Where to go in Holland?

Santana379

Santana379

Well-Known Member
Joined
25 Nov 2004
Messages
603
Location
Wortham, Suffolk, UK
Visit site
We’re off to Holland for a couple of weeks shortly, and would welcome recommendations of good places to visit in the south. We need to get to Schiphol Airport by public transport in the middle, which we thought would be best done from Dordrecht. We’re crossing to the Roompotsluis, and coming back via Ostende.

Places we already know are Vlissingen, Middelburg, Veere, Zierikzee, Colijnsplaat, Goes, Steenbergen, Willemstad, Numansdorp, Heelevoetsluis, and Dordrecht.

We have thought about going to the Grevelingenmeer and in particular Brouwershaven.

Any thoughts gratefully received.

Francis Fletcher
 
On the Grevelingenmeer, Herkingen is worth a visit, nice club and excellent chandlery! Brouwershaven is delightful, make sure you go past the marina and on to the town quay (you might have to reverse down that bit which makes it interesting!). Scharendijke is nothing special. The islands can be fun. Mosselbank (between Bruinisse and Herkingen) gets busy - try Ossehoek, NW of Brouwershaven.
Have you been to the 'Delta Project Museum' - it's on the dam about 2 miles N of the Roompotsluis. We went by bus from Zierikzee. Really interesting visit - basically a visitor centre all about how the cunning Nederlanders control the delta.
 
Thanks Cantata, some good tips there. We have "done" the Delta exhibition - we moored on the jetty there for a half day. We thought the exhibition was great, but the dolphins outside were a bit sad and very restricted. As you say the Dutch are very cunning, but even after watching the clever model with the locks opeing and closing, the water going up and down, and the red lights going on and off, I'm damned if I can understand exactly what its all about and why it all works.

Francis Fletcher
 
Hi AliM

Would love to go to the North of Holland for the first time, but were put off this (and last) year by the distance. It's a long passage to Den Helder from the Deben (probably 36hrs in a Golden Hind). There will only be my wife, my daughter and myself going over, and to be honest I would not be particularly happy going completely off watch without a stronger crew in the North Sea. I find I can stay up all night while the others alternate for the crossing to the South, which is circa 22 hours.

From what I have read, our boat, with shallow (3'8") long keel and bilge plates is ideally suited to the Waddensee.

One day.

Francis Fletcher
 
We are going that way, again, in a few weeks time. We are inviting a friend or two for each of the crossings, because we aren't confident enough to do it with just two of us. I'll report back on the Waddensee - we are anticipating spending a few tides aground when we don't judge it too well! We were fascinated by the Fresian islands last year, when we sailed past them on the way to the Kiel canal.

Enjoy your holiday.

Ali
 
Thanks for that - I look forward to your report, and hope you have a good cruise.

Sounds very wise beefing up the crew for the passage.

There was an enjoyable and nicely written article in July's Yachting World (p84) entitled "Sleuthing the Sands" which covered the Dutch Friesans, and on to the German Friesans. The author sails the Contessa Wild Call. He also wrote a lovely article a year or two back on visiting Secret Water with his young family.

Francis Fletcher
 
Middelharnis (opposite Hellevoetsluis- nearly). Similar layout and atmosphere to Browershaven.

Brielle (turn left out of Hellevoetsluis, left into the Spui river heading NE, left at the end into the Maas, after lifting railway bridge immediately left into Briellsemeer lock. About a day's run) Big town, similar Middelburg, but without the modern bits. Lots of history, so worth the effort.
 
Cruising the Ij?

Your mention of Schipol airport reminds me of the abominable motorway bridge and the Amsterdam Night Run from the Sixhaven to it.

It seems from your list of places that perhaps you have not "done" Amsterdam, etc., yet.

My suggestion would be Deben/Ijmuiden/Amsterdam/Ijsselmeer for certainly the first half of your cruise. You could then either do the Night Convoy (unlike us, you have a big enough engine not to be a complete laughing stock for the German contingent!) down to the South and return via Dordrecht/Vlissingen or return via Den Helder or Ijmuiden again after another visit to the Ijsselmeer.
 
Re: Cruising the Ij?

Thanks for that Mirelle – however the family vote is for the southern crossing, with the 22 hour outward overnighter, and the 16 hour crossing back from Ostende. Given the need to get out of the Deben at the beginning and end, SWMBO's mundane need to go shopping and get the washing done before returning to work, and the need for some margin (24hrs?) at the end to allow for a bad weather delay, then getting to Amsterdam / the Ijsselmeer is a tad ambitious for us in a fortnight.

Plan A was Deben / Den Helder / Friesians for a couple of days / Ijsselmeer / Amsterdam / Ijmuiden / Deben. Concerns about being undercrewed (and frankly too knackered) for the long crossing made us shift plans back to the south.

The draft for Plan B went along the lines of Deben / Roompotsluis / Zierikzee / 2 or 3 days in the Grevlingenmeer / Steenbergen (before the new bridge closes it off later this year) / Numansdorp / Dordrecht / Willemstad / Goes / Veersemeer (1 night) / Middelburg, Vlissingen or maybe Breskens (early start required for to catch the strong ebbtide) / Ostende / Orwell / Deben.

Then I thought, why not ask the clever and well travelled people on the forum, as we keep going back to the same places to avoid disappointment elsewhere.

