19 – 21 July
Seaduction was not particularly comfortable in her over-sized box mooring (and neither were we, as it was quite bouncy being close to the entrance) so we decided to ask the Harbourmaster if he had a more suitable berth. By around 11 am, some visitors had departed and the younger Harbourmaster was able to allocate us another berth round the corner on C19 which, for a box mooring, we thought was perfect. Unfortunately, Carole’s strained muscles were giving her grief, most of all with walking, which made it difficult to go too far here. Rest and ibuprofen seemed to be the best answer for the next few days, which was a shame, but could be worse. We did manage a short walk round the harbour front and a visit to the Jumbo supermarket for fresh provisions. We cooked our meals on-board and kept ourselves entertained with cards, scrabble and BBC Radio 2.
Willemstad to Sint-Annaland
21 July
We decided it was time to make our way back home, so our next port of call was going to be Sint-Annaland in Tholen. As Willemstad had fuel we decided to fill up with diesel before we left, so we made our way out at 10:45 with almost a full tank. The wind was just 4 knots so no good for sailing at the moment. We approached the lock and our timing was very good as the lock was almost ready to open. The air draft for the bridge was displayed as 18.3 M so no problem getting through. Carole again got our spring on one of the wall bollards, holding perfectly. A Dutch motor boat was behind us with a lady holding their bow line. She caught my attention and pointed at the top of our mast and the bridge, trying to say it will not go under. I knew it would but even I was starting to doubt the clearance. When the lock gates opened to let us out everyone on the motor boat was watching us as we went under. No problem and they all gave the thumbs up. Phew!
The wind was still light but we managed to put the sails up and were making 3 knots, which was pleasant. We took the shallow route between the islands and could see the next lock. As we approached Chris started to go towards the very large commercial lock then realised it wasn’t ours and turned towards the smaller ones for leisure craft. We could see some movement near the lock and thought it was opening. It wasn’t – there was obviously a problem as everyone turned around coming towards us. One of the dutch boats very kindly told us that we needed to go round the corner to the commercial lock. We joined the mass of boats as they raced to the commercial lock. Soon the gates opened and three large commercial boats made their exit. We were then advised that another large commercial would enter the lock first and then everyone else could do so. Carole managed to secure her spring line fine, but it took Chris a bit longer to get a bow line on as, being the commercial lock, there were far fewer places to secure your lines. Chris managed it in the end, though, using his magic boat hook bought at one of the boat shows. Now and again it comes in handy and makes it worth its cost. Eventually we made it out of the lock and with the wind picking up nicely, we enjoyed a pleasant sail round to Sint-Annaland. We tied up on the visitors pontoon and phoned the harbourmaster for berthing details. Within a few minutes, we were tied up nicely on an ordinary pontoon, bow in for a change. Chris took a walk up to see the harbourmaster to pay our dues, etc and Carole made a nice cuppa for Chris’s return. A glance at the sea temperature confirmed that it would be rude not to have a swim here (although Chris still declined, but said he would come for a stroll and sit in the late afternoon sunshine). It was a bit of an effort for Carole to walk up to the beach, but once in she was rewarded with a temporary loss of aches and pains. The water here is beautiful, clean and clear. Quite a few people were also in, young and old, enjoying this little piece of paradise.
Carole didn’t want to overdo it, so walked up to join Chris on his bench to dry off in the sun. After a couple of minutes, we were joined by a couple of ladies, one of whom needed a seat, so we readily moved up to give her room. The second lady left her with us to join some others on the beach. She asked if we spoke French and Carole said “oui – un peu”. We then proceeded to have a lovely conversation in French, which brought back much of what had been learned at school, but also showed how much had been forgotten. A very polite, pretty young girl came up, probably to check her grandmother was ok and we learned that she could speak English, Flemish and Hungarian but not French. Carole introduced ourselves and continued to chat with the lovely lady called Mary, discovering that she was originally from Hungary but now, we think, lived in Antwerp, Belgium. Chris chatted with Mary’s granddaughter, showing her on his phone where in England we lived and also a picture of our boat, which she thought was lovely. We finally said our goodbyes to return to the boat for supper, thinking how special that short time had been. Chris had passed on one of our Yacht Seaduction cards, so if one of you should read our blog you will realise how nice it was to meet you, albeit briefly.
Carole popped into the shower room to rinse off, while Chris returned to the boat to prepare supper. Before long we were sitting in the cockpit sipping a glass of wine, eating our food and happily chatting about our day. Chris then chilled out in his cabin, resting his eyes, while Carole washed up and listened to the radio. We were both weary tonight and in our beds by 11 o’clock – which is early for us. No alarm for the morning as no early start required for our journey to Veere.