Saturday 13th August 2005 Berlikum to Witmarsum

Friesien farmhouse

12.2º C. Sunny spells, lots of clouds, showery after lunch. Set off at 8 a.m. with the boat's alternator playing up again and the alarm sounding. Mike tried disconnecting the Adverc system, tested it, and then reconnected it as it was working OK again. Just north of Berlikum we came to a crossroads where we turned left on the Ried Wijd, which took us through the village of Ried, where there was a small offline marina. Near Ried we came across a strangely positioned diagonal row of streetlights across a field where horses were grazing. We puzzled over why

Kaatsveldertsebrug

they were there, we quizzed Bill. There was no sign of a road for a camping site or a building site for a new house – they don’t put streetlights in first anyway. Bill suggested they flooded the field in winter to make a skating rink, but why have the lights diagonally across the middle for the skaters to bump into? It remained a mystery. The next name change of the navigation was at Dongjum, where the canal became the Dongjumer vaart and took us into the busy town of Franeker. Another little

Timetable at Stationbrug Frankener

town with a navigable moat and earth banks to protect the houses, which were built on slightly higher ground than the rest of the surrounding countryside. Round the Z bends to a liftbridge, sharp left, where a cruiser was moored alongside a café (he followed us shortly after we passed him). There was a slight flow, which took our bows to the right. Mike looked at the bridge deck and decided we could get under it, so he backed off to straighten the boat up as the right hand side of the bridge was lower than the left. He was right, we made it through the bridge before the keeper turned up to lift it. Bill tried it and

Fishing boat at Frankener

found the swirling flow took his bows over to the right under the bridge. Just then the lady keeper appeared and lifted the deck, so he didn’t need to back off and try again. The cruiser came past Rosy minutes after he’d cleared the bridge, overtaking among lots of moored boats. Took photos of an ancient trip boat mouldering away by the junction with the Van Harinxmakanaal. (There was a lovely old yacht out on the bank – just suit a German friend of ours – needed some work on it though). Turned

Barnacle geese, Arumervaart

right on the commercial route. Had a very short wait while the keeper lifted the Stationsbrug, which worked to a strict timetable, opening four times an hour for pleasure boats. It was 10.24 a.m. when we went through. The cruiser had moored in the 3 day mooring just before the bridge. There were three red lights showing by the bridge, which indicated there was a flow - they were letting the excess water out at low tide down at Harlingen. We passed a dead end arm on our right where lots of big masted talks and klippers were moored. A little further on we came

Narrow canal through Arum

across a brand new liftbridge carrying a motorway across the canal. Mike wasn’t sure where the turn off to the left was for the Arumervaart as the motorway bridge wasn’t on our map. He called Bill on VHF as he had a much more recent map than ours. He confirmed that the turn was before the bridge, the old channel was straight on our map, this one had Z bends under an access road for the motorway. The water level was down and there was about a 1 kph flow, which we were going against, which made slow going on a canal

Narrow canal through Arum

which was already shallow. Creeping through a railway bridge brought back memories of the difficult job we used to have with Chirk tunnel on the Llangollen canal. The little canal had some interesting bends as we passed between fields of wheat and corn and pastures, where the ever present Friesian cows, or herds of horses, were grazing. A scruffy looking young Marsh Harrier flew over the fields on our right. We came to a liftbridge, between Hitzum and Arum, indicated on our chart as having a headroom of 2.65m –

Leaning painted tower in Arum

wrong! – it was more like 1m. I had to leap off on to a wobbly plank and climb up to a farm track and wind open the liftbridge after I’d hammered the locking wedges out. Reversing the procedure after the boats had gone through, I got back on board and carried on defrosting the ‘fridge, then made hot sandwiches for lunch, we ate them outside on the stern and then I went back inside to finish defrosting the fridge and replacing all the food. We went into a very narrow channel through the village of Arum, where there was a very interesting looking

Lifted bridge at Witmarsum

painted church tower, which leaned like the tower of Pisa, but I couldn’t get a decent photo of it as it was surrounded by lots of houses and trees. The southern canal route into Harlingen crossed the canal we were running south on. The navigation changed its name to the Witmarsumervaart, which wasn’t in the Deel 2 almanac at all. Saw another Marsh Harrier hunting low over the fields. I finished the chores, made a cuppa and sat out as the rain showers started. Into Witmarsum, under a low bridge which had had the centre section lifted. It wasn’t the lowest on the navigation, we hoped Bill’s new map was right because ours showed the lowes

