.
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| The flood lock on the Linge link kanaal |
7.8° C Sunny. It was noisy at Arkel with
the factory, the road and the geese! Set off at 9.20 a.m. round the bend in the
river, passing two cruisers bound for Gorichem. I called the control on VHF 22
to ask them to change the lights on the stop lock to green for us, which they
did. On to the main Merwede kanaal and a short wait for the Schotdeurensebrug
to lift, which was also remotely operated from Gorichem. We were just too late
for the railway swingbridge, which operated up until 9.30 a.m. so we had to
wait until 10.05 when a commercial was also heading for the bridge from the
opposite direction.
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| Crowds ( in 2005) Schotduerensebrug, jnc Linge/Merwede kanaal |
A small boat was catching us up as we arrived at Bazelbrug
liftbridge. The control centre lifted it for us, then dropped it again right in
front of the small yacht that had caught up. The road traffic went across and
then they lifted it again for the yacht. A loaded boat called “Kreta” came past
a few minutes later, also headed for Gorichem, as we passed by a decidedly
tilted old house on the canal bank. Near Meerkerk, a man was walking a cat on a
lead, he was wearing traditional baggy trousers and bright yellow clogs - he
gave us a friendly wave as we went past. The yacht overtook us just before
Meerkerksebrug and went through the bridge on red/green - it didn’t wait for
the green light - and sped off into the distance. We passed the next loaded
boat, Antares from Terneuzen (57m long, capacity 707 tonnes) at KP 9.5. Had
some lunch as we went along.
A loaded péniche called Harry went past.
Bolgerijensebrug had not yet been converted to a remotely operated liftbridge
like the previous bridge and the keeper came out to swing it by standing in the
middle of the deck and revolving a large portable capstan. We arrived at
Viannen at 12.40 p.m. There were only three cruisers on the new stagings by the
flats. We moored with the aid of a chap off a German cruiser who came to lend a
hand. First job, visit the Post Office, the package from Glyn was there waiting
for us. Mike went off on the moped to collect the car from Arkel. I ‘phoned
some very good Dutch friends when he came back and arranged to go over and
visit them later – it was 1.30 am when we returned to the boat after a really
lovely evening reminiscing about old times (they came with us as far as Berlin
on our first visit to Germany in 1999).
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| Windmill and waterwheel at Meerkerk |
Please note these photos are from the return journey in 2005
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