It's all about the timing
Our position is 52:29.30N 5:03.964E Distance covered 28.5Nm We overslept but were still able to leave with Jan & Ian on Panthalassa and go straight through the bridge that had been closed the night before. Our strategy was to allow enough time and a bit to spare to get through the 9 bridges in Haarlem, and catch the 12:00 opening of the motorway bridge before the North Sea canal. If we were delayed there was another at 13:00.
We had a really easy run through the Haarlem bridges, only having to wait about 20 minutes at the railway bridge. The book said the bridge master cycled between them to open them in turn, but I saw no evidence of that, although it might have worked with more than one of them.
We misunderstood the instruction at the last bridge, which was to stop and pay a bridge toll, so were summoned back by a cross sounding man on the radio. Dues paid we proceeded a short distance then tied up alongside a big shopping mall with a supermarket and bought a few essentials before heading to the lock that preceded the motorway bridge, with what we thought was perfect timing for the 12 o’clock opening. The lock also required a toll so Ted went ashore to the office to settle up and, to our dismay, be informed that the bridge opening times had been changed and the one midday opening was now at 14.15 and there was nowhere to tie up near the bridge. (Well at least it wasn’t moved to 11.30 I say) We tied to the waiting pontoons the other side of the lock and had a leisurely lunch – it made a change from grabbing sandwiches as we motored along!
Once through the annoying bridge – probably not as annoying for us as the large queue of road traffic that built up remarkably quickly –we headed down the wide expanses of the North Sea Canal towards Amsterdam.
It was very busy with commercial traffic passing up and down and in and out of the harbours along the side, not to mention a whole plethora of waterbuses buzzing about and sightseeing boats coming from all directions.
We made it down to the Oranjesluis, which goes out into the Markermeer, by 16:30 and then discovered that the final road bridge blocking our way, had also changed its opening times and now had a fully closed time between 16:00 and 18:00 (rush hour) so we would have to wait another hour and a half, and again there were no proper waiting pontoons. We really struggled with the concept that virtually all the bridges that opened at any time on demand, with only short waits, had very well appointed waiting pontoons, and the ones with the most restricted opening times invariably had nothing. It seems someone needs to rethink this! We managed to tie to some hefty piles on the bridge approach – intended possibly for barges by the size of them – and settled down to tea and cake this time. When the bridge finally opened yachts came pouring through from the other side first, but eventually we were through and motoring in the open waters of the Markermeer (the wind was in the North and we had a 2 hour direct trip to Volendam, our intended destination). We headed for Marina Volendam, a big new marina away from the town docks, in the hope of a bit of luxury and nice showers. When we arrived it was full of big shiny boats and not many people but the facilities were well up to the standard expected and it was extremely peaceful apart from noises from the many birds nosing about on the perimeter. And today’s special end piece focuses on living by/on the water
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