We have done it before, in 2011. The crew were still green, the weather was lousy, but we still had fun with the novelty of having a long vacation on a tiny sailboat.
This time I am doing it solo.
Monday 14th of July: Middelharnis to Schiedam (25 NM)
A bright and windy morning. Perfect to hang-out all the wet gear from the weekend, while I was busy replacing Yoyo-Ma with the dirty, but powerful, smooth and (relatively) silent Suzy Q.
I cast off at 1030, still wondering if the motor is going to pack-up before the end of the harbour canal. It didn't, but I found the lock closed. I thought it was always open! This gave the opportunity for my first drills at manoeuvring with Suzy Q. I won't go into details, but we are still getting to know each other and we did not do any serious damage. Another good thing was there were no witnesses, unless the harbourmaster, who arrived to open the lock saw our struggle to come alongside a pontoon with wind from the back.
Outside, the West wind had kicked-up a fuss on the Haringvliet and the motoring across was a wild ride. But Suzy Q started to show her trumps. I was too busy holding-on for dear life and navigating to check the speed, but once we turned into the Beningen I could see 5 to 6 knots on the GPS. Ok, that was with the wind and about 1.5 kn of tide, but still good.
Once on the Spui I could sail under jib only. It was mostly quiet and relaxing, except crossing a cargo ship and several motoryachts, all at the same time. The crossing of the ferry didn't cause any trouble, even if I had to jibe right in front of it.
Approaching the end of the Spui it was time to roll the jib and start motoring and face the Oude Maas with its busy shipping traffic. I stopped at De Rhoonse Grienden yacht club for a break and tactical deliberations. Next I would have to pass two bridges, of which the second was just about too low for Mekicevica's mast. According to the almanac, that bridge would not open again until 6pm. What to do? Stay in this harbour overnight? In a moment of bravado, I decided to "go and see". The rest of the ride up the Oude Maas was a choppy affair, with wind blowing against the stream, but as I approached the bridge I found a yacht going in circles, obviously waiting for the opening of the bridge. In a few minutes we were through and continuing towards the Nieuwe Maas. Boy, is it busy! Cargo ships, container ships, ice-breakers, ferries, everything. But Suzy Q did a good job of taking us to the Schiedam Yacht Club, where we were welcome by a very, very friendly harbourmaster. Not the kind that gets really chummy, but the kind that really treats you like an old friend. He even drove me to the petrol station to fill Suzy Q's tank!
Tuesday 15th of July: Schiedam to Gouda (20 NM)
The timing of the start on Tuesday was a compromise between the ideal from a tide point of view (4am) and what I could get myself to do. It ended up as 7am, still with 3 h of favourable tide to go.
The crossing of Rotterdam was memorable. The shipping was not so intense, since we had left the big ports behind, but instead there were the fast water buses and taxis. As a treat, I could see the landmarks of this city from the water: the old dockyard buildings (the few that survived the WW II bombing) and the Erasmus bridge. At a point I thought I was having olfactory hallucinations, because I could smell roasted cumin, but then I noticed I was passing a ready meals factory.
Soon I was at the mouth of the Ijssel, sticking a finger at the Ijsselmonde yacht club (see previous adventure).
The height scale of the Algera bridge showed that we could just about pass, but to be honest we (Mekicevica, Suzy Q, and I) needed a break. It had started to drizzle and I was feeling cold. So we stopped at the waiting pontoon. An old man who lives just in front of it spotted Mekicevica's Portuguese flag and came out of the house to talk to me, who he imagined a solo adventurer sailing the world in a small boat. I was tempted to play along with it but I am a lousy liar, so I admitted that the big journey started only in Zeeland.
The negative side of the wait was Mekicevica slammed hard against the pontoon by the wake of a small mobo driven by a moron.
Up the Ijssel I got a bit bored with motoring, so tried to sail. Headsail only was a bit too slow, so I tried with mainsail as well. This allowed me to find-out that sailing up a busy, winding river, with variable winds and both sails up is a bit too much So I reverted to jib only and after a while Suzy Q came back on. A bit reluctantly, as a punishment for having forgotten to close the air vent causing the carb to flood with fuel.
