21 August We set out at about 9:30 on Tuesday morning for our trip to Het Bosch on the Niewe Meer in South Amsterdam. The Marina had been recommended to us by someone in the DBA who winters there and we had made a booking for 2 weeks. We turned into the Westerkanaal at about 10:30 and then had to go through 9 mobile bridges followed by a lock and then 4 high bridges very close together, before coming out in the Nieuwe Meer after a couple of hours. The opening bridges took their electricity poles etc with them. We had a photo of where we were to moor at Het Bosch, and a contact at the marina once we were there. Unfortunately the mooring was already occupied, and so we moored at a empty place and went to find the contact person. We had a closer look at the mooring we had been originally allocated. It was only 14m long and was in the entrance to the hire boat section, and looked pretty flimsy. We couldn't find our contact person and was told that he was not in that day. We were rather concerned that the mooring wouldn't be suitable for a boat of our size, especially as we would be away for part of that time. And there was no-one there that we could find to help us out. I have to admit I didn't fancy staying there for a few days on my own with no-one else around, other than in the restaurant. So we called the Jachthaven De Brasem to see if they could fit us in. They could, so we started on an extra 3 + hours of cruising to get to them. Of course we hadn't done any detailed planned for the course, so Howard checked out the bridges as we went along, and found that the three opening bridges that we had to go through were all closed between 4 and 6pm. Our PC Navigo was telling us that we would get to the last of these bridges at 15:58, so we knew that we would be close.
We just missed an opening of the first bridge and then had to wait about 20 minutes for it's next opening. This happened again at the next bridge, so we were not gaining on our expected arrival time at the third bridge. When we were about 1km away (8 minutes) I called up the third bridge - it was 3:52pm. He said he was opening the bridge in 4 minutes. We still didn't know if we would make it. As we came around the corner we saw that there was a cruiser waiting on our side of the bridge and 2 sailing yachts on the other side. The bridge keeper let the yachts through first and so we were able to go through with the cruiser. What a relief. It was exactly 4pm as we started to go through the bridge, and we hadn't slowed down at all. A very close call. So now we are securely moored at De Brasem. This is the marina that we bought the boat from in 2015 and they welcomed us as old friends. It is nice to be back here. The only thing about our last minute change of plan is that Howard had ordered some paint to be delivered to Het Bosch. But luckly I was able to hire a car for a day for only EUR20 from the local garage, and was able to drive to Het Bosch to pick it up.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWe are sharing stories about and travels on our barge Moondance. Archives
August 2023
|