Mekicevica Goes Back to the Volkerak. 2: The Two Sides of the Volkerak

It rained a bit during the night, but Saturday morning was sunny and could almost be described as warm. As forecast, there was a light SW wind. Perrrrfect!
After breakfast, we made our way to the Grevelingen lock, just around the corner from our harbour. Apparently, so did everybody else who has a boat around here. It was busy with boats of all sizes (Mekicevica being the smallest) and crews of all skill levels.
On the other side of the lock there is the usual confusion of boats turning right towards the Oosterschelde, boats turning left towards the Kramer, boats coming from the opposite directions and pushing to be first into the lock, and a background of large ships passing by.
We adopted our usual tactic of slowing down until everybody passes so we can have peace to enjoy the sailing.
It was not far to the Kramer lock and we could go straight in without waiting. Once on the other side the real sailing for the day started. At this end of the Volkerak, the South side is busy with shipping and the bank is a dike with farms behind it. The North side is a nature reserve, dense with vegetation and birds. In part, the busy side is kept out of sight and hearing by an island. A really quiet and pleasant place to sail.
The only occurrence disturbing the peace was even entertaining: a police boat giving chase to a motorboat that was illegally fishing in the area marked as nature reserve.

Police chase of the Volkerak.

During the day it got warmer and, for the first in 2012, at the late date of the 19th of May, I am sailing in short sleeves!

Sailing in short sleeves at last. (I had to put a fleece back on shortly after the picture was taken.)

Sailing NE along the Volkerak, the space between the N bank and the shipping lane gets narrower and narrower. In our previous visit (12 June 2011) it was quiet enough to allow us to sail along the port side of the shipping lane. This time, since our destination was on the S side anyway, we decided to cross to the other side of the shipping lane. Eyes well open and with motor ready to start, we cross from a red to a green marker.
So much more space to sail on the other side!