29 - 30 Willemstad

It was not a bad day to push on to the North. Grey clouds rolling past and that dampness in the air which falsely gives the impression that you will not get too wet but with the light breeze it soaks everything very quickly. Gamma helped us slip the moorings and then out through the ornate white cast iron lifting bridge with a pleasant farewell from the Haven Master.

This was to be an interesting passage having previously come from the strongly tidal sea water Westerschelde we now entered the first of a series of locks controlling the complicated water systems of the Delta Project which have a major impact on the life, commerce and industry of not only The Netherlands but Belgium and Germany as well. Into the Veerse Meer, the most beautiful naturalistic pleasureground formed by a vast lake of sea water trapped by the lock and an impervious dam at the seaward end, its level carefully kept almost unchanged from season to season allowing bird life and nature to enrich the area.

The cold West wind followed us as we left the Veerse Meer and while we had been circling before the lock, cold and wet, a second British boat had almost convinced us to stop at Goes well before our intended destination but as the lock opened into the Oosterschelde the sky lightened around the edges and the rain stopped such that the journey became enjoyable again and we continued to Willemstad as planned under a full genoa speeding along. Here we again met large industrial barges again butting in both directions with huge power, their AIS targets showing up on the Chart Plotter like bees flying to and from a hive. We wove our way along the buoyed passages past fish traps standing starkly like black webs strung between ghostly sticks at the channel fringes. The Ossterschelde is sea water and partly tidal but less dramatic than its brother as it controlled by a seaward storm surge barrier built to prevent a recurrence of the colossal loss of life as in the 1953 storm when 2000 people drowned.

From here, the branch North East up the Zijper - I will leave the pronunciation to you - led to the Gravelingenmeer and the famous Krammer sluice ( lock ) which locks into the fresh water of the Volkerak. Here is the clever bit, where you enter the huge lock with sea water, the lock is closed, the water is fed with fresh water which floats being less dense and the sea water which sinks is pumped from the bottom until the lock is full of fresh water when it is allowed to open without contaminating the fresh water life on the other side of the lock. The reverse procedure occurs when travelling in the other direction.

Finally at the Volkerak Sluice we were the only boat in the lock, feeling rather like a marble in a chest of drawers, and so emerged the other side into the junction of the Hollands Diep and the Haringvliet which controls the non tidal water outflow of whole Lower Rhine basin, effectively a tideless lake where the level is maintained to within a few centimetres of normal at Amsterdam. Willemstad is immediately on the right, a seven pointed fortified citadel where the moated section now houses the marina zigzagging around the high red brick outer walls and on the highest point within the citadel stands a huge windmill still in working order which turned with astonishing speed and almost frightening force - I had no idea that mills could develop such power.

We met again our French friends Francois and Valerie from Cybele the OVNI and had drinks on their large yacht in which they plan to live the dream, starting with the Baltic and the far North afterwards. In the moat, midges began to gather with the evening and swallows swooped among them, cheeping as they flew. Tufted duck paraded in packs and Coots bustled in the rushes , encouraging their newly hatched young to leave the nest for the safety of the water, and across the Hollands Diep, racing yachts drifted under coloured spinnakers making their way back home in the dying wind and warm sun. A perfect evening.