The weather was gorgeous. Very sunny, very windy, very cold in the morning, but during most of the day, very pleasant. Perfect for cruising in your cabin cruiser.
BHPian Jeroen recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Our second season bring Sirion home, 4-days, 250 km sailing
Day 1:
Yes, Sirion has been relaunched! Last week, Anton, the ship’s painter, finished touching up the scratch on the hull. The next day, Monday, Andre and his team relaunched Sirion. Tuesday morning, Mrs D and I arrived at Strand Horst around 0900.
Sirion is back in the water at the ramp
As usual, the Jeep was packed with all kinds of stuff that we took with us at the end of the season, for repairs or storage. And of course, we bring an overnight bag each and a couple of coolers for the food and drinks and so on.
Another boat had to be launched, so we quickly started Sirion up and moved her to a nearby jetty to finish loading and checking various things. Everything was in order, apart from the drinking water pump. I had loaded up the fresh water tank, I could hear the pump running, but no water was coming out of any of the taps. This is a self-priming pump so what was wrong? A quick check showed that Michael had, as part of the winterizing of Sirion, disconnected the suction and discharge line of the pump. The pump is specifically fitted with quick connections for this purpose. With everything hooked up we had water coming out of our taps once again.
It took us about two hours to stow everything, check everything and then we were ready for our first trip of the season. We had decided to take a very different route. Partly because we wanted to take a different route, but also partly because the locks just south of the Marina Strand Horst was closed for maintenance for the next two weeks.
So we decided to sail North, overnight in Kampen, Sail all the way up the river IJssel, overnight somewhere near Arnhem, Sail down the river Nederrijn and overnight in Wijk bij Duurstede and sail home along the river Lek and the Merwede kanaal on the fourth day. In total, about 250 km!
You might recognize that my second ever big trip with Sirion was last year, partly the same route with my sister Hilde. We had a great time attending the Sail Kampen event. Marvellous. Unfortunately, my sister passed away last Christmas Day. But I thought I would like to take this same trip again, just to relive some of those nice moments I had with her at the time. More on this later.
Very nice being out on the water again:
Within minutes of us leaving the marina, we saw a bunch of police vessels coming at us!!
I saw some of these last year as well. I think the police use these water for training purposes. They all slowed down when they got nearer. Considerate, because those little boats at high speed pull a ridiculous amount of wake.
I had noticed this floating factory last year as well. I wasn’t quite sure what it was doing then, and I still don’t know. It looks as if it is sucking sand of the bottom. But why not use a simple dredger? What are they processing here?
The weather was gorgeous. Very sunny, very windy, very cold in the morning, but during most of the day, very pleasant. Perfect for cruising in your cabin cruiser.
Very happy boy, being back on the water!
Last year, you will have seen me use paper charts. These charts are published by the ANWB. Which is an organisation looking after the interests of motorist, bikers, cyclist pedestrians and boaters. They stopped producing the individual charts. All waterway charts of the Netherlands are now bundled into three separate booklets. North, middle, south.
I still like the other charts for overall planning, but I must admit once you get used to these, they are very handy too.
These are large bodies of water we found ourselves on, collectively known as the “Randmeren”.
I know quite a few boaters who rant and rave about how fantastic these lakes are. I don’t find them that attractive at all. It might be a vast amount of water, but very little of it is navigable. Most parts are very shallow, and many parts suffer during summer from underwater vegetation. Look at this chart how narrow the actual channel is. And how shallow the rest of this water is!
D3 or D5 means 3 decimeters, respectively 5 decimeters, that is 30/50 centimeters of depth!! You can just wade there with wellies on!
After a couple of hours we reached the first lock. We would need to pass two locks today. All went well, hardly any delay at all.
This is alongside the “Reevediep”. The most northern stretch of our trip before turning onto the IJssel and towards Kampen. Not everything in the Netherlands is pretty. But these folks do have a stunning view over the water though!
We made it to Kampen by about 16.00 hours. About 50 km, two locks, in five hours!
We stayed at a different marina from last time. We wanted to be closer to the centre. Tidied up Sirion and went ashore for a little exploration of this lovely little town.
Endless little alleyways, some with nice quirky shops, antique, bric-a-brac. Mrs. D could not get enough.
I had to take an image of this special vertical movement bridge. Hilde was fascinated by it last year. And she felt it came straight out of cartoon of Donald Duck or so. And I can see why?
Although there was no Sail Kampen this year, the boulevard is home to about a dozen of traditional sailing vessels. Always interesting to see, chat to the crew.
Lots of very old, magnificent buildings here. This one is from 1557. That’s almost 5 centuries old! And still in very good nick and lived in too!
When Hilde and I wanted to have dinner after the big sailing parade last year, we were recommended a nearby restaurant, an Argentine steak house. At the time, because it was so busy due to the Sail Kampen event, we could not get a table. This time, we managed to get in. Lovely dinner.
I will be adding the other three days of this trip in the days to come.
Jeroen
Continue reading on BHPian Jeroen’s sailing trip for BHPian comments, insights and more information.
