We are continuing to love the Netherlands and at Bas and Agnes’ (Tisento) recommendation, decided to take the Standing Mast Route south through Amsterdam and Gouda to Dordrecht. We’re currently in Gouda.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The route through Amsterdam is a convoy at night – so that they only have to open the countless bridges once. We were in a small convoy of 3 boats – following Cayos, a Dutch boat that had done the route many times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was quite challenging keeping close enough to the boat in front so that the bridge keepers could limit the time the bridges were open. I think there were 14 bridges or locks – and we arrived at about 3 am after a late 1:30am departure.

The following day, we followed Cayos south to their home area – but having ‘left’ us, they came rush back to us – to stop me going over a really shallow area!! Thanks Cayos! We anchored in a big shallow lake and slept!

There are free moorings available all along – you can typically tie up for 3 days. It’s been really nice to be able to get off the boat and explore the local surroundings wherever we are.

At one spot we managed to arrive during their festival week and enjoyed an interesting flower parade through town.

Unfortunately, our chosen mooring in the center of Gouda was not available – as the bridge was broken! So we’re in a little marina on the outskirts – but an easy walk in to town – which is much like a mini Amsterdam. We were very lucky that Baudine from s/v Bojangles (currently sailing down past New York) was at home in her lovely house near Gouder and she came and gave us a tour of the place and out to a farmers cheese maker where we sampled and purchased the goodies! She then provided an excellent evening meal for us – thanks Baudine!

Tomorrow we’ll move on again – to Dordrecht – another marina, but right in the center of town…

 

 

After a wonderfully benign passage down the North Sea, we motored into Amsterdam where we’ve had a great visit – my new favorite city!

Not only did we meet Ineke Huijer on Lily (no longer OCC) – who lives here, but we also got together with Bas and Agnes, currently on a sabatical from Tisento which remains in Australia – and topping up their cruising kitty, but also Odette Hasbun and Francisco Melton aboard Perigrinus and finally our old friend Brigit.

Along with that social calendar – which took a toll on our livers – we also enjoyed several days walking around the fascinating city of Amsterdam – superb architecture, lots of vibrant people and must be a million bicycles or more!

Tomorrow we will depart – but get the opportunity to sail in the midnight convoy through Amsterdam on our way down to Vlissingen.

 

We enjoyed Norway for a few more days waiting out the weather in Grimstad and then in the little anchorage at Hesnesoeya, which provided very easy access to open water for our trip to Sweden.

We left Norway on August 24th early (4:30am) and had a good sail to Sweden – mostly with fair winds from behind and a lovely sunny day – quite a contrast from last week’s effort. We did have to motor a little in order to keep our speed up as we were trying to avoid a nighttime landfall, but were able to sail again towards the Swedish coast. About 5 miles out we managed to snag a fishing pot which stopped us dead. Removing it proved to be problematic, but eventually freed ourselves by turning on the engine and letting the rope cutter in front of the propeller do it’s magic. Fortunately, the pot remained serviceable, so the fisherman won’t have lost all his tackle. We eventually arrived at our chosen anchorage by Apelvik in the Gothenburg archipelago at 9:15pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following morning we headed south to one of the southern islands where our good friends Ian and Linda aboard Ocean Hobo were awaiting us. It was a flat calm sea and sunny day so we were motoring through the channels and not paying attention nearly closely enough such that I nearly T-Boned a small sailboat that was crossing our path. Quite a wake-up call.

Ian and Linda had found a marvelous little anchorage with complete protection from the weather (and a little beach!) – though quite crowded with weekend revelers. It was fantastic to have some friends around us – we’ve been largely on our own since leaving Islay back in June! Booze flowed!

We stayed in Sweden only a few days and then sailed with Ocean Hobo over to the Danish island of Laesoe where Linda and Ian stayed just one night, heading south to meet friends in the Limfjord Canal. We were heading in a slightly different direction, towards the next island, Anholt and would leave the following day, with plans to then continue south for the next couple of weeks towards the Keil Canal. Best laid plans…  In the end, we changed our minds and decided instead to head to the Limfjord too and hope we’d find a weather window from there south to Amsterdam.

 

We are once again again cruising in company with Ian and Linda and currently sitting in a totally enclosed anchorage waiting out yet more windy conditions!

September is here – it’s windy and it’s wet!