Mooring at Witmarsum

t bridge as 0.85m! We tied up in the town next to a newish wooden deck after I’d moved a little red open boat, which had been tied in the middle of a space just long enough for us. Bill brought Rosy alongside. It was 1.25 p.m. and we’d only just finished tying up when a posh new varnished wooden sailing tjalk with lowered masts came past – there was just enough room for it to squeeze past. A young woman was anxiously walking the gunwales with a big black sausage fender ready to deploy it should the need arise. The young man who was steering was concentrating too hard to even smile as they went past. Bill took Fanny for a walk to explore the village. He said there was a butchers and a bakers and a little Spa. Helped Mike get the moped off the roof and he went to get the car from Berlikum. Mike returned with the car just after a heavy shower - he missed the rain both on the moped and in the car. Two men and a little lad came to chat, the lad had been earlier with his friend and wanted to ask questions but didn’t know any English, one chap had been on a narrowboat in England and remarked about how it kept going uphill in steps in locks. We watched the news then Mike and Bill went for a drink in the local café. It was pouring down with rain.

Friday 12th August 2005 Oudekerk to Berlikum.

Tiled bridge at Giekerk on 11 towns race circuit. Ouddeel Murk

10.7º C overnight. Grey, damp and chilly, sunny later in the afternoon. It was drizzling when we set of just after eight. Took photos of a tiled bridge, covered with pictures in blue and white of the ice skaters who have competed in the famous eleven towns race – the Ouddeel Murk forms part of the course – the pictures had been skilfully arranged to form images of ice speed skaters when viewed from a distance. We skirted Leeuwarden, heading southwards, to the east of the city, then the canal swung right to run to the west,

Tiled bridge at Giekerk on 11 towns race circuit. Ouddeel Murk

south of the city on the main commercial route, Van Harinxmakanaal. As this is the route for masted vessels all the bridges are moveable, including two pivoting swinging railway bridges. After seeing nothing but a small cruiser on the little canal we were suddenly back among the cruisers and yachts, most of which were heading south for the lakes. We turned right near Deinum (a town with an intriguing Mediaeval church which has a tower topped with an onion dome) off the Van Harinxmakanaal on to the

Tiled bridge at Giekerk on 11 towns race circuit. Ouddeel Murk

Menaldumervaart, where all the bridges were fixed (except one) and the maximum possible height above the water was 2.4m, which eliminates all the tall cruisers and hireboats and is only 1.25m deep, which gets rid of the keeled yachts, even with their masts stepped. The bends were very interesting, some more than ninety degrees and the little bridges were often arched ones, so care had to be taken to get the right line through the bridge. In Menaldum we went through a narrow section with a roof high quay all along the left hand side and were faced with a

Railway swing bridge on the Van Harixmakanaal

very low arched bridge, which had a notice saying apply at 4, Lyste Dijk for service. Mike got off and went to find the keeper, who appeared and came to lift the bridge – a modern press button affair. Mike asked him about the water levels as we’d noticed that the level looked down by about 20 cms and he confirmed our suspicions that they run water out into the sea at low tide, then the land drains into the canal and fills it up again, etc, etc. Round the next bend we spotted a supermarket right alongside the canal and Bill had been saying earlier that

Dock cranes at Leeuwarden Van Harixmakanaal

he could do with some groceries. We tied to the posts provided and Mike went off to get a few things too, while I made a salad for lunch. It was very useful for Bill as he could get the supermarket trolley very close to his boat and stock up with crates of beer without having to carry them any distance. Set off again eating lunch on the stern as the sun came out. Round the next bend we met a little black hulled botter with its masts lowered. Mike called Bill on VHF to tell him that there was a boat coming towards him and they would meet on the bend, but

Railway swing bridge on the Van Harixmakanaal

the botter slowed right down when its crew saw us. The couple on board looked very sullen and miserable – they didn’t say hello or wave. As we came into Berlikum, where we had decided to stay overnight, two cruisers pulled away from a quay where lots of other small boats were moored in front of a row of houses. That was fortunate, it gave us a place to tie up. Mike unloaded the moped, easily as the quay was almost roof height, and went off to collect the car from Oudekerk. I trimmed off the mossie netting on the new door

Church tower at Deinum. Van Harixmakanaal

curtain and a man passing by stopped to chat. He’d wanted to know how long the boat was and did we have any trouble with the bends! He’d been kayaking in Poland 30 years ago with kayakers from all over the world, around Posnan and Bydgoszcz! Small world. Put the PC on and did the log. When Mike returned, (he came back with a box of Merci chocolates for me from the fisherlady we saw yesterday! Wasn’t that a nice surprise – that’s the first time I’ve ever had a box of chocolates from complete strangers) and we’d stowed the

Tight bend on the Menaldumervaart

moped back on board, we went for a look around the Market Hall located about 50m behind the boats. In a large factory unit someone had set up a shop selling all sorts of odds and ends, from clothes and clogs to food and tools. Bill had bought a pack of two mousetraps – he gave us one, which Mike installed under the bonnet of the car as a rodent (resident?) had continued to chew away at the insulation under the

Moored on the quay in Berlikum

bonnet.