Responses so far have confirmed that we should go to Browershaven, though I'm confused by the idea of reversing. FF has an accelerator and a brake, which rotates the propellor in the opposite direction. It is very effective at slowing the boat down, and like the brakes of a rear wheel drive car, helps get some oversteer when cornering. Going backwards is not something we do unless a) already pointing in exactly the right direction, achieved initially by going forwards, and b) there is no wind to blow the bows off. This is the product of a very full length keel plus the bilge keels. In reverse I can waggle the tiller from side to side with no discernable change in direction - it's hard enough to change direction going forwards! By and large we avoid marinas here, so locks/berthing in Holland can be quite stressful! In comparison I find the Nancy Blackett a doddle to manoeuvre in tight situations.

The suggestion of Middelharnis is also appealing, and means we can, with the prevailing SW winds, ghost along the Spui to Dordrecht. Last year we motored all day in the reverse direction (Dordrect/Hellevoetsluis) into an SW6 - I was very glad of the Oakley Motocross/Enduro goggles I'd purchased on eBay to keep the driving rain out of my eyes - otherwise my only exposed area with five layers of clothing on in August!

Brielle sounds good, and may be a viable alternative to get public transport to Schiphol. Quite cool having crew fly in from Geneva, but she’s a friend of my teenaged daughter. My daughter visited her last year, and the pair of them hired an Yngling and set off on Lake Geneva – fortunately it wasn’t blowing hard as they were only fifteen!

Far too much irrelevant information from me, so thanks for the suggestions so far - more welcome!

Francis Fletcher
 
I forgot to mention the guide to cruising in the Netherlands book by Brian Navin. I haven't actually used that one, but the Germany and Denmark one was excellent. A Rough Guide is useful too, for the less boaty bits.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I forgot to mention the guide to cruising in the Netherlands book by Brian Navin. I haven't actually used that one, but the Germany and Denmark one was excellent. A Rough Guide is useful too, for the less boaty bits.

[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks for that - we already had Brian Navin's "Cruising Guide to the Netherlands", and I have taken your advice and just received "The Rough Guide to the Netherlands" from Amazon today. We also have the Cruising Association's "Infopak for teh Netherlands" which is useful.

Francis Fletcher
 
Sounds like most of the East Coast is heading East. We are planning to go that way in a couple of weeks. W/E of the 20th. probly make for ether the Roompot or Breskins as we also are short handed.Must book 3 weeks hol next year, may get to the north then.
 
You've probably got a quorum already.

I am sure we all agree that running down towards a flat, featureless, gradually shoaling, dead lee shore, in a gale, is the ideal way to start a summer holiday...

... we must do - we've all done it!
 
We went to Vlissingen - to Amsterdam via the mast up route (ie via Schipol) this year with 3 young kids, then onto markermeer and into the Ijslemeer and back Via Ijmuden to Harwich within 2 weeks earlier this year Vlissingen to Amsterdam 3 days
 
Should mention that the Bridge times seem to be different from those mentioned in Brian Navins book, it would seem that they have changed this year according to some Dutch people we talked to (waited at Gouda for the 0600 opening only to find it opening at 1015, we expected it to open at 1300) etc
 
Hi David , thanks for the info, very interesting. So, just so that i under stand this.it took 3 days from Vlissingen to Amsterdam.How long did it take you to get from Ijmuden to Harwich? I am planing to head from the Crouch across to the Roompot which i estimate will take about 22 Hours and stay in the south for the next 10 days but if i do have time i would like to explore the north.
I will have to buy charts for further north , would i make for Rotterdam first?
Thanks
Squidge
 
Many thanks for the recommendations.

The new places we visited this year were Brouwershaven, Middelharnis, and Breskens. We disliked the latter and only went there to catch an early tide to Ostende, though the yacht club certainly has a good atmosphere.

Brouwershaven was wonderful, though I’m glad there was no room in the town centre so we had to raft on a marina hammerhead. The only way we could have manoeuvred would have been to pull ourselves along the other boats backwards – we simply don’t have the necessary control in reverse. We had a good Indo-chinese meal, and a great walk around the beautiful town – one of the least spoilt/developed we have visited. The downside was the ridiculous queue for the lock to get back out of the Grevelingenmeer. We witnessed some lock rage at a number of locks – at this one a 25m(?) mobo that had apparently waited five hours simply cast off a raft of four boats outside it to drift, and used its thrusters to get off the waiting pontoon.

We had such a nice time in Steenbergen we went there twice.

I don’t think we saw Middelharnis at its best – the town was noisy and there was a large Mobo rally clogging the harbour.

We struck the jackpot in Dordecht – there was an excellent Blues Festival on numerous outdoor stages in the town, organised by Arrow Rock (675 on the MW – plays wall to wall classic rock music, and can be picked up in East Anglia). One stage was close to the boat! Whilst the family/crew were off at Schiphol I also attended a free concert in the church (soprano and organ).

A NW gale last Saturday morning meant that we had to leave the boat in Ostende, so I’m back there this weekend. The only other disaster was losing the Oakleys when I tried to step aboard the Avon we were towing at 5kts in the Veerse Meer – I got a tad damp when it flipped over, but the kids and SWMBO enjoyed the spectacle (pun intended).

Francis Fletcher
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top