A curate's egg sort of day
Our position is 53:24.374N 06:12.368E Distance covered 28.7Nm The day started well in spite of rain showers as we were leaving our overnight berth. All the bridges opened promptly as it was just after 9am – they were shut for the rush hour between 7 and 9 – and there was no evidence of a railway bridge with only 3 openings a day, which had been threatened in the pilot book. Leeuwarden proved to be a very picturesque town when we got into the centre and the sun came out to improve things still further.
Out of Leeuwarden the canal passed through very rural country with just the occasional farmhouse, and quite a pong providing evidence of muck spreading combined with fields of cows letting us know what the farmers’ primary activity was. One bridge closed between 12 and 1, presumably so the bridge keeper could have a peaceful lunch, although I suspected he also had shares in the waterside restaurant beside his bridge. We enjoyed a sunny and sheltered lunch on board but others in our convoy went ashore to enjoy its delights. There were a pair of bridges and the first one opened without much warning causing everyone to drop all the post-meal coffees and burst into action, only for the second one to remain closed, causing a fair amount of chaos in the rather small gap between the two. One German boat in particular had the bow thruster you had ever heard and he used it plentifully!
Things went downhill from there. The weather deteriorated and the scenery was less interesting. By the time we locked into the Lauwersmeer we had F5-6 on the nose and as we motored into it there was sleet. It felt like we were wearing most of our clothes in a vain attempt to keep warm. Is this really summer? When we arrived at the marina near the lock at Lauwersoog it seemed particularly unwelcoming – no harbourmaster, just signs on the jetties, no one around, and the boxes for the boats our length proved to be too narrow as we forced ourselves between the posts, leaving a tarry residue on Moorglade’s side.
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