Wednesday 28 May
Thursday 29 May
Friday 30 May
Saturday 31 May
Sunday 1 June
Monday 2 June
Tuesday 3 June
Leeuwarden to near Jannum
near Jannum to Dokkum
Dokkum to Lauwersoog
Lauwersoog to Lauwersmeer
Lauwersmeer to Sneekermeer
Sneekermeer to near Lemmer
Lemmer to Urk
returns to top of this page
In the morning we visited the Fries Museum which is one of the best municipal museums we have encountered. It has been extensively renovated but the section we really wanted to see – the huge collection of Dutch blue and white tiles – was closed as they had still to complete the renovation of that part of the museum. This keeps happening to us. It seems as if there has been a flood of money into all the local museums to upgrade them. Other parts of the museum were very interesting and the section on the Friesian Resistance during the war was quite moving, though somewhat sanitised.
Then it was back to the “best fabric shop in the world” to make some essential purchases, armed with cash (credit cards not accepted!). During the morning it rained a little bit, leaving brown silty deposits all over the freshly washed boat which had to be cleaned off before we could set out.
We left Leeuwarden after lunch and headed out down the Dokkumer Ee which is a ten mile long canal running to Dokkum; it is quite narrow in places and wends and winds its way through the Friesian landscape of big farms and flat fields and plenty of black and white cows. It became quite hot and humid in the afternoon and threatened more rain. As we chugged along Maureen spotted an unusual looking bird which we quickly realised was a spoonbill – our first one of the trip.
By 16:00 we were at Burdaard which boasts the tallest windmill in Friesland. We stopped here for a wander round the small village. It was very quiet and not much going on. The windmill was being worked on and the art museum had shut early! When the bridge watcher came back on duty at 17:15 we jumped smartly to attention and joined an outbound “convoy” of yachts through his bridge (at the front of the queue).
These yachts seemed in a hurry and were pushing hard on our tail so we sped up a bit imagining that they were possibly intent on some of the few moorings by the canal side that we had in mind, and kept them at bay. When we finally sited the mooring we wanted to stop at there was no-one there so we pulled in to one end of a two boat staging. One yacht pulled in behind us and another took the last spot on the other bank, leaving one yacht to head on and search elsewhere. Our mooring is made of wooden pilings set out from the bank by about six feet so we cannot get off and wander about. It is very quiet and a perfect rural location.
The tallest windmill in Friesland at Burdaard
During the night it rained more mud so this was cleaned off again (for the third time now), and then we were ready to set off for Dokkum, which was just three miles away.
Dokkum is the most Northerly town of any size in the whole of the Netherlands and is built on a small rise in the otherwise flat terrain. On the way we were overtaken by a largish bird which stopped and sat on a post by the water enabling us to get a good look. It turned out to be a cuckoo – the first one either of us have ever seen close to.
Dokkum was soon on us, and we got through the two bridges just before the first batch of moorings in no time, parting with €4.30 in bruggeld for the privilege. Like many other towns the centre is surrounded by star-fort type ramparts and moats the latter now forming part of the navigable waterways. The moorings are on the south side of the ramparts, and our mooring is at the foot of a windmill which stands on one of the star points.
Unfortunately a large part of the moorings on the opposite bank are being remodeled and so there are also a lot of earthworks to look at. No doubt it will be splendid when it's finished as generally the Dutch are very good at getting this sort of thing right.
Dokkum is a very pleasant town with pretty little side streets and a small network of canals within the centre. It seems almost Leeuwardendeserted; how the shops survive is a mystery unless things really hot up in season. We found the supermarket is very close to where we are moored so we took advantage and stocked up on essentials before heading back to the boat for lunch.
Then it rained (more mud included).
After it stopped raining we made a tour right round the ramparts taking in the local museum on the way. The top floor of the museum was being renovated and was closed (again?). Though quite small, the museum is moderately interesting and is very nicely laid out. There is a big section devoted to St Boniface who came from Crediton but was murdered here in Dokkum in the 8th Century. The tableau of life sized figures is accompanied by a recorded dialogue between St B and the Friesians what done ‘im in. St B speaks in English and the Friesians speak in Dutch. So whereas the average Dutchman probably gets both sides of the story, it was definitely a one sided affair for us!
The boat really needs another good wash – is there any point?
Dokkum town centre
The old harbour in the centre of Dokkum by the Admiralty House
The windmill next to our mooring in Dokkum
We left Dokkum just after 9:00 and headed East along Dokkumer Grootdiep. This is another very pretty stretch of rural Friesland with very few roads impinging on the peace of the waterway. We could see something swimming in the water up ahead and it looked like a dog. As we got closer it saw us and hauled itself out, revealing itself to be a young deer. It scampered off into the distance turning round every so or often to make sure we were not following.
