Deeper Into the Oosterschelde. 1. The Human Whale

The only caveat of our plan is that in order to start a couple of hour before low water, we will have to get up at 0700, earlier than we're used to on a weekend. The sunny weather helped us poke our noses out of the companionway on time and as planned we were on our way around 0800. As a reward for our effort the Grevelingen lock was blissfully quiet, opposed to the mayhem at our usual 1100.
On the other side, it was plain sailing down the Keteen, on a broad reach on a 2-3 Bf wind, enjoying the sunshine.
We did get to the red-green buoy that marks our turning point at about the turn of the tide. By then there were a few yachts around, but no big ships at all. They prefer to take the shorter route east of the big sandbank, the Galgeplaat. West of this sandbank we had enough space to reach the entrance to the canal leading to Goes in just four tacks, even if we had to put a few rolls in the genoa as the wind freshened-up a bit. The waters were a bit choppy, but Mekicevica has coped with much worse.
To reach the centre of Goes, we have to pass a lock and then motor a 2NM-long canal, the Goese Sas; along the way we have to negotiate three bridges.
In such a nice weather, the locals were using the grassy banks of the canal as a beach, and we had to look-out for people swimming in front of us.

Motoring along the Goese Sas, a nautical slalom between swimmers. The human whale is lurking around the corner.

Just after the first bridge, in Wilhelminadorp, a few lads were playing pranks: they were jumping from a quay making as much of a splash as possible to get us wet. The first few were a mere annoyance.Then we saw HIM flying towards us: the Human Whale. This guy was so big and fat than not only we were completely soaked, the tidal wave he created threatened to capsize Mekicevica. It was nearly as on  this photo.
Alive but shaken by the terrible experience we arrived to the last two bridges, which are operated by the harbour master. The opens the first at the hour, and if any boats really want to the to the old harbour in the town centre he jumps on his bike and goes and opens the other bridge. The latter is just an old-fashioned Dutch bridge, exactly like in the Van Gogh paintings.

The lovely Goes town-harbour.