IJmuiden to Dover, September 2014.

 

Dear Friends,

We returned to where we started our Holland tour... In IJmuiden. We left Saturday morning from the Kornwerder locks and in a mystic kind of way (fog, no wind) made it to Lelystad (need to mention here that we and the boat became covered with little pesky flies, I mean it all was black from a thick layer of these suckers…ok they didn’t bite, but oh boy they left SV Lumina disgustingly slippery and dirty…). Anyway that is nature.

We had a great farewell lunch prepared by Dora, the fish was graciously donated by Anke en Dirk. Then the big and warm embrace with my parents… never easy indeed.

Bert went with us towards Amsterdam. After the Houtrib locks we even could sail and in the early evening we arrived. Working our way through the Oranje Locks towards the Java Island (where my brother lives)… it is prohibited to tie up, so we had an interesting touch and go deal going on… Bert got off and we went again into the heart of the city motoring towards IJmuiden (abt 18 nm). Pitch dark, some light rain and movement of large cargo vessels, just how we like it. We made to the locks and without a problem made it to the SeaPort Marina (again).. Tired and cold (hot soup) we tied up and after a hot shower, went to sleep. Sunday we spent on cleaning the boat, washing clothes and do some final shopping.

Monday morning early we left IJmuiden and headed for Dover. We made good mileage during the day, and so we passed the busiest part of the channel by daylight. Early the next morning we already saw the white cliffs of Dover again. We wanted to sail up the Thames River, but in hind side glad that we didn’t. It takes a lot of planning and careful studying of the tide tables to that, and besides all that, we couldn’t find any marina on the way that had room for us. So, Dover.

We stayed inside one of the two harbours protected by locks. The amplitude between high and low tide is almost 6 meters!

The next morning went by train to London… indeed London is calling…

Bug attack on the IJsselmeer…                              Fog, no wind (just bugs…)

 

 

Where are we?

 

 

Cheers

Pieter