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.
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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.
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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.
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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. |
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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.
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