Netherlands Trip - Ijmuiden      25th June:

    I awoke to a cool, overcast day. I had a Facetime with my eldest daughter, Sally, plus her partner George. It was their son's, Ralph, first birthday today. It would have been 7am their time, but of course I knew they would already have been up for ages, since 5am to be exact. There he was, the little man, walking around with the aid of his walker, shaking his head to get the hair out of his eyes.
    For quite a while George had been wanting to get Ralph's haircut, but Sally had been against it. Now she was beginning towards George's point of view.
    I watched the happy, wee lad gaze at his birthday card and shrug as if to say, "What am I meant to do with that?" Then he opened the present I had left for him. He was highly interested in the book with its lift up flaps that he knows how to open. Surprise, surprise he showed no interest at all in the clothes I had bought for him, but he is a boy after all. Today was going to be a trip to London Zoo for them all; I wonder what he'd make of that.
    Later, we assisted Paul and Miriam as they left the marina to travel to Dordrecht. There, they would leave their boat for two weeks while they returned by ferry to the UK to attend to work commitments. Then they would return and continue their exploration of Holland.
    The harbourmaster, in an odd moment between watering flowers, asked John and Sue to move into the berth that Paul and Miriam had vacated. We assisted them with that manoeuvre - Rex and I had discovered our new roles in life.

Free for all at the Haringvlietbrug

    Then, in a light drizzle, I chatted with the Dutchman who had come down to check up on his boat which was adjacent to us. Amazingly, he had gone down a parallel path to Rex, and had bought his wife a new kitchen. However, unlike Rex, he had not successfully negotiated four weeks' vacation. Hmm ...., I could almost imagine Rex setting up a training course on the pontoon. "My wife doesn't like to sail, and she's content to sit on the boat in a marina in 25 degrees of heat. Her kind of fun is travelling in our camper van," he said resignedly. Not his cup of tea I gathered. So, the chap undertook solo sailing when he had the opportunity.
    "What is the best time to sail from the exit of the Haringvliet into the North Sea up to Ijmuiden?" I enquired. "Get to the end of the buoyed channel from the lock four hours before high water," was his sagely response. This tied in with Rex's calculations, so we had the basis of a solid plan for our journey up to the frozen wastelands. We thanked the man for his wisdom.
    Time was pressing, we needed to get to the Haringvlietbrug for its 11am opening. John returned the favour and helped us with our bow lines, and soon we were heading out of the marina onto the Hollandsche Diep.
    A short trip took us to the bridge, and we as we gilled we watched endless queues of boats assemble on both sides of the bridge. At the duly appointed hour, the bridge opened, and we engaged in the free for all transit through the bridge. Now we were travelling up the Haringvliet, a gorgeous stretch of water neither of us had sailed on before. Green and pleasant lands stretched far away from the