Nieuwe Meer to Haarlem
15th June
Not surprisingly, we both slept well but woke early and slipped our lines around 7.30 am as we thought the first opening of the Schiphol bridges was at 8 am. As we left Nieuwe Meer we were joined by a few other boats with the same idea and, yes, we made the first opening ok. We then motored back along the route we had come yesterday until we reached Wetering and then we turned up heading for Haarlem via Lisse. We had a worrying couple of minutes near Huigsloot, when the engine and propellor started to vibrate and lose propulsion. Chris quickly put the engine into neutral, we checked depth – which was fine – put the engine into reverse, then forward and luckily everything went back to normal. We can only guess that some weed or rubbish had got caught briefly round the propeller.
We had almost a two hour wait at the Verkeersbrug / Spoorbrug, Sassenheim, but the time wasn’t wasted as Chris had a good read through the charts and Staande Mastroute book to find out more about Haarlem and Amsterdam and Carole cleaned ALL the windows inside and out. It’s amazing how dirty boat windows get, but they’re clean now.
We proceeded towards Haarlem, now part of a small convoy of yachts, mainly Dutch but one other British, called Mad Duck, an interesting couple around our age from Sunderland, who we eventually moored up next to in Haarlem. In total, we passed through at least a dozen bridges, large and small, before we tied up right next to the Harbour Master’s office in Haarlem. We had been trying to find a space right in the centre of Haarlem, but there had been nothing. However, this spot was still good and only a 15 minute walk from the town centre.
After tying up, we had to sort out our “dues” to be paid, which proved to be difficult, as the Harbour Master’s office was now closed and the automatic machine only took Maestro cards which we do not have (and has been a problem at some other marinas and supermarkets). The other British boat, Mad Duck, was also having the same problem, so Lynn called Haarlem Harbour services and was told that it was no problem, we should stay and visit the Harbour Master’s office in the morning, or before we departed, and we could pay in cash. We then walked our boats along the quayside to make room for other boats if they came and we attempted to connect up to the free electricity. Between the four of us we couldn’t work it out, so Lynn again called harbour services and got some advice how to do it. Eventually it was Chris who worked out that it was a rubber ring on Mad Duck’s connector that was the problem and after that we were all sorted.
Tummies were now rumbling, so we both had a quick shower and headed off to find somewhere to eat. We were lucky that the first restaurant we came to was just what we wanted and we enjoyed a lovely meal and a glass of wine – our best of the trip. Chris also found the Wifi password for the restaurant, and was able to pick up Emails etc. for the next few days. After a good night’s sleep we awoke quite early to the sounds of traffic as we were right next to the road. We washed and dressed and had breakfast and headed into the town to have a look around and do some food shopping. There didn’t seem to be any of the usual chain stores we are used to at home, so it was interesting to window shop, but prices seemed high compared to home, probably why many people come to London on big shopping trips.
We loved the look of the windmill next to the restaurant we had eaten at, so we returned there late afternoon and joined the last guided tour of the day, which we found fascinating. We returned to the boat for supper, a game of cards and an early night as tomorrow we would be heading into Amsterdam.