Eventually we got to Willem Loresluis and we were through to the lake which forms the watery part of the Lauwersmeer National Park. This lake is an inlet from the Waddenzee which has been dammed at its mouth as part of the flood protection scheme, and so is now fresh water; it is about five miles long and a mile wide at its dam. The surface of the lake was like a mirror and it was getting quite warm now. We soon spotted some marsh harriers about their business, and then some spoon bills. The cruise up the meer was very tranquil.
Around mid day we arrived at Lauwersoog itself, which is a new port and town that was constructed to provide a base for the fishermen displaced by the damming of the inlet. The business end of town is on the sea side of the dam and lock, whereas the marinas were on the freshwater side. We plumped for Jacht Haven Nordergat and tied ourselves alongside the visitors pontoon next to a couple of British flagged sailing boats on their way to the Baltic for the summer.
After settling in, we headed over to the huge fishing harbour area where we had read that there were some fish restaurants which turned out to be good advice. The walk of about twenty minutes was over a dyke and through lots of ugly fishing port buildings, packing sheds and large swathes of concrete as well as a very good chandlers. Eventually we had several suitable eating establishments in sight and chose one at random which was quite OK – a glorified fish and chip bar but able to cater for hundreds of people in season (which thankfully this is not) and in smart surroundings at a reasonable price – and tasty too!
We made a slight detour on the way back to the boat to see if we could find anything else to see in Lauwersoog. It was still rather a building site and without a car or bikes it's impossible to get to the bits of the National Park not accessible by boat. We were disappointed.
Lauwersoog fishing port
The North Sea at Lauwersoog
We had originally intended to stay two nights at Lauwersoog but once we realised that on foot there was not much to see or do we decided that it would be better to find an isolated mooring somewhere in the upper reaches of the Lauwersmeer. We headed off after attempting a pump-out at the machine in the marina, which failed after fifteen minutes of pumping to do very much at all. One of the marina attendants had warned us that it was very slow, not much good really, “but you can try”! So if they obviously know it’s no good, why don’t they fix it? Anyway, we gave up and sailed away into the haze of the Lauwersmeer.
It was very serene and calm as we headed back up the lake and we found an ideal mooring for two boats on a wooden pontoon connected to the land by a short jetty. We had this mooring to ourselves for the whole day. It was a perfect location, just us, a few marsh harriers, the usual collection of coots and other assorted water birds and a herd of highland cattle that behaved as if they were wild – at least they were very timid and ran away from us when we approached them.
Our mooring on the Lauwersmeer. We had this to ourselves all day.
During the night there was a god thunderstorm with lots of lightning and plenty of rain. Luckily the amount of mud washed out of the air this time was not in proportion to the amount of rainfall or we would have become a mud bank. Anyway, a quick clean of the boat was required before we could set off. It was a very misty and ethereal start when we got going at 09:00 and it stayed warm sunny and windless all day. Our aim was to head to the Sneekermeer which would be a big step on the way to Urk which is our next “destination”. Our route took us via the Nieuwe Zwemmer, Nieuwe Vaart and Kuikhoenstervaart through Zwaagwesteinde to the Prinses Margrietkanaal (PMK). The bridges on this stretch are all fixed and until 2006 four of them were between 0.2m and 0.3m lower than the others which had generally 3m headroom (just enough for us with our mast folded down but our windscreen up). In 2006 these four bridges were all renewed and raised to give at least 3m headroom too, so now the whole route has this headroom. And it’s free!
On the way past a farm near to Zwaagwesteinde we spotted a stork checking out a dung pile. We have noticed that quite a few farms have erected tall poles with platforms on top for storks to nest on; some are quite ornate, others rather plain. These are tall structures and very sturdily constructed so must cost a bob or two. But we haven't seen a stork nest on any of them yet. Perhaps it's too early in the season.
Then we got another shock. To avoid the PMK as much as possible, our route also took us through Akkrum where in 2006 we had had to wait for the railway bridge to be swung for us to pass through. Since then they have raised the double track railway bridge with enough headroom for us to fit under easily. The civil engineering works were astounding. The railway was obviously regraded over some considerable length on each side of the bridge to gain the extra height, new overhead catenary installed with a run off and run on (no electric wires on the bridge), plus a brand new swing bridge for the bigger boats. And its free!
Then we were onto the Sneekermeer and we passed by the island mooring where we had sheltered from the wind and rain with Alan and Gill. And what a contrast. It was hot, sultry and windless, the surface of the lake was like a mirror and the few sailing boats out were mostly motoring as they could hardly go anywhere under sail.
