Well, what started out as a simple trip to Stavenisse a couple of hours away turned into a 6 hour marathon trip.
We left Numansdorp at 10:30am, intending to pop over to Willemstad to fill up with fuel for the first time since filling up in Dover. However, we saw a couple of big yachts heading for the Volkeraksluis which is a special lock that has an opening bridge for yachts with an air height of over 17m. So we decided to forego fuel and go through with them. We had to wait about an hour before we could enter the lock.
We then motor sailed down to the next lock, Krammersluis. We all went through as a convoy again, but even so these big locks can take an hour or more to get through, especially as explained in a previous post this lock filter salt water from fresh water.
We now just had a few miles to go to Stavenisse, a completely new place for us. From the research we’d done this town looked very attractive, even though it was not mentioned in the pilot book so I used the number in the Navionics chart. Before we reached it I called the harbour master up and checked it out and he allocated us a berth of A18. It was a very small narrow entrance, through a flood defence gate which is always open and then down a small canal for about half a mile.
We arrived in what looked a lovely harbour with a traditional windmill on the quayside. However, the A pontoon did not exist! Somewhat confused we phoned the number again. It turns out that the number in the chart is for a completely different marina miles away. So we found a hammerhead for visitors with an intercom to the harbour master. Unfortunately we discovered that the marina only has a depth of 1.6M at low tide. Luckily just by chance we had come in at high water. We don’t really consider tides when you’re in the canals. So we had no choice but to move on to the next town on our list to visit.
Zierikzee
To reach Zierikzee we had to go through another opening bridge, Zeelandbrug, which opens twice an hour at 10 and 40 minutes passed the hour (it does not open during rush hour). So we had 40 minutes to travel only 4 miles so we had a nice gentle sail to time it just right.
We’ve been to Zierikzee before, in 2006, so it wasnt new to us but was on our list to see before heading home – just did it a day or so earlier than planned!
As we arrived and tied up about 6ish, and Lucy had had a decent sleep during the day, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner out for the first time in what seems like weeks. So we quickly got changed and ready and headed straight out. Walked round the town for a bit until we found the Italian restaurant we went to before. Got a nice table by the door so everytime it opened we got a nice blast of cool air, logged on to the restaurants free wifi, and ordered food and wine. There was a table behind us with 2 small children, the youngest about Lucys age and as soon as they saw her watching the ‘Peppa Pig’ machine they came over!
Cost: 22 euros per night with water and electric (leccy point takes 1 euro coins and only charges your boat, not everyone elses aswell, like the Folly pontoon does).
Free wifi, when you can login to it. They change the wifi code on the 1st of every month, and is the same code as they use for the showers.
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