Williamstadt to ?

Next day we left the inner harbour at 0830, heading for the fuel dock to fill our cans and tank. Quarter of an hour later, as we motored out of Williamstadt, a huge Dutch motor-barge cast off and came out at the same time, making the channel feel rather tight, but we were soon out in the Hollandsche Deep, heading for the Volkerak Sluice. It's not far to the lock, and we saw Margo ahead of us just about to enter the lock, so we followed her in. The “sport” lock at Volkerack is quite a big lock and there were only 5 boats in it, but it was still half full as the 2 boats ahead were huge. One was the motorboat that had come out of Williamstadt with us, and the other was a true commercial barge with only 6” of free-board. The other boat was more Margo sized!

We had encountered enough chop and spray on the way to the lock for Julian to want his waterproofs on before we headed westward towards the Krammersluizen. I already had my jacket on so took the helm. Progress was slow (1-2knots) when we were absolutely head to wind along the Hellengat, but we managed 3 in the Noord Volkerak when the wind did not head us so directly. The forecast was for force 4, gusting 5 SW but I am certain some of the gusts were F7 because spray was being blown off the top of the waves. The weather was lovely though, sunshine and blue sky with fluffy white clouds.

The other boats that had been in the lock with us disappeared ahead and there was no sign of them waiting for the Krammersluice, just one little motor boat about to moor up. The light on both the locks was red, but the gate to the starboard lock opened before we could tie up, so we motored forward very slowly, keeping close to the pontoon. Five yachts came out, then one got stuck somehow, the bow coming sideways across the lock while the stern did not move away from the wall.

We could not tell what was going on, but there was obviously a delay, so we tied up. We could hear instructions (in Dutch) from inside the lock and the disabled yacht tied up its bows again, which let another 4 yachts come round it and out of the lock. Then they closed the lock gate again with the disabled yacht inside. Luckily there are two “sport” locks in the Krammersluizen and the other soon opened and let us in.

Once out of the Krammersluizen we set off down the Keeten channel towards the Oosterschelde. Progress was slow (2½ to 3½ knots) but steady until the heavens opened just by Stavenisse. There was a huge crack of lightening ahead, and by the time I heard the thunder I could hardly see the end of Kajan's bowsprit for the rain bouncing off the deck. Yvonne and Julian were already below and I advised them to stay there! There were no boats visible at all and I had the chart plotter to make sure I did not stray out of my part of the channel.
Luckily the downpour did not last long, but the wind was increasing and shifting, so it stayed on the nose as we entered the Oosterschelde and turned towards our intended destination of Katz. I handed the helm over and went below for my turn in the dry as it started to rain again.

After a few minutes Julian called down to say that he could not make any progress towards Katz. I checked the tide and it was beginning to run harder against us at 2 hours after high water. It would be difficult to make any progress west for the rest of the tide, and the wind and tide together were raising short steep seas of the sort that stops Kajan in her tracks. The conditions were not nice for staying out, with frequent rain squalls, strong winds, and lumpy seas. I looked for a port of refuge down tide and found Zierikzee, a picturesque town with a good harbour only 2 nm away. Julian had not thought of it while choosing to go to Katz as it was on the north bank while we were heading south, and west of the Zeelandbrug, a long bridge over the Oosterschelde. We had seen one span of the bridge lifting though, so we decided to head for Zierikzee.

When I checked the pilot book for information on the Zeelandbrug it turned out that we did not need to worry about it at all as our air-draft let us go under almost all of the spans. By 1910 we were thankfully moored up outside the harbour master's office in Zierikzee after a 10½ hour passage that included 2 locks. A meal out in a nice friendly bar made an enjoyable evening, and we decided to stay the next day, as the forecast was no better and we did not want another day like this one!