We made a short detour into Sneek for a free pump-out at the tried and tested municipal facility on the Houkesloot, and then headed back to the Sneekermeer for a mooring for the night on one of the many stagings scattered throughout the lake complex. It was a perfect evening.
Friesland barn with adjustable height roof worked by pulleys and wires
The perfect evening turned into a noisy night when the wind suddenly "got up" sending waves in our direction which made gurgling noises on the transom six inches from our pillows (on the outside)! So we felt somewhat sleep deprived when were woken by the alarm this morning.
We were soon cheered up by another beautiful day as we headed for Sloten via various lakes and interconnecting canals, taking us past Joure, through Woudsend and across the Slotermeer. There were empty moorings at the North side of Sloten so we stopped there for lunch.
Sloten is a very pretty little village with a few restaurants, some limited shops, a windmill and some nice old buildings fronting a canal which runs through the centre. It is picture postcard perfect apart from the large and slightly smelly powdered milk factory on the edge of the village – you can’t have everything! We wandered round the village to see all that was there, then bought our lunch at a small supermarket and returned to the boat to eat it.
From here it was a short hop to the South end of the Groote Brekken just North of Lemmer from where we will set out tomorrow for the short hop round the IJsselmeer to Urk.
We carefully chose our mooring and our orientation on it to take account of the direction of the wind so we would get some peace tonight. Unfortunately, since we have been here, the wind has increased in strength and changed direction thus rendering our planning obsolete! Now we are getting waves from across the whole lake broadside to Starry Night instead of on the bow from the corner of the lake.
It's probably going to be another noisy night.
The windmill at Sloten
The canal running through the centre of Sloten
Sunrise at 4:30am - Groote Brekken
And it was - at least to start with. Then it rained torrents with lots of thunder and lightening and then the wind changed and mercifully it all quietened down. An early morning visit to the loo revealed a beautiful sunrise and almost clear skies. But by the time the alarm went off, it was very dull, humid, warm and threatening. We could hear thunder rolling around in the distance.
We set off as soon as possible and taking our chance with the weather. Everything was stowed for sea conditions as we couldn’t be sure what to expect on the two hour passage on the IJsselmeer as the forecast had indicated force 3 to 4 though there was hardly a breath of air at 09:00.
We decided to try the PMK lock onto the IJsselmeer and go with the big boys, rather than spend probably an hour negotiating the lift bridges and lock on the pleasure craft route through Lemmer harbour itself. There is just the one lock which pleasure craft have to share with the commercial traffic. We waited on the pilings designated for pleasure craft and after a few minutes were joined by a couple of other pleasure craft. We realised we were waiting for some barges coming the other way and eventually three huge barges emerged from what turned out to be a very long lock. The lights turned green and we all headed in, followed by a barge. The lock was very gentle and we were through in no time, but the sky was turning very dark and we could hear thunder and see the odd flash of lightening.
As we emerged the heavens opened and we ducked inside and operated Starry Night from the lower helm position. It became very dark, with poor visibility and there was more lightening. Mike lowered the VHF antenna for a bit of peace of mind (I’m fairly sure it makes no difference as it is encased in plastic but I felt better without this long pointy thing poking skywards!). Nav lights on, we navigated from buoy to buoy on a heading taken from the charts, making sure we had land in sight all the time.
This bit of the coast line is formed by a polder and was designed using a ruler with no help from Slarty Blaatfast; so it was a simple matter to set the autopilot on a heading parallel to the shore. It took us about two hours to get to Urk by which time the skies had lightened up allowing us back outside again for the last thirty minutes of the passage.
We cruised into Urk harbour just after mid-day and found a good place to tie up along the harbour jetty wall by the beach. After sorting ourselves out we headed into town for lunch at one of the many fish restaurants and then went on a tour of the sights. Urk used to be a small island in the Zuider Zee until it was joined to the North East Polder in the 30’s. It had and still does have a very strong fishing tradition. There is a memorial to the fishermen of Urk who have been lost “at sea”. It has over three hundred names starting in the 18th century with the last entry in 2007. You could see how whole families were wiped out by one vessel being lost – sometimes five at once – with boys as young as eight years old on the list.
There is also a very good museum about Urk which we really enjoyed. It had some excellent models of fishing boats showing how different types of net are deployed below the surface to catch different species of fish. Urk has lots of narrow back streets, and plenty of charm. It also has a large and thriving port catering to the fishing industry with ship builders and repairs, but without the drabness of Lauwersoog.
Urk Lighthouse
A corner of Urk's harbour
The Fishermen's memorial at Urk
A helpful reminder for motorboats re: who has right of way?
Copyright © 2008-2009 Mike Hawkridge