Friday 25th June 2004 Veelerveen to Roelagebrug.

It was still wet and windy when we got up (coldest was last night’s 10.6° C just before we went to bed) but we decided we’d better move on. Mike refilled the water tank, Bill did likewise and we set off at 9.30 a.m. I got off and worked Veelerveensterbrug liftbridge and Bill went on to turn the key and get Vlagtweddersluis working. We sat in the lock chamber when it was full and Mike and Bill went to the farmer’s shop, Doen and Groen, Bill to get some dog food and Mike wanted some brass fittings – but they hadn’t got what he wanted. The rain was still pouring down. I made a cuppa and defrosted the ‘fridge. Up Bourtange lock with its bridge lifted while we locked through (part of its lock cycle - good thing there’s very little road traffic). We were first at Wollinghuizersluis and I had great difficulty with the side wind blowing the boat sideways. There was a gap in the trees just where the landing was.

Bourtangesluis - photo by tourist info

The wooden landing stage was green and slimy, therefore very slippery, and there were no bollards to check the boat with. So I didn’t get off by jumping across to the landing. Mike put the bows up the mitre gates of the lock and I climbed up the green and slimy gates. Then I realised I’d left the key in my other waterproof jacket - which was dripping in the shower on the boat! Mike powered the stern end over to the landing and I got on and fetched the key. He backed the boat off and I tried threading the centre rope through the wooden toe rail on the landing, but the boat was already several yards away and I let the rope slip as it fetched chunks out of the horizontal wooden railing and the block underneath it started working loose. In the end I gave up and cast the rope off allowing the boat to be blown forcefully sideways across the face of the lock and into the weir stream. Mike will have to sort it out - he’s had enough practice. (Mike was not very pleased at this and shouted something to that effect. Ed.) The horizontal rain was pouring and the gale force wind funnelling through the gap. I turned the key and the shallow lock emptied and we went in and up. I suggested to Mike that at the next lock we tried using the old quay wall where I would get off and walk up to the lock instead of trying to use the tiny wooden landing stages right by the locks in the side wind which was blowing the boat away from them. (At times like these we wished we’d had a bow thruster installed when we had the cash and the opportunity!) 

Wollinghuizersluis - photo by Tourist info

The bridge above the lock was all electric, so I operated the bridge and Bill went on to get the next lock working. Two boats were coming down Jipsinghuizersluis, so I made some lunch and we ate it whilst waiting for them to clear the lock. The rain eased off. Another cruiser was waiting above as we went up the lock. The lift bridge was a wind up one, so Bill asked the chap off the cruiser if he would use his key and he wound the bridge too. (Well, he’d got to wind it to get into the lock anyway!) We passed yet another cruiser coming downhill as we went along the pound to Sellingersluis. The chap off  Pax was at the lock - his boat was moored above - and, when he saw us coming, he turned his key to set the lock for us and then chatted to Bill and Mike as the lock filled. It started raining again as he worked the liftbridge for us. I wished his lady a good summer cruise as we passed Pax. The canal was more sheltered from the wind and rain by trees on both banks as we went on to Zuidveldsluis. We were in the empty lock chamber first and I walked down to the landing to turn the key in the slot as Bill brought Rosy in. It seemed to take ages to fill and open the gates. I lifted the hand wound lift bridge and Bill went on to swing the swing bridge with no name. We went straight though, leaving Bill to close the bridge, and went on to work Terwalslagerbrug, another swing bridge. A cruiser was moored on the staging beyond the bridge. The elderly Dutch lady off the boat came to help work the bridge and I told her I was waiting for Bill to catch up, he would go straight through and on to the next leaving us to close the bridge. 

Sellingesluis - photo by Johan Zuidema

Her husband came over and they were panicking about who was going to move where and how would they get back on their boat. In the end I swopped keys with the woman and she shut the bridge after both our narrowboats had gone through and her husband had brought their cruiser through to tie up on the staging where we had been. Bill was having severe trouble with the staging at Roelagebrug when we got there, the wind kept blowing Rosy sideways. As we were running short of time and the Post Office in Ter Apel would be closing soon, Mike stuffed our bows into the bank herbage and he jumped off to work the bridge, leaving me to back off and steer through the bridge, which was OK until I had to get it alongside the old quay wall where we were going to moor up. Bill managed to get Rosy on to the one end of the quay, then jumped off with his centre rope, and I’d got to get our boat on to the other end of the quay with the stern up behind the landing for the bridge. Meanwhile the wind was still blowing hard from our right, constantly blowing the boat away from the quay. I ended up getting blown to the far bank. 

Moored at Roelagebrug - photo from 2005

Mike closed the bridge and, under instructions yelled from the bank, I powered the stern end over for him to get back on and he steered the boat over to the quay, working it back and forth to get the bows on to the wall, then I got off with our centre rope. Bill was still hanging on to Rosy’s centre rope as there was nothing to tie to and he couldn’t loose the rope to go and bang stakes in!  I held on to our centre rope while Mike knocked a stake in the bank between the boats, so he could tie Bill’s stern end and our bows to it, then he put mooring pins in for Rosy’s bows and our stern before Bill and I could stop being human mooring bollards and let go of the centre ropes. Mike went off on the moped to get our post from Glyn at Ter Apel. It had arrived, thankfully, as the post office was only open a few hours on Saturday morning, then closed until Monday afternoon. A Dutch guy came over to knock on Bill’s cabin - Mike had forgotten the key, he’d left it in the bridge while we were having difficulties tying up. Mike went in the library at Vlagtwedde while he was fetching the car and got printouts of the e-mails to and from Jabsco. Mike watched the football, champions France got beaten by Greece. I read Bill’s Waterways World magazines.