Wednesday 27 July 2016 I failed to record yesterday as it was so abysmal as to be worthless, a mere 18nm in 8 hours of endless frustration with three sluices which were beyond slow, they were awful. The waits were in excess of two hours at each with the last one having a "problem". Evidently the Government economies mean the waterways cannot afford maintenance any more and so they fix problems that arise. The problem is the guys that fix the problems don't k...

Friday 22 July - Monday 25 July 2016 We left J&J after a couple of very sociable days in Muiden and made our way across the lower Markemeer to the Orangesluis which allowed us into the North Sea Canal and enabled us to transit Amsterdam. After endless canal side industries we turned off into the rural canal which would take us southwards to Haarlem, where we spent the night close to but not exactly on the edge - it was just too shallow for us and the next ...

Tuesday 19 July 2016 Once again a leisurely departure from Enkhuizen and almost immediately into an open lock for the small rise into the Markemeer. Once out it was fairly shallow outside the buoyed channel so we sailed slowly for a while in a light breeze of no more than 7kn from the east. Gradually this faded and backed so on went the engine to make our passage. The approach to Muiden took us off to the east and then across some deep water into the pretty r...

17 July 2016 Casting off just before coffee time we almost immediately moored again outside the large sluis for the Ijsselmere and having waited only a few minutes the lights went green and we were allowed in. Having risen a couple of feet the gates opened and we popped out into very welcome open water and there followed a glorious sail across some 15nm of shallowish water, between 4m and 6m deep, in warm sunshine and steady force four. We arrived in Enkhuiz...

Saturday 16 July 2016 We cast off from the grassy bank and slithered out of the mud to rejoin the main canal. Our planned route took a deep water canal to join the Princess Margaret canal but a signpost suggested the Standing Mast Route, which we were using, went another way at a junction. That had 1.95m of water and we need 2.0m so I took the deep water canal. We joined the big PM canal and then approached the first bridge…no sign of life. We could not rais...