Dutch Adventure

seasicksteve

seasicksteve

Member
Joined
29 Jul 2016
Messages
41
Location
Norfolk
millie.unilake.co.uk
Just back from our first cruise to Zeeland and it was a great experience. Everyone was very welcoming and helpful, no one wanted to see passports or have us fill in forms and certainly no one was interested in what colour our diesel was. Marinas and town quays were mostly quiet (might get busier as we get into school holidays) and harbour masters helpful, always finding space. No problems with locks, although our handling improved during the 2 weeks, and the only tip I'd give anyone is carry a couple of large ball fenders to put at the bow and stern, especially if you're short handed. Also make sure you know how high your mast is - at 17.5m ours was very close on a couple of bridges.

I'm not sure whether anyone's remotely interested but I've posted our track with a few photos at gpsies.com . We really enjoyed visiting the small ports including the one that turned out to be too shallow to moor despite the harbourmaster's assurance on the phone! It was all soft mud so no harm done. We had our ECF pennant flying throughout but didn't see many other British boats, apart from a group from Orford and our friends from Woodbridge on Jalibu.

Anyone nervous about the trip shouldn't be - it was all very easy. We crossed overnight direct to Vlissingen and got lucky - we went through the lock and as we arrived at the first bridge it opened and we went straight up to Middelburg. Return trip was by day, leaving Zierikzee at dawn and out through Roompot, arriving back in the Orwell at dusk.

Steve.
 
No Steenbergen was fine, loved going over the road. We went up the channel to Oostgensplat near the Klammersluis. Dragged through the mud at the entrance and thought we were OK. Attempted to get alongside the visitors berths, got a bow line on but couldn't get the stern in despite the help of someone on the pontoon. Gave up at that point and went across to Dinteloord.
 
Similar story for us as far as officialdom was concerned. We went from Fox's to Lowestoft, across to Amsterdam, down the canals in the daytime via Haarlem and Gouda and ending up in Hellevoetsluis from where we travelled straight back to Fox's. The newish Amstedam marima was far more roomy than Sixhaven. There was a free ferry ride to the Central Station a short walk away. Doing the canals in two days was ok but one place we would stop if going again was Haarlem. Hellevoetsluis was it's usual excellent self but the lock/bridge conplex at Stelkendam was the slowest we encountered. Not what you need at the start of an 18 hour trip.
 
Draught is 2m. Not really a problem anywhere except Oostgensplat as mentioned. We did also go aground in the Haringvliet just outside a red marker can in a charted depth of 3m when there was only 1.5m. Again soft mud but we were doing nearly 6kts under sail at the time so it took a bit of blue smoke to get off! So don't absolutely trust Navionics charted depths.

The bridges that caused concern were at the Klammersluis and Volkerak yacht locks and at the Roompot, all around 18m. With the first two you can go through the commercial lock if you're higher, but given the amount of commercial traffic at the Volkerak I really didn't fancy that. The first at that height was the biggest worry as I only had the manufacturer's spec to go on, not something I'd ever checked!
 
Our air draft is 20m so the Roompot is tide dependent. Also at the Volkerak, we have to use the commercial lock, which mean going in with barges that don't tie up but put their side thrusters on to hold them against the side... scary!
We also draw just over 2m and the whole of the inland route was good.
 
Joining the commercial shipping in the locks, because of air draft, can be fun if you hold your nerve. It was the first time I had motored inside a lock at 7knts.

IMG_0231.JPG
IMG_0236.JPG
 
PeterWright said:
I also think your route map is first class - must learn how to do that some time.
Click to expand...

It was quite easy. I kept tracking on for the whole trip on my Raymarine MFD and at the end saved the file to the SD card and copied it to my computer. It's in a fairly standard GPX format which I was able to upload directly to the gpsies.com site. I'd used the site before for logging walks, but not for sailing tracks. The photos were a bit harder, but if you take them with your phone or camera with geopositioning switched on, the gps position is automatically logged in the jpg file. When you upload it to the site it positions it correctly on the map.
 
wingdiver said:
Similar story for us as far as officialdom was concerned. We went from Fox's to Lowestoft, across to Amsterdam, down the canals in the daytime via Haarlem and Gouda and ending up in Hellevoetsluis from where we travelled straight back to Fox's. The newish Amstedam marima was far more roomy than Sixhaven. There was a free ferry ride to the Central Station a short walk away. Doing the canals in two days was ok but one place we would stop if going again was Haarlem. Hellevoetsluis was it's usual excellent self but the lock/bridge conplex at Stelkendam was the slowest we encountered. Not what you need at the start of an 18 hour trip.
Click to expand...
Definitly worth stopping in Haarlem. The atmosphere is great.
We visited some museums and art galleries this time.
You can just feel that culture doing you good?, and you feel like you've earned the beer afterwards.
 
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