19th July
It was another hot day but luckily there was a slight breeze. We decided to leave about midday and get some fuel before we headed off. We slipped our lines and made our way to the fuel pontoon. The cost of fuel here was high – Euro 1.54 , so we decided to put in about 60 litres, enough to keep us going until we could find it cheaper. Chris was filling at the stern and Carole was looking at the pump calling out how much fuel was being put in. Carole called out 60, then 61. Chris then went off to pay and they said 61? So Chris said yes, and paid. Back on the boat he started the engine and noted the fuel gauge was reading half full and thought that this was strange as he had calculated there should now be three-quarters in the tank. Off we went to the lock and on the way checked the payment slip. Carole had read the fuel cost and not the litres. Never mind, we still had plenty of fuel and we would have another opportunity to put fuel in at Willemstad.
Once at the lock, we had to wait 15 minutes for the gates to open, so we tied up with the other boats. By the time the lock was ready there were about 24 boats going in. We nudged in at about number 12 and Carole put our spring on the large wall cleat and held us perfectly, enabling us to secure the bow and stern lines as we knew we would be rafted on. We did not have to wait too long for a Dutch yacht to make use of us. The lock keeper was perfectly in control and directing everyone in. Soon we were out of this lock and on our way to the Krammer Sluis which was just 2 miles away. This Lock has a road bridge with a clearance of 18.4 M. Our mast stands at 17.5 M with a VHF aerial above, so we had just about half a metre clearance. Looking up, it appeared very close and we breathed a sigh of relief once we were out of the lock. We now had a fair breeze coming mostly from behind us, so we got the genoa out and turned the engine off and had an enjoyable sail in the Volkerak. Again, as we sailed along we passed lots of other watercraft. Dutch waterways are certainly well used. Carole took the helm for a time while Chris took some work calls and sorted out a few problems. Before we knew it, we were approaching the Volkerak locks.
There are two smaller locks for boats like ours and one larger one for bigger commercial boats. We tied up on one of the waiting pontoons with quite a few other boats, but didn’t have to wait too long for the gates to open and what seemed like a small armada of boats to spill out on their way. We joined the queue of sailing boats in the port hand lock with the bigger motor boats entering the starboard lock. We seemed to be in the lock a long time and noticed that the other lock had emptied and refilled before our gates opened. Oh well, at least there wasn’t a big jam outside when we left. The only things we had to keep a close eye out for were the really big commercial boats emerging from the commercial lock. We were now just around the corner from our destination, Willemstad. We followed the buoyage and then turned into Willemstad harbour and were greeted by a huge pleasure cruiser taking up half the entrance. With a strong breeze coming at us, Chris had to steer carefully in before approaching and tying up on the harbourmaster’s waiting pontoon. The harbourmaster greeted us and enquired of us our size, specifically our width. He then directed us to opposite his office and we were pleased that it was a very wide box mooring. However, it was big enough to accommodate up to about a 20 metre boat, so the younger harbour master in his rib very kindly gave us much needed assistance in getting our lines tied on which was no mean feat. Now our challenge was how to climb off the boat and we had a further problem in that Carole had strained some muscles in her right hip/buttock and was struggling to put one foot in front of another. Chris managed to rig up our set of plastic steps well enough to climb up and down, but it wasn’t easy. Although our trip today hadn’t been that long, it had been a long day being out in the heat especially with three sets of locks to negotiate.