Monday 15th August 2005 Witmarsum to S. end of Jentjemeer.

Factory bridge Witmarsumervaart

13º C Grey, overcast, cold and breezy. Mike went to the bakery for bread and then we both went to the Spa minimarket, calling via the car to get two rucksacks, and bought groceries for the week. Saw a very tame wren in one of the gardens as we walked by. The prices in Spa were not as bad as I had expected, we spent around 45€. Bill had already been to both places when we got back. Set off just after 9.00 a.m. As we were untying three little lads on bikes arrived again and were still trying to talk to us in Fries. I don’t think they could grasp the idea that we, as adults, couldn’t understand what they were saying. We followed Rosy south on the Witmarsumervaart, round some awesome bends under bridges which were marked on our

Windmill near Bolsward

chart (dated ‘96/’97) as between 45 cms and 1m, all of which had been raised to give ample headroom (for narrowboats!) of around 2.5m. We came to a stop when faced with a liftbridge, overtaking Rosy to investigate. There was a push button, which I pressed. Immediately the road barriers dropped and the bridge deck lifted. Although Rosy was close behind us, the bridge lights turned red and the deck lowered as soon as we’d cleared the three sensors under the deck. Bill had to reverse hard and then press the button for it to open again. A “one boat at a time bridge” – the first we’d come across! We turned left on to the canal into Bolsward and

Blauwpoortsbrug Bolsward

admired the enterprise of the DIY store on the outskirts of the town for putting a nice wooden edge to the bank and a horizontal bar for boats to tie to alongside their car park to enable them to visit their premises. Round a sharp left hand bend and we came to another lift bridge, Knetermansbrug. There was no one around except a man fishing from the bridge deck. He told us the keeper was at the next bridge, so Mike climbed the bridge deck (there was no bank access from the posts and planks by the bridge) and went to find him. He was back in a few minutes and I picked him up off the bridge. Round a ninety degree right hand bend, the junction with the circular route through the little town, and we waited for the keeper to

Open railway swingbridge at Ijlst

come and open the next bridge, Blauwpoortsbrug. Both were free of charge. Suddenly there were boats everywhere, sailboats with masts up and cruisers, most of which were big hireboats from Sneek and Ijlst. Turned right and followed two cruisers and a masted tjalk through the double road liftbridges, whose decks descended as we went through (2.6m clearance was plenty for us with no mast up). Just beyond the bridge we turned left on the Bolswardervaart with two cruisers approaching from our left. I got the blame for us cutting across in front of them as I hadn’t gone up to the bows to check to see what was coming. I had forgotten that

Railway tracks from the swingbridge at Ijlst

the navigation we were joining was twice the width and depth of the one we’d just left. Rosy was right behind us and kept coming too as he said he hadn’t heard Mike call on VHF as the bridge was making a loud noise. As it happens the two cruisers were turning into the canal we’d just left anyway. Mike put our mast back up as all the bridges were moveable ones all the way into the little town of Ijlst. There were lapwings, crows and starlings in the meadow alongside the canal, swallows all along the wire fence, sandpipers dashing off in front skimming over the water and coots, grebe and ducks paddling around in the canal. Lots of birds for such a busy boaty

Railway swingbridge at Ijlst

spot. We got through Wolsumerkettingbrug and Abbegeasterkettingbrug (1,20€ each) the keeper at the latter bridge was an old lady who beamed at us and said our boats were beautiful, before getting stuck for lunch at the swingbridge at Oosthem. Two cruisers were following a masted tjalk (with leeboard just lowered a few cms in the water to compensate for the strong side wind) going towards the last liftbridge, it was ten to twelve and we wondered if the old lady would let them through - she did. Made some lunch. Set off again when a man came out to swing the manually operated swingbridge. He stood next to the bridge with a clog on a

Nijezijlbrug. Wijde Wijmerts

fishing pole at the ready, but couldn’t reach us as both boats steered through on the far side of the bridge hole (I’d got a note on the chart that he swings a clog out for a tip) and didn’t make a contribution for him working the free bridge. Bill had paid for the two boats at the previous bridge due to lack of change, so Mike paid for two at the next bridge, Nijezijlbrug liftbridge. The rail swing bridge was open so I took photos for Glyn, including one from the roof of the lines, and a whole ruck of boats were coming through Nijezijlbrug liftbridge towards us. A large hireboat hadn’t got the idea that he could go through the other side of the open railway swingbridge (it was on a bend) and swung hard across behind Rosy to take the side we’d just come through. We skirted round the western edge of the little town of Ijlst, heading south on the

Armchair boating Wijde Wijmerts

Wijde Wijmerts. There were lots of kids in sailing boats coming towards us, some of them being towed by motor boats and a couple of them had settees! What next? One tacked right in front of our bows and Mike shouted “Missed!” not realising until a few minutes later what he’s said – mest (pronounced “mist”) is Dutch for shit! After a short distance further down the navigation we turned left, heading back towards the town, east on the Winsloot, then north on the Het Zouw before turning right on to the Jutrijpervaart, heading south again, round some more very impressive bends. Two open speed boats passed us, one in either direction, the one coming towards us tried to take the wrong side on a left hand bend until Mike left him no

Farmhouse Het Zouw

room (we needed it all to get round the sharp bend) then the one overtaking us nipped round our bows and opened up the big outboard engine as he went round a blind right hand bend. We could see over the reeds that there was nothing else coming round the bend, but the two boys on board the speedboat couldn’t! Turned left, heading east again, on the Zoolsloot, then right - running southeast, down the Ooster Wijmerts. Crossed the Prinses Margriet Kanaal (no commercials about only sailboats by the dozen) where the channel crossed a small lake with a house on an island, then southeast again on the Langeweerdervaart, then left again - eastwards - on the De Brekken and Fammensraken, under three low bridges turning north to the moorings south of Jentje Meer. The first landing stages were almost full with

Safety poster "Travel courteously on the waterways"

moored cruisers, but the second had only two moored boats. We winded at the southern end of the little lake and went back to the landing. The mud under the stagings always shoves the boat back out again as it comes alongside, so I got off sharpish with the bow ropes and we tied behind the cruiser and yacht at the north end of the staging. It was 3.45 p.m. Mike and I unloaded the moped and Mike went to collect the car from Witmarsum. Bill called round to say that Veronica had called him to say his missing parcel had just turned up – marked “wrongly addressed” and returned to her (it had been addressed exactly the same as was the one he’d received). Glyn phoned with the address for our next postal drop at Wolvega (now nicknamed by Mike and

Sunset over Jentjemeer

Glyn “Swarfega” (brand name of a famous hand cleaner) - deaf pair of idiots) which he’d found via the internet for us again. 

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.