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| Mooring at Nederhorst |
Sunny all day with a light
breeze. Set off at 8 am heading down the last of the river Vecht, through
Weesp. A large house right on the edge of the river bank looked like it ought
to be afloat. Past the two windmills and under the bascule liftbridge, (with
the Ensign off and the Snail followed with canopy still up), by the large boat
club where quite a few hireboats were moored, Locaboats and Le Boats. There was
a boat going through the Smal Weesp (that connects to the Amsterdam-Rijn
Kanaal) and the liftbridge was up.
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| A house, not a house boat! |
A sign said it was 3€. A Le Boat overtook us
just after the railway liftbridge and then a five-woman rowing skiff. We had a
short wait behind the hire boat while the swingbridge over the tail end of the
Zeesluis at Muiden swung open for boat traffic. We followed the hireboat into
the left hand chamber. Two cruisers had also caught up and they went into the
right hand chamber. The lock keeper operates both locks from a control panel
between the two chambers and he filled both at once. (Amazed, no money was
demanded! Nor any for today’s liftbridges!)
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| Railway liftbridges at Weesp |
The level lifted a matter of a few
centimetres and we were off on the last bit of the Vecht between masses of moored
boats (including the King’s boat, a green tjalk) and many big powerful
speedboats, then a line of moored masted Dutch barges. Soon we were on the
channel leading into the Ijmeer. The two cruisers veered off to the right
behind the islands heading for the Gooimeer and the start of the Randmeeren, a
chain of lakes around the South East of Flevoland that used to be the Zuiderzee
coast.
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| Moored boats at Muiden |
The weather was good, the breeze light and so we carried on across the
Ijmeer past Pampus island to run along the North West edge
of Flevoland. We crossed the shipping channel that leads to Gooimeer just
before commercials went past in both directions. A suction dredger moved off as
we were heading towards the end wall of the Pampushaven, he turned to our left
so we went straight across to follow the dijk leaving a good margin for the
fishing nets along the edge. The wash from passing commercial traffic was
making more waves than the wind, which was now directly behind us. An empty 50m
commercial came out of the harbour as we were within ten minutes of arriving
there, then a yacht came out – we could see his mast above the harbour wall. We
turned right together with the Snail and went into the harbour, past the
pumping station and then turned left into the Zuidersluis lock approach as a
cruiser called “Quality Time” was just leaving the chamber.
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| Muiderslot |
The lock lights
were on double red, lunchtime. We tied to the waiting area timber baulks and
had some lunch. Just had time to eat it before the lock reopened at 1 pm.
Followed the Snail into the chamber, surprised there were no floaters – the
Snails threaded fore and aft lines around vertical ropes hanging from bollards,
we put our centre line around the ladder until the lock started emptying and
exposed some recessed bollards in the lock wall and we moved forward on to one
of those. The lock emptied gently and we were soon 5m lower than sea level on
the Hoge Vaart – the High Canal – and set off on the deep, wide tree lined
canal into Almere.
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| Zuidersluis. Flevoland |
The housing in Almere had now spread beyond the canal to the
left hand side where there had been fields when we were there last. We passed a
loading gantry but there was no sign of a silo – or any boats to be loaded. A
small cruiser went past, then we passed a layby filled with houseboats moored
bows to the banks. There were a few moored cruisers at the end of the canal
leading to the lock at Almere Haven and the Gooimeer.
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| Gooier Hard. Mooring on Flevoland |
We continued to the
mooring at KP9 (now named Gooier Hard, as it had been a navigation marker used
by fishermen in the old Zuiderzee) by the golf club and moored at ninety
degrees in the corner after Mike had evicted the floating islands of weeds that
the wind had blown there. It was 2.45 pm. A comfy mooring and they’d even cut
the herbage down.
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