July 2021 – part 2
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Our stay in Groningen started off with a couple of days of hard rain and because we were moored under trees, it made a real mess of SHENSI. Later on we moved to do a pump out and took the opportunity to start clearing soon me of the mess off the roof and decks.
Nicki’s birthday was on Thursday and we went for a meal in Humphreys, a lovely looking restaurant in the centre of town that we had previously noticed.
Great atmosphere and a terrific meal. Just right for a birthday celebration
We managed to get our second covid jabs on Saturday, and the following day we left Groningen for Leeuwarden although Nicki was feeling a bit under the weather because of the jab. With a 9am start the day went quite well, and a smooth passage continued on through all the lifting bridges and sluis onto the commercial waterways. A few more bridges and another sluis, and then we stopped to overnight at Stroobos – a five hour trip but still quicker than expected.
We left Casper and hired an electric scooter into town, always a bit scary not being sure of your route and with traffic and bikes coming from all directions, but we got there and back in one piece. We explored Leeuwarden a little longer and even had a trip on the land train which we thoroughly enjoyed, especially as we got to see so much more of the town and were able to highlight a few spots to return to for a longer visit.
After a lovely few days moored up on a free mooring at Leeuwarden we moved on to Franeker for a change of scenery and to visit a planetarium built in the house of a local resident in the 18th century, all by hand.
Between 1774 and 1781 a Frisian wool comber, Eise Eisinga, constructed the oldest still working planetarium in the world on the ceiling of his living room in a canal house in Franeker. This accurate moving model of the solar system shows the movement of all the planets known at that time. It shows the relative position of the sun in the sky, the day, date and year, sunrise and sunset and much much more. All of this is driven by a single pendulum in the roof space that drives all the gears. Incredible to realise that this was all created in the room where the family lived and slept.
On the Monday we left Franeker, starting the day by reversing out of the side canal where we had moored as there was not enough room to turn. Then we were off heading towards Harlingen with the intention of staying there for a week, following which we intended to make a six hour crossing across the sea to reach Den Helder, the most northerly point of the North Holland region.
As we travelled towards Harlingen I soon realised that today would in fact be a perfect day to make the crossing directly to Den Helder rather than stopping in Harlingen (especially bearing in mind that we already knew the following week was not looking good for crossing the Nordzee. and so there was a possibility of becoming trapped in Harlingen for even longer awaiting another opportunity). So as we already had a route planned to Den Helder we decided to go for it.
As we went through Harlingen, we passed the SRF boat yard where we are hoping to get some work done next year but there was no point in stopping as they were all now on holiday.
We quickly made it through the sea lock and onto the Waddenzee, enjoying near perfect conditions with almost flat calm and light winds.
From here our progress was good with about a dozen sail boats around us heading in the same direction, and a couple of times a high speed launch would pass and we had to steer into the wash so that we wouldn’t get rolled around too much – I spotted one sail boat that almost keeled over.
After about four hours, a deep haze seemed to head towards us making it more difficult to spot other boats. Whilst AIS allowed us to track larger boats that have the same system, we seemed to be bearing down on one signal traveling in the same direction although we couldn’t actually see it. As we got closer and closer to the signal’s source there was still no sign of the vessel, and then suddenly we were ‘passing’ it on AIS but worryingly there was still nothing. Weird.
Anyway, the haze finally cleared as we passed the island of Texel. This has been a scheduled short stop en route to den Helder but based on the fact that the weather was about to turn for the worse, I really didn’t fancy getting stuck there for a week at 50+ euros a night and so we carried on to Den Helder, following a couple of yachts in to the entry point.
Once in we had a bridge to get through but it was closed for a break. We waited half an hour then headed to a lock we had to go through but when we got there we were told that it was not available due to “police action” and told to retrace our route back to the bridge again and onto another lock for an alternative way through. (Interestingly it proved to be a better route so I’m not sure what our navigation software was thinking of.)
So through the lock and onto the moorings there along the quay – I like this mooring, just 26 euros for a week with electric and water included – and after eight hours of travelling I think Casper was quite pleased to make it back to land.
The last time we were here we visited the cinema as it was less than a 15 minute walk away, so we treated ourselves again and see our first (public) film of 2021, and possibly even 2020. The town was looking a lot more vibrant this time round and all the waterside venues were open although the weather was a mixed bag.
This time we visited the navy museum, such a lot to see although most of the descriptions were in Dutch. Interestingly it started off with the Dutch at war with the UK but then moved onto the collaboration between the two countries in the world wars. We were also able to check out the submarine during our visit, and one of the guys we spoke to had actually served on it.
From there we walked across the shipyard to wander over a ramming ship and a minesweeper before returning to our much smaller abode.
Nicki also spent a few hours in the National Lifeboat museum, leaving me to carry on with some boat chores.
