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| Below lock 0 Den Bosch (Pictures from 2005) |
8.5° C Warm and sunny all day. Up
early at 7 a.m. Mike took a walk down to the lock to drop off the rubbish and
talk to the lock keeper. He didn’t speak English, but said we could go through
the lock at 9.00 a.m. - we could have got up at our normal time! There had been
several boats up and down first thing and one was coming up in the chamber. He
had to wait - they don’t lift the bridges during peak road traffic time,
between 8.30 and 9.00 a.m. We moved down to the lock. An empty called
Stella-Duce arrived and moored opposite us. Mike went to chat to Bill.
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| New flood gates. Heusdens kanaal (Pictures from 2005) |
The boat
coming up in the lock was the French pusher pair called Rolibert 1 & 2 we’d
last seen at Abbécourt in France. They waved. Animo, which had been moored at
Den Bosch all weekend, had moved off and was now vying for locking position
with Stella-Duce alongside us, as the pusher left the lock. We followed the two
of them into the chamber. Stella had pole position and went for the water hose
on the left hand side of the chamber, we hung on the wall behind him and Bill
brought Rosy alongside us. The lock emptied slowly as always.
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| Wilhelmina lock (Pictures from 2005) |
We followed the
two commercials out at 9.35 a.m. down the narrow channel through the town. They
had to wait for the liftbridges to be raised, so we had to hover behind them.
The keeper dropped the bridges as the big boats cleared and we went under the
lowered spans with plenty of headroom with our masts down. A small Dutch
cruiser, called Lucky Duck, steered by one woman and her Sheltie dog, was
waiting to go uphill at the end of the narrow section. The quays on the river
Dieze were busy with boats unloading. Three loaded péniches were on the waiting
quay, Sequens from Ampsin B, Secunda NL, Triade NL plus a 50m called Rina.
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| Wilhelmina lock (Pictures from 2005) |
It
was 10.30 a.m. when we arrived at Engelen lock. The two commercials were
waiting for the lock and a small cruiser was with them. A sand barge The-An II
and Wilhelmina (also loaded) left the lock and the two big boats went in and
moored opposite one another in the wide chamber. The cruiser (British and
single handed by the looks of it) was entering on the right to go behind the
shorter boat Animo, but the keeper on the left hand side called him over to the
left which meant he turned right directly in front of our bows causing Mike to
do a hard reverse emergency stop,
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| Cable ferry at Veen Andelse Maas |
he was not at all happy about it! We moved
over to the right and hung on the wall behind Animo with Rosy alongside us to
descend the two metre fall. The guy on the British cruiser didn’t acknowledge
our presence in the slightest! Mike put the pins in to run the generator as we
ran down the last of the Dieze and I put the washer on. Had a digestive biscuit
with our cuppa as we turned on to the tidal (but not much) Maas, heading
downstream. I photographed the new floodgates across the beginning of the
Heusden canal. Did a second load of washing as we continued along the arm
linking the Maas to the Waal. The boat had a bubble bath as we passed over an
aeration pipe.
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| Masted tjalks moored at Workum (Pictures from 2005) |
Made lunch as Mike dodged several busy cable ferries. Several
cruisers overtook us. Amazing what a bit of warm sunshine brings out! We had a
short wait by Wilhelmina lock while a cruiser-styled Dutch barge came down the
5 cms rise in the lock. We went in and threw a rope on a bollard on the huge
wooden baulks in the sloping sided lock chamber and we rose 5 cms on to the
Afgedamde Maas, the last bit of calm water before the Waal. A cruiser coming
towards us ran along the left hand bank and then dropped anchor. A bit further
towards the junction and we came across several boats who had also anchored in
the Maas while they ate lunch and/or sunbathed.
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| A well loaded boat overtaking on the Waal (Pictures from 2005) |
One very large speedboat
cruiser had exiled their two matching pooches into the inflatable tied at their
stern. Another masted yacht arrived and also dropped anchor. The ferry had just
arrived at Workum (proper name Woudrichem) and was unloading passengers as we
set off across an unusually very calm and quiet branch of the mighty Rhine. I
had the video camera connected up to 12v and the stills camera at the ready and
was a bit disappointed to find there was very little wash and so few boats
moving (we must have just caught a lull - or perhaps Monday is a good day for
crossing the Waaal?) that we had an unhindered passage straight across from the
Maas right over to the far bank.
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| Wash from passing traffic (Pictures from 2005) |
Only about half a dozen boats overtook and
went past on the other side as we ran down the 3 kms to turn right into the
basin before the lock at Gorkum (otherwise known as Gorichem – roughly pronounced
Horicum). An excellent, if dull, crossing.
The Merwedesluis was empty with the
gates open, so Mike called on VHF and we went in then rose a couple of inches
off the tidal Waal on to the Merwede canal. We got into the lock under the
lower end liftbridge, but the keeper had to lift the bridge over the top end
gates for us to get out. Passed through lines of moored boats and houseboats on
the canal before turning right on to the river Linge, ducking under the
vertical lift bridge.
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| Bill steering Rosy on the Waal (Pictures from 2005) |
There had been a lot of building work going on, factories
had been demolished and new houses and flats built since we were last here.
More and more little boats were moored along the banks of the little river. We
moored at Arkel at 3.50 p.m. with the whole mooring to ourselves. It was very
warm and still sunny. Mike got the BBQ out and lit it. I cooked some spuds and
wrapped them and marinaded some chicken in a peanut sauce to make satays. Mike
wasn’t keen as the chicken was cooked in no time - it took much longer to light
the charcoal than to cook the whole meal! It was tasty though. Bill brought his
dinner over to eat outside with us and we had a few beers with it. We sat out
watching the birds - ducks, coots and grebe plus a pair of Canada geese and
Egyptian geese.
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| Merwedesluis at Gorichem (Pictures from 2005) |
A white stork flew over. Fanny went in the water at the bottom
of the dyke when Mike threw sticks for her - it was smelly so Bill threw her in
the river which she didn’t like as she had trouble getting out over the wooden
edging. Later he tried to get her to fetch a stick out of the river but she
wouldn’t jump in. Several groups of doggie walkers went past and kids in power
boats went stooging up and down until quite late in the evening. Grebes were
stealing a coot’s nesting material to build their own nest right next door. A
pochard flew down the river and paddled back up again. The mossies came out so
I lit a mossie candle - which had no effect, so I searched out some mossie
repellent spirals that burned like joss sticks. They had little effect too and
there were clouds of them hovering over the boat. The grebes were sleeping, sitting
still on the water, beaks buried in their feathers while the coots stole the
nesting material back that the grebes had pinched from them earlier. Gave up at
9.30 pm and went in to watch TV.
Photos from 2005 - the return trip - please note that the boats are facing the wrong direction in these pictures! Sorry not many pix from 2004 pre-digital days.
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