Thursday 30th May 2013 KP40 to Ketelhaven 22 kms 0 locks

Moored at KP40 Hoge Vaart

Grey skies most of the day, light but cold breeze, no rain. Set off at 10.15 a.m. We stopped at Biddinghuizen to get some water. As we tied up the commercial we’d seen the day before, called Norma, went past, now loaded, heading back towards Almere. Biddinghuizen had completely changed, with new houses and a new waterfront - no mooring was allowed in front of the new houses on the posh new paved quay 

Commercial called Norma passing at Biddinghuizen

but further along there was an extended wooden staging with posts to tie to and bins, chemical toilet disposal and a water tap. We all cried hooray, we can fill up. But too soon as we discovered a new type of tap that wouldn’t allow us to connect a hosepipe because of the pressure which just blew water back through the fitting. Mike and Oll tried all sorts of ideas but the only thing possible was to get water in containers and fill the tank with them. We were down to less than 100 litres so we had to do some topping up, the Snail’s tank was half full so they didn’t need to bother. 

Below the lock at Ketelhaven 

They set off again and we carried on filling 5 litre containers until we had 300 litres in the tank, which would see us through the next few days until we found another tap. Set off again at 12.25 p.m. Just after we set off we could see the amusement rides at Flevoland’s Walibi park off to the right across the field. We tied up at 2.45 pm in Ketelhaven on the long wooden staging behind the Snail. Anne and Olly had been out looking for the Ship Museum by the lock. Alas, it had been moved to Lelystadt.

Tuesday 28th May 2013 Almere KP9 to KP40 Hoge Vaart. 30.4 kms no locks.

The Hoge Vaart

Sunny with hazy cloud, cold blustery East wind in our faces. 

Knardik floodgates

Set off at 10.15 am with the pins in doing some washing. I made lunch, which we ate on the move. 

Egyptian geese

We passed two small boats going in the opposite direction, one had overtaken us just after we set off, then we saw nothing else moving. One small cruiser was moored on one of the wooden landing stages. We arrived at the staging at KP40 at 3.20 pm. 

Adding extra wildlife habitat

Two cruisers were already moored there, one in the middle and one moored ten feet from the far end. We tied up on the other end and Snail moored alongside

Monday 27th May 2013 Nederhorst den Berg to Almere Flevoland KP9. 37.4 kms 2 locks

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. 

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!) 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.