We arrived to the lock in Gouda with still a lot of time to spare but decided that was enough for the day.
During the night I was attacked by a whole squadron of mosquitoes. Even after closing the companionway, they just kept coming in through the vent on the washboards. They were ferocious and organised: one would go bzzzz around my ear as a diversion while other munched me all over.
Wednesday 16th of July: Gouda to Westeindeplassen (21 NM)
After a walk to town to buy some deet, I left Gouda harbour in time to catch the opening of the railway bridge. It opens at 1027 sharp and stays open for exactly three minutes.
So far I had encountered few sailing yachts, but here waiting for the bridge the convoy started to assemble. To my surprise, Suzy Q kept us with the convoy all the way to Alphen an den Rijn, and beyond to the Brassemmeer. After the last bridge I eased the throttle, and looked for a place to rest. Briefly considered one of the many marinas but finally opted to drop anchor in a quiet bit of the lake.
I could easily have made it to Schiphol in time for the night-crossing of Amsterdam, but after the mosquito-night I did not feel in shape for it, so I picked a small marina to spend the night. More or less randomly I ended up at the Residence, situated on a small island on the lake. The very friendly club members made me feel welcome and allowed me to stay until late next afternoon without extra charge. They even allowed me free use of their rowing boats to go ashore to do the shopping.
Well impregnated in deet, I had a good night sleep.
Thursday 17th of July: Westeindeplassen to Nieuwe Meer (8 NM)
Thursday was hot, sunny and windless. I spent the whole day doing nothing much. At the end of the afternoon quietly left the pontoon under sail and sailed to a corner of the lake where there was a petrol station not very far away. Well, half a mile each way in the hot sun carrying Suzy Q's 12-liter tank.
After that it was time to give gas towards Schiphol, past the Aalmeerderbrug (being shouted at by the operator because I passed before the green light). Here I was right at the end of the Schiphol runway and airplanes were passing so low their wind gusts made Mekicevica heel, even with no sail up.
The Bosrand bridge opened as I approached and I settled to wait at Schiphol for the opening of the bridge. For this, traffic on a 2x6 lane motorway leading to Amsterdam needs to be stopped, so it does not open very frequently. I was waiting for the single opening of the evening, anytime between 8 and 9 pm.
Unlike the previous time here, I did not have to wait long and soon I was crossing the Nieuwemeer, which was incredibly busy in this warm summer evening. Motorboats, sailboats, jet skis and a flotilla of beautifully kept Vrijheids were crisscrossing the convoy of yachts heading for Amsterdam.
During the wait, I had a coffee and a sandwich and tried to rest a bit, while my neighbours were making a grill and drinking wine.
Friday 18th of July: Nieuwe Meer to Durgerdam (11 NM)
As normal, the convoy started moving around 1am, and then for over two hours it was bridge, after bridge trough the centre of Amsterdam. In the previous passage, with a little experienced skipper and reverse gear-less Yoyo Ma as propulsion, Mekicevica was hesitantly staying at the back of the convoy. This time with Suzy Q we were confidently in the middle.
After the railway bridge, most yachts carried on, while Mekicevica and other three tied-up for the night.
After a short night, I hung around a bit, as the last bridge does not open until 9am, and soon after followed a yacht past the bridge and into the Ij. The sun was shinning and the traffic was not more intense than on the Maas.
In the Oranjesluis I had to lose my zen and shout at an idiot on a motor sloop, who came from behind and jumped the queue in, than on at he exit found it cool to let go of the lines too early and of course found himself unable to control the boat. That would have been his problem if he didn't come against Mekicevica pushing her against the sides. Idiot!
The rest of the day was spent at Durgerdam, tidying-up the boat, washing clothes and more importantly waking-up Yoyo-Ma from his sleep to take over from Suzy Q. I got attached to that engine. We'll be working together again in two weeks, on the return to Zeeland.
