Through Haarlem and past Gouda

We were ready to go when next morning when the lights and barriers came down on the motorway. One other boat was waiting too, having motored up from the marina, and we travelling in company the ½nm to the Spaarndam bridge and the lock immediately after it. This opened as we approached, but the next bridge was the one into Haarlem, which would not open until 0900, so we moored up and went back to sleep until 0830.

The Dutch boat with us were friendly, and promised to contact the bridges for us if needed, and once we were under way again they made sure we saw where to go to pay for our passage through Haarlem. We had another wait just after we paid, for a rail bridge that only opened at 12 and 42 minutes past the hour, but it was only 15 minutes.

Our convoy grew from 12 to 15 boats as we traversed Haarlem, but most were Dutch and used to staying in line. Bridge followed bridge in orderly progression until we reached the Kaagdorp Bridge at 1235. No problem, as the next opening was 1258. We tied up for 20 minutes, then went through with the rest of the convoy, but then we moored up outside a restaurant in Kaagdorp for lunch. Club sandwiches all round, then an apple pancake for Yvonne, very nice!
There is a fuel dock at Kaag, serving both canal and road, so we got 20 litres of diesel in cans before setting off again at 1435.

It began spitting with rain, which only got heavy enough for coats and hoods as we crossed into the Brassemermeer at 1545. The beautiful calm blue lake that we had sailed the Tinker dinghy in while other gaffer crews swam on the way north was now grey and uninviting with an angry swell splashing the edges. We got out the bowsprit and unfurled the staysail, but were not tempted to stay and sail on the meer. Instead I went below to make tea while Yvonne helmed along the channel towards the canal exit.

The pace of travel heading home alone, against the “cruise” north is interesting. We stayed in Brassemermeer on the 31^st July and took six nights to get to Enkhuizen. We were back in 1, still with plenty of time to go on.

The rain stopped as we left the Brassemermeer, as though its only aim was to keep us moving. Unfortunately it stared again as we went through Alphen and only stopped as we neared Gouda. We had to wait on the outskirts for a rail bridge, so tied up onto its waiting moorings at 1920. The next lift was at 2027, so Yvonne cooked a “boat special” pasta with sauce.
We got under the bridge at 2030 and were faced with a choice; turn right into Gouda town or carry on towards the Julianna lock. We decided to carry on and tie up before the lock ready to go through first thing tomorrow, but the canal offered nowhere to moor up and we were at the lock before we expected. To our surprise there was nowhere there to tie to there either, and the lock opened for us before we could decide to turn back.

It felt wrong to refuse to go into the huge lock, which had been opened specially for us. We were spat out almost immediately into a tidal river at low water, with fading light. We went on, hoping to find somewhere easy to moor before full dark and ended up tying up against an old dumb barge on a quay just south of Moordrecht at 2140. The quay itself prohibited mooring, and we could not have reached it anyway, but the rusty old barge had reasonable cleats and uprights for our ropes and would act as a pontoon, so was a much better choice! We had done 34 nm since our early start, with two locks, and countless bridges and we were glad to have a cup of tea then settle down to sleep.

A large barge went past around 2315 and shone a searchlight at us, probably to check we were not gong to get in their way. After that we had a quiet night.