Strijensas to Nieuwe Meer (just south of Amsterdam)
13th June
Our alarm woke us at 6.30 am, as we wanted to make the most of the tidal push on our journey today. After a quick wash, dress and cuppa, we prepared the boat to go and slipped our lines from our box mooring. An almost perfect exit, except for one of Chris’s stern lines getting snagged around the dan buoy, which meant a quick change of direction to free the line, then we were away.
The sky was very grey and threatening to rain, but we headed off, following our chart and pilot books carefully. As usual, we were also having to keep a lookout for other boats (it was the big ones creeping up on us we were more concerned about) The AIS was a great help as we could see on our instruments where all the large vessels were and where they were heading. Also all the different signs and what they mean on the inland waterways. (we have a couple of books for this, too).
We arrived at our first bridge and on checking opening times, realised that we would have about 50 mins to wait for the next opening. We moored up nicely on a waiting pontoon and Chris radioed in to confirm we were here and would like to go through on the next opening. The bridge operator confirmed time which made us feel better.
There was another boat waiting, a Dutch one, who was sailing to Amsterdam today and returning on the midnight run. When the bridge was raised, we followed him through and he stayed with us until we sought a berth for the night on the Nieuwe Meer. Before that time, we had to negotiate many bridges and a few locks, with a fair amount of waiting time at most.
It began to rain in earnest and the wind picked up, so we donned our waterproof jackets and kept moving. We had originally planned to go as far as Alphen an den Rijn, but when we reached here, the wind was gusting into the 30’s, so we bottled getting moored up in a tight space and continued. Eventually, the wind had started to drop and we were starting to get tired and cold, so we tied our lines on to the fuel pontoon of a small yacht club and enquired if they had a berth for us for the night. Luckily the cafe and fuel shop were closing at 8 pm, so it was ok for us to stay there, so we bought some fuel and paid for a basic berth for the night. We hadn’t had a proper meal today but we were too tired to worry too much. We rustled up a quick cheese and tomato omelette to share, had a nice cuppa and a bar of chocolate and readied ourselves for an early night. By the time our heads touched the pillows we were gone. It had been a long day!