27-29 June On Wednesday, we decided to leave ‘s Hertogenbosch as planned. This meant going through the lock at 11am. Eliza’s flight was to arrive at 9:30am so we knew she couldn’t get to us before we left so we had two plans, Plan B – she would come to ‘s Hertogenbosch and then catch a bus to Heudsen, and Plan C – if she was able to get through Schipol quickly, was to meet us somewhere on the way to Heusden. In the morning before we left we were able to catch up with our friends on Ailsa and ‘t Majeur. Mike from Ailsa was going to take some shots of us going through the lock. The trip through the lock was fine with 3 boats sharing the lock with us. Then we had to go through the narrow canal through to the other side of town, and then we pulled over to let Eliza join us. Her plane had arrived early at Schipol and she had negotiated her way to ‘s Hertogenbosch by 11:22 so we were able to wait for her at a mooring only 15 mins walk from the station. We were really pleased as she would be able to join us for the cruise and she wouldn’t have to wait for an hour or more for us in Heusden. We had called ahead to Heusden and had a great mooring at the Marina. After lunch on board, we cycled into town and had a look around. One of the windmills was working and we were able to go in and have a look inside. After an ice cream, we returned to the boat and had a pleasant meal. On Thursday morning we watched a huge hotel boat enter the small Huesden harbour and then set off for the Biesbosch. The Biesbosch is one of the few fresh water tidal areas left in Europe, and is a popular place for boaters. Much of the biesbosch is very shallow and so we were careful to stay in the main channel. In our planning we had spotted a good mooring in the middle which we thought we could fit into, and when we got there, there was a spot big enough for us, except that there was a small day boat moored there. We sailed past and asked if they would mind moving as there was another spot that they would fit into. They were happy to do this, but a woman from another boat came down and convinced them not to move. We do not understand why she was so keen for us to not moor. It was very disappointing as there were not many places for us. And it left a bitter taste in our mouths. We continued on and were unable to find any suitable free moorings, and thought we would have to leave the Biesbosch and continue to Dordrecht, but the Marina just before the lock at the very end of the Biesbosch, had one place big enough for us and we were able to moor there for the night. It was actually a delightful spot and Eliza and I had a walk around the small settlement (too small to be called a town), and visited the lock. The next day after a short walk we went through the lock and took the short trip to Dordrecht. Dordrecht is built at the intersection of three large rivers. We had booked into the Nieuw Haven, which meant we had to go out onto the Large River near the intersection, cross to the other side, then go around the corner and pass the busy intersection with the Nieuw Maas and cross back to go into the harbour. This was particularly crazy as there were boats coming down all the rivers that we had to fit in with, as well as all the waterbuses nipping here and there amongst the traffic. With Howard and Eliza calling out where all the ships were we managed to negotiate it all OK. There was a lift bridge to get into the harbour, and we couldn’t call their VHF number as our VHF doesn’t have 74, so we had to moor on the steigers outside. At our first attempt, we were not very stable and our back came out into the middle of the canal, while the front was heading towards someone’s back door. So we had to move to get more overlap with the steigers. Howard had also seen that there was a button to press to let them know we were there, so he climbed out into the steiger to press that. Once we were stable another Dutch boat came alongside and they told us that the bridge would open in 1 hour, so we decided that we would have lunch while we waited. However, it was a translation problem and the bridge opened in 5 minutes at 1pm.
We were very happy with the mooring we were assigned which was relatively easy to get into and right neat the bridge, so should also be relatively easy to exit. As we came through the bridge we headed the call of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie”, to which, of course, Howard replied “Oi, Oi, Oi”. It was Austin. He and Susi were moored in the same harbour. Nice to know friends are around.
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AuthorWe are sharing stories about and travels on our barge Moondance. Archives
August 2023
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