Saturday started with some showers but nothing like the rain of Friday night. We had a lay-in, as First-Mate joined really late last night. Today we are going out of the Grevelingen lock and into the tidal waters of the Krammer.
I am a bit nervous about the lock, the tidal waters, and the shipping traffic. In order to have one less worry, I planned the start for ca 1200 to sail the Krammer at slack water.
Passing the Grevelingen lock was almost too easy. It is just outside of the harbour of the Bruinisse Water Sports Club. A brief wait for the opening and we went through with a handful of other boats. All of them much larger, except for a beautiful Volkboot with German flag. We hoisted sails and up to the next lock: Krammersluis.
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| First close view of commercial shipping. We were to encounter much, much larger on the Hollands Diep. |
The Krammersluis separates the salty, tidal water of the Krammer from the fresh water of the Volkerak. It is a piece of clever engineering, as it manages to prevent any salt water from getting through. As we were going in, the heaviest shower of the day started coming down, with the usual wind. Moreover, the high walls of the lock seemed to funnel the wind blowing from behind us. This complicates things a bit as Yo-Yo Ma, our outboard motor, does not have reverse. To put it in reverse I need to turn it around and press down hard while it tries to jump out of the water and turn in all directions. At the same time, I need to steer with the tiller between my knees and try to look where we are going. We entered the lock in a sort of bumble-bee flight, with the motor running as hard as I could hold it and still going forward pretty fast. And guess what happened as we were passing the lock gates: the motor stalled. Now we were not going pretty fast, we were going VERY fast and uncontrolled into the lock! Luckily there were only two other boats in, both on the starboard side. I still don't know how I managed to do it, but I somehow I could steer parallel to the port side wall and lasso a cleat as we were ripping past. Saved!
Until the 1967, the Volkerak was salty, tidal water. In order to allow nature to recover from the ecological havoc created by the change to fresh water, most of the banks are nature reserves and completely out of bonds for any creatures on two feet except the birds. And birds of many varieties are aplenty here! Even flamingos are regular visitors. The channel leading up to Oude-Tonge is particularly interesting. We took advantage of the S wind to sail up this channel very slowly and quietly, with only a tiny bit of genoa out.
At the end of the channel is the small, lovely town of Oude-Tonge with the tiny harbour, right in the town-centre.
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| Entering the small harbour of Oude-Tonge |
