 Horses Grazing on Dwars in den Weg |
 Porpoise Blowing in the Grevelingenmeer |
We were as happy as sand boys, tootling along under blue skies, with the sun dappling the water ahead of us. I heard what sounded like a puff; unusual for the boat to make such a noise I thought. The noise appeared again, this time sounding more like a snort. Now this was a sound that reminded me of dolphins breathing through their blowholes. I peered over our starboard side and spotted it almost immediately, a single porpoise swimming just below the surface about a metre from our side. It matched our speed perfectly, dropping out of sight occasionally, then resurfacing for air; basically it was just having fun. It accompanied us for quite a while before veering off. The odd thing is that with the Grevelingenmeer dammed at the western end and a lock at the other, how did the porpoise get in, or was it left over from before the dam. An internet search after we returned home identified that porpoises were being seen more and more frequently in the Grevelingenmeer in recent years, so they must be doing well in that habitat.
As one creature left, another one appeared, in the form of a solitary seagull. He flew over us in a graceful arc, lined himself up and landed on our stern rail. Rex shooed him away, but the plucky bird just took off, circled, and gracefully swooped in to land on the Danbuoy on the stern. Rex now adopted a different tactic, tossing some bread over the side for him. It worked, the gull flopped down into the water, feasted, and left us alone.
 Plucky Gull |
Just past the Aqua Delta yacht harbour, a yacht lay sheepishly aground; misjudged navigation, inadvertently forced aground or loss of engine power perhaps. We will never know. When we reached the lock at Bruinisse, a couple of German yachts were already vying for pole position. Life is too short, let them get on with it.
Once clear of the lock, we swung right and retraced our steps towards Veere. As we left the Mastgat and turned left before the Zeelandbrug, we came across sandbanks which had been exposed by the low tide. As we passed by Vondelingsplaat sandbank, Meryl spotted a colony of seals with their newly born pups. We weaved around the bottom of Galgeplaat, and up through the Zandkreek to the Zandkreeksluis. This was our entry point back into the Veerse Meer.
We were obliged to tie up to the waiting pontoon with three Belgian boats. A large barge stealthily slid up beside us and just hovered at the entrance to the sluice. When the lock gates opened, out slid an equally large barge going in the opposite direction. With the lock now empty, the large barge manoeuvred its way in with a lot of backwash. One inside, a gaggle of yachts that had been gilling about shot in alongside the barge.
 Seals with Pups on Vondelingsplaat Sandbank |
The Veerse Meer seemed prettier in the sunshine than it did on the way up. The holiday centre at Kortgene drifted by on our starboard side, and we picked our course around the multitude of islands that were dotted along the route.
 Barges at Zandkreeksluis |
By luck the harbour master was still around, and we were directed to a box just outside of the closed bridges.
In the clubhouse, we ate well and sipped beer as we joined the Dutch customers watching Argentina play Switzerland in the World Cup. We retired early after a ritual wash down of the boat with a hosepipe.