Zierikzee to Vlissingen

By Wednesday we were ready to move on, and after shopping and filling up with diesel we headed away from Zierikzee. Yvonne got the bowsprit out as we motored along the Haven Kanaal, then we had pleasant sail on staysail and engine all the way across the Oosterschelde to the lock into the Veerse Meer through the Zandkreeksluis. We moored up outside to wait for the green light, and waited, and waited.... We were surrounded by French and Belgian yachts, but one of the skippers understood Dutch, and translated the tannoy messages for his co-linguists, one of whom then translated them for us! We had arrived just after the bridge mechanism jambed, and it was two and a half hours before they could lift it to let the boats on the other side into the lock.

We ate lunch there, sausage rolls heated in the Omnia we got in Williamstadt. Yvonne thoroughly approves of Kajan's new “oven”. The weather was great, sunshine from a blue sky, but the wind was still stronger than ideal, and we could tell it would be on the nose once we left.

We finally got through the lock at 1535, then motored through the Veerse Meer towards the lock at Veere, wishing we had enough time to sail. The lock had been absolutely full, with some boats having to wait for the next lock through, and there were so many boats around that tacking in the shallow waters as the small boats were doing was not really practical. We would have tried if we had not taken so long to get through the lock, but we were hoping to get all the way to Vlissingen. It was a shame to rush through the Veerse Meer; it is an attractive place with lots of areas to explore, but we just stayed in the main channel and motored.

One of the French boats we had been stuck with at the Zandkreeksluis went through the Veere lock with us, then we were back in the canal system again. The French boat turned off into Middelburg, but we kept straight on, and encountered our first bridge. We hung around waiting to be noticed, but we were the only ones there and eventually decided we had to call up the bridge controller for the first time on the whole trip!

Going through the Kanaal Door Walcheren is easy from Vlissingen to Veere, as a convoy forms by the Keersluisbrug in Vlissingen and the bridges after it then lift in sequence. It is not so straightforward travelling alone in the other direction, and we did a lot of waiting around. We eventually got to the marina on the other side of the Vlissingen railway bridge just before it got dark. The harbour master was in his hut at the entrance, and told us to take the empty box along at the far end of the entrance row.

Unfortunately we could not manoeuvre Kajan into it, and ended up tied up alongside it instead. Luckily the harbour master was okay with where we were so we stayed put. About an hour later another, much bigger boat came in. They had tried calling the harbour master and got no response, so they asked us for advice. We suggested the box we'd tried for, since we could help them in, but it turned out they were too beamy for it.

There were only two aboard and both were tired, with the skipper the only one who really knew what he was doing. He put the novice on the helm, which ended up with some damage to the boat as he could not control it well in the tight confines of the marina. The harbour master suddenly appeared and directed them to a pontoon further in, and Julian and Yvonne went to help them moor up.