´s and for sale for 649 000,00. It is in need of some, ahem, TLC. Don´t know if I would be brave enough to take it on.

On Sunday, today, Heidi, Michael and Mila drove up from Amsterdam and joined us on the boat. We had a nice walk around town and then wandered back for a BBQ with them. It has been another gorgeous day and they just loved being on the boat in the sunshine.

Skip, Jaqui, Mila & Heidi. Michael took the pic.

RELAXED!

We are now just enjoying the aftdeck in the still evening air.