5 July 2011 – Magnetic Attraction, Wemeldinge

The last of the hot days – the weather looks set to break tomorrow.  The wind has been light and from the east: normal service resumes tomorrow with SW winds and rain. 

It’s 8.30pm local time and I’m sitting out on the cockpit writing.  The young persons are assembled once again on the edge of the lock, jumping in, shouting and carousing.  One lot have swum across and hauled themselves out on the pontoon next to us, stretching out like seals to absorb the warmth.  The sprayhood is down to catch what wind there is.  Humidity feels high. Here is a picture that shows how tight the berth is….

Berth k29 is on the far left  of the picture.

In the morning we cycled in the Dorp, and went across the sluis to the camp site on the other side to acquire a map of the cycle routes here.  From there we cycled to see the new cut between the Oosterschelde and Westerschelde that now bypasses the village.  There is a Spar in the village – perfectly adequate for basic needs and I’ll go tomorrow to get bread and meat.  There are also little stalls on the roadside where people sell surplus produce – potatoes, cherries, strawberries.

I paid for another night’s mooring and also paid for 24 hours wifi access (7 euros – a bargain compared with the Vodafone dongle that costs £8 per day for 100Mb.)   So we’re now gorging ourselves on Radio 4, although we missed out on The Archers!  After lunch (and a snooze) it was off again to Goes.  The harbour master at Veere had been dismissive, but we had heard good things from both Dutch and English neighbours.  We cycled along the sea wall to Goess Sas, then down the canal through Wilhelminadorp into the town.  I think getting there would have been a greater hassle than coming here: on the other hand, it was a charming town, very like Middleburg, with a big market in the square.  We had an ice cream before getting lost trying to find our route back out of the town home via the polder .  In all, a round trip of 20 miles, including the getting lost.

Here is a pic of the inner haven at Goes…

Tomorrow the plan is to go up to the Greveningmeer, leaving about lunch time to catch the best of the tide.  Two locks, and about 5 miles!