1st August 2005 Terlwaslagerbrug to Stadskanaal.

Ter Apelersluis on the Ruiten-Aa kanaal

12.6º C overnight, grey overcast, chilly day. Set off at 8 a.m. following Rosy up the Ruiten Aa kanaal. Overtook Rosy before we got to the first swingbridge and I stepped off to work Roelagebrug. Followed Rosy up to Ter Apelersluis. Two cruisers were coming down so we went into the lock after they’d cleared. Mike went back to turn the key in the slot to activate the lock to go uphill and Bill hit the green button. The gates closed, the single paddle lifted and the turbulence forced our boat off the wall, keeping it away from the rough rocks in the chamber wall. Mike

Bridge fendering and bollards. Stadskanaal

wound the liftbridge up and I wound it back down again after the boats had left the chamber. The canal as it neared Ter Apel went through a wooded area which (unusual for the Netherlands) was left natural, without the undergrowth cleared or the grass and flowers cropped short. I worked the next swingbridge (no name) and then the last bridge before the Ter Apel kanaal, which was a main road bridge. A cruiser had just come through - we were a couple of minutes out with the timing! I lifted it and

A lovely old Wartburg car in Stadskanaal

kept it open for a small converted Dutch barge to come through too, which had just arrived on the far side. We turned right on the Ter Apelerkanaal at 9.55 a.m. Bill announced on the VHF that it was new water for him – a few more kilometres and it will be for us – we’ve not been on the Oosterdiep through Veendam before. We had a short wait for the keeper to arrive. He worked the next five bridges for us, a mix of modern electric liftbridges and old style swing footbridges which were manually operated. The first lock was No 6. It had sliding

Lock 6 Musselkanaal. Hand wound top end sliding gate. 

gates offset at either end of a square chamber and little liftbridges for access from one side of the lock to the other by each gate. The keeper was an elderly bloke, pleasant and chatty. He gave Bill his book to write our names and boat names, where we’d come from etc, while he went off to lift the paddles – in the corner in front of our bows two racks lifted big boards over two holes in the lockwall. When the lock was empty he wound the sliding gate open and lifted the little bridge for us to leave the

Liftbridge. Lock 6 Musselkanaal

chamber. We had an enforced pause for lunch, which started at 11.50 a.m. as the bridges and locks are closed from midday until 1.00 p.m. The keeper turned up early at 12.40 p.m. and we were on our way again. Off into the town of Musselkanaal, where there were moored houseboats (some of them in a disused state) and the church clock played a carillon at 1.00 p.m. Down lock 5, with an older narrower lock alongside. Some people arrived by car at the houses by the lock and came to chat, none of them spoke English. We understood the questions in Dutch and they

Emptying sluices lock 6 Musselkanaal

seemed to understand the answers in English! We left the empty lock chamber at 1.25 p.m. and carried on down the canal to lock 4, where a German cruiser was coming up. A young lad was playing about in a speedboat. He went right across our bows, then his engine stopped when he was about 10m away – he found a paddle and moved it quick. We went into the lock after the cruiser left. The keeper was talking on a mobile phone. He said there was another boat coming down the last lock and we would wait for him. Mike told me he’d

Eurobrug. Stadskanaal

looked behind us before we got to the lock and there was no sign of anyone else. He picked up his binoculars and crossed over to the old lock chamber to get a better view back up the canal – still no sign of a boat. He was not amused. Half an hour later at 3.05 p.m. another German cruiser arrived and we went down the lock. The keeper did the next two bridges, beyond which there were three tjalks and two klippers moored, all were houseboats. There was a short section free of bridges and then we came to a stop by the first liftbridge, 500m above lock 3. A lockful of seven boats

Eurobrug statue of spitting man.

came uphill, six Germans and one solitary Dutchman. We’d tied to some railings by the bridge and the boats going the opposite way were milling about, so of course the bridge keeper gave us the green light first. Some of the boats gave up once they’d got through the liftbridge and moored by where we’d been waiting, next to a Lidl supermarket. The keeper spoke bad English loudly and kept stopping what he was doing to answer his mobile – only able to cope with doing one thing at a time. He told us we could moor in the town,

Statue of spitting man by the Eurobrug Stadskanaal

Stadskanaal, overnight and continue next morning at 8.00 a.m. when the next convoy sets off. It was 4.30 p.m. when we tied up on the right hand side by the shopping centre and Bill tied on the opposite side (a bit better for Fanny as the road that side was a little quieter by the houses). It was 8.5 hours since we set off and we’d actually been moving only 4 hours. Mike went off with the camera to take some better pictures of the disgusting statue of a spitting man by the Eurobrug liftbridge.

Moored by the shops in Stadskanaal town

Map for today's route to Stadskanaal