Thursday 13th May 2004 Komerzijl to Hoogezand.

Female & male marsh harriers - photo by Mark Kilner

9.5 ° C almost double figures again. Overcast with a chilly north wind to start off with, but a few sunny spells later. Bill said he’d liked the start of the little channel up to Kommerzijl and wanted to continue on it rather than trekking back to the busy, straight and dull Van Starkenborgh kanaal. We winded and headed north joining the Reitdiep, a former tidal river, winding its way eastwards. Mike called the central control post at Lauwersoog for them to remotely operate the swingbridge at Roodhaan for us. We were soon on our way again. 

Fighting coots - beautiful photo by Olivier French

A male marsh harrier glided past over the reeds, hunting alongside the boat for a short while. Further on we passed his darker feathered female, also hunting over the water meadows. An immature male, with darkly patterned feathers, was patrolling the banks a few kilometres further on. Just before we reached the next liftbridge we spotted a fight. Three coots were kickboxing and so intent on knocking seven bells out of each other they totally ignored the passing boats. The bridge at Garnwerd opened to let two masted sailboats pass through, a klipper and a yacht coming towards us, then closed again behind them. 

Oostersluis - photo by Phil Stafford 2010 (thanks Phil!)

Mike had to call the control again. Don’t they use the cameras! They lifted the bridge again once the road traffic had cleared. A bloke building a wooden houseboat alongside the other moored boats by the bridge had suggested that we should press the button on the steigers to call the control. VHF radio was quicker. A small cruiser went past us. We got under Wetsingersluis swingbridge with the mast off, the air draught was much more than the 2.8m stated in Deel 2 Almanac. Lunch. We did the same thing at Wierumerschouw bridge and the last bridge on the canal was a high one. 

Shipbuilders at Hoogezand in 1997

At the junction we turned left on the Van Starkenborgh heading for Groningen. Small black insects were swarming and covering the roof of the boat, falling off and ending up as fish food. We had a short wait for Paddepoelsterbrug to swing. A German cruiser heading towards us went through the bridge at the same time as we did although we’d got the green light - cheeky! The far light changed and a new Dutch sailing botter went through. Another German cruiser had overtaken us as we went through the bridge. We caught him up when he was waiting for the next bridge. Under the new railway bridge, Walfridusbrug, complete with cycle paths and on into the city of Groningen. More new flats on the left hand bank. Another new loaded 3,000 tonner, called Ortygia, was moored by Korrebrug. We had a red/green light just as Mike was about to take the mast off and go under the deck. The German cruiser, who had had to wait for us before they swung the bridge for him, pulled out from the mooring by the bridge and went through the open bridge span with us. Then he did a strange thing and turned and went back the way he’d come! 

Shipbuilders at Hoogezand in 1997

He went back to the bridge and winded again to follow on behind us. Weird? We hovered below Oostersluis. We were sure the lock had started emptying then stopped. A loaded boat, Kerizel, came down the lock then another loaded boat caught us up, Seolto, and we followed him into the lock, with Rosy behind us and the three cruisers (another one had been following the commercial) squeezed into the space (only just enough) that the German cruiser had left behind him when he moored opposite Bill! We rose 1.5m (and didn’t get nose bleeds!) and went straight on across the crossroad junction with the Eemskanaal on to the Winschoterdiep. The commercial in front of us had turned into the city off to the right, the German had followed him, while the other two cruisers had gone into the Groningen Yacht Club (where we moored last time we were in Groningen). A small cruiser out of the Eemskanaal followed us. 

Shipbuilders at Hoogezand in 1997

An empty commercial, called Bever, went through Duinkerkenbrug first - coming towards us, then we went through with the cruiser and a sailboat which had appeared behind us. A tug and pan went past. The cruiser turned off down the Deutschediep after we’d gone through Waterhuizerbrug. A large cruiser went past. We had a short wait for Westerbroeksterbrug and noted there were four old small tugs rusting away in the basin before the bridge, tied next to an equally old crane boat. A brand new ship (for the sea), called Kinne of Delfzijl, was swinging a huge, half-submerged, variable pitched prop at the builders yard of Ferus Smit. Another boat was under construction in their shed on the bank. More were being built at the Maas yard, a small tankership called Orinoco and the five-storey bridges for three new sea-going ships stood ready to be craned aboard (the hulls were not there) with a 250 tonne floating crane nearby at Volharding shipyard. It was 4 p.m. as we went under the last bridge, Rengersbrug and turned right into the arm leading to the passantenhaven at Hoogezand. Along the little channel more ships were under construction. One on the bank was having its bow section welded in place and a fully finished one was in the water in the arm. We squeezed past it and found only just enough room to get our bows on the wooden edged quay - the rest of the moorings had been taken over by permanent moorers. Bill brought Rosy alongside us after trying the space between us and a moored converted tug and finding the gap was less than half a metre too short. It was 4.30 p.m. Bill gave us a hand to heave the moped ashore and Mike went off to get the car - a two hour jaunt. 

Sorry no photos from 2004 -mine from 1997 and some I've found via Bing - credits to their owners as above.