I speed up some more and some water comes over. My brother, who came onboard with my mother a few days ago, is sitting in the front of our dinghy and starts complaining. His T-shirt is soaked. Anyway we nearly arrived at our destination: a small bay on the other side of the island. While he throws our small anchor overboard I jump into the blue water. I can see algae on the ground so of course I need to pick some up and because I’m such a good sister I help him going into the water by surprising him with some algae. He tries to hold his balance and takes some steps but it’s only getting worse. After just a few seconds water is splashing everywhere. Well at least he’s definitely wet now. Not thinking the same about that he throws the ball we brought at my head which still doesn’t stop me from laughing. It just looked so ridiculously funny seeing him stumbling through the dingy.
The next days we continue our journey enjoying the endlessly shining sun to the picturesque Zierikzee, further small islands and anchorages. In Ouddorp we meet Hans and Annette de Man from the C-Yacht 12.50 Janjorem, who spend the summer at home, although their boat is in Bonaire. They left The Netherlands about a year ago. We learn a lot from all their exciting experiences and enjoy a nice evening together. After a few days in Zeeland it is time to make our way homeward, so we sail to Willemstad, a medieval small village. We moor in front of a chandlery where we can buy some stuff to be able to hoist our dinghy on the headsailhalyard. Next we go up the big rivers to Dordrecht and Krimpen aan de Ijssel and arrive in Gouda after more than 7 hours of motoring.
Even though it’s after midnight lights are lit everywhere around us. We just passed the last bridge of the „Staande mast-route“ through Amsterdam. We try to find out which of the lights is marking the entrance of the harbour where a friend had organized a place for us to moor tonight. Nope, that‘s a ferry heading this way. After correcting our course we finally reach the lights that mark the small harbourentrance and we all are excited to go see our bed as quickly as possible. It has been a really, really long day.
As we heard that the route will be closed from Monday to Wednesday we have to speed up. For this reason, there was no time to visit Gouda as we had to be in the South of Amsterdam today. We were more than lucky, when we noticed, that the Bosrandbrug near the airport Schiphol, broke down just after we passed the bridge. All other boats after us couldn’t pass the bridge anymore and weren’t able to reach Amsterdam in time. Probably the heat made the bridge extend so it is now stuck and can’t be opened anymore. In the last days we have seen many bridges that have been cooled by water to prevent this problem.
After getting up late, we make a walk through the citycenter of Amsterdam. We pass by the “Beurs van Berlage”, the Royal Palace at the Dam and of course we walk through the “Walletjes” the famous redlight district of Amsterdam. During our walk we smell a lot “coffeeshops” at the borders of the small canals.
Later that day we meet an old colleague of mine, who now lives close to Amsterdam and is captain of one of the many sightseeingboats, that are cruising through the small canals of Amsterdam.
„I thought you didn‘t want to buy anything“ my father says. We are on our way back from the local outlet center „Batavia Stad“ in Lelystad. We stopped by because there‘s supposed to be much wind today. Yesterday we stayed at the Marker Wadden watching the birds in the nature reserve. After going swimming (again :)) I enjoyed a beautiful sunset walking along the beach. It was warm and music came through my earphones while I felt the last rays of sunshine spreading on my skin.
„No, that‘s what you said.“ I correct him. Of course he bought more than me but he always finds something to complain about. Back onboard we have to plan our way back home. Do you want to enter Friesland through Lemmer or Stavoren? The same question we always ask ourselves. Option one it is. Faster? Maybe. When leaving the big lock we see dozens of „skutjes“ which are old cargo sailing ships waiting to enter the lock in the opposite direction. Apparently there was a regatta this week, we didn‘t knew about.
Our last sailing day and a great holiday comes to an end. We sailed 600 NM, burnt 130 liters of gasoline with the farest point we’ve reached south being Dieppe (France).
Back home we start planning our next steps preparing the boat for the winter. There‘s still a lot to do even though our wishlist is getting slowly smaller as time goes by.
Your Garfield crew
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