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| Below Ketelsluis |
Sunny with white clouds, but
breezy. The weather forecast for today said winds of 3 to 6 on the Beaufort
scale. A gaggle of cruisers went up the lock around 9.40 am. The lock emptied
and we went up around ten am. Wrapped fore and aft ropes around vertical ropes
from bollards on the lock wall and rose 5m very gently. The keeper, walking
with a stick, came down from his cabin to give us Navigation newspapers and a
map.
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| Rams Diep litbridge open for two sailing boats. |
He told us he was born near Zwartsluis lock 68 years ago and had been a
marinier; his last boat had been a 67m that had gone to the ship breakers when
he stopped working. We could have stayed chatting longer, but there was a boat
below the lock hooting so we had to go. Out on the Ketelmeer the wind was
picking up. The first bit of navigation was complicated by the fact that they’d
built a big island, plus there were shallow bits with cardinal markers around
them. We headed off towards the Ramsgeul, passing between the shore of the new
island and the West cardinal bouy.
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| Demolishing the old road bridge |
As we aproached the entrance to Ramsgeul we
saw “No entry” signs so we had to turn back to the East to the entrance into
the Ramsdiep (a “sheltered” channel along the Northern edge of the Ketelmeer) -
we’d never been along there before as it is used by commercial craft and boats
that were higher than 2.6m (the maximum to pass under the Ramspolbrug).
Cruisers and sailboats were going in and out of the Schokkerhaven at the start
of the Rams Diep, which curved round to the right. Still no shelter from the
cold North-west wind.
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| Bridge keepers cabin Rams Diep |
Lots of boat traffic went past us and overtook us,
including an empty péniche called La Vie. There was a flow in the channel of
about 0.75 kph and we were going against it. A large cruiser from Zwartsluis
full of large blokes overtook us. The liftbridge on the N50 opened, creating
queues of traffic to let a single masted yacht through. Several sailing boats
caused the bridge to be opened again before we reached it. We sailed under its
13m high fixed spans with no problem as did a small fishing boat heading out to
sea. From the noise we deduced the old bridge was being demolished and that was
the cause for the diversion. A little further on notices confirmed this and
said the interruption would continue until the end of 2013. Traffic with masts
up to 13m would then be able to use both the Ramsgeul and the Ramsdiep.
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| Wind trying to rip our flags off the mast |
As we
left the Ramsdiep and the navigation opened out into the Zwarte Meer a cruiser
from Sneek cut across our bows as it was racing to overtake an empty 80m
commercial. Among the cruisers following it we spotted Austrian and German
flags. The wind was blowing ever harder from our left as we
went along the
Northern edge of the lake.
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| Heading for Arembergersluis |
To the South was a nature reserve where boats were forbidden
to navigate. Several hundred swans (we’d never seen so many in one group
before) were feeding in what must be a shallow section. We kept within the red
and green markers, heaving hard on the tiller and crabbing sideways. The
landmark big light on a tall post by Vogeleiland had gone, not needed now with
modern navigational instruments. We turned right along the Zwolse Diep and into
the narrower channel of the Zwarte Water. The wind didn’t drop and was still
blowing from our left. The cable ferry from Genemuiden went across several
times before we reached it.
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| Thatched barn for storing reed thatching |
Mike took our mast down to get under the bridge at
Arembergersluis, we had a green light to go under the road bridge and into the
haven, then the lock lights changed to green as the gates opened, we sailed in
side by side, the two boats practically filled
the little lock. The lady keeper came out to speak to us and worked the lock
from controls in a small cabin. She gave us charts and an Overijssel flag to
fly. Sorry, no drinking water was available at the lock, nor the marina by the
bridge, maybe the next marina after that.
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| Moored on Arembergers Gracht |
We sailed on along the Aremberger
Gracht passing some very lovely houses with beautiful gardens where automatic
mowers were trimming perfect lawns and then past a barn loaded with dried reeds
for thatching before we were out into the countryside again of the De Weide
nature reserve. A small open motorboat, Cool Cab, came out from one of the side
channels between us and the Snail then overtook us and turned off into another
side channel. We moored just before the first bridge to wooden stumps along a
wooden edged grassy bank next to a small road. It was 3.45 pm. The wind was
still trying to rip the flags from our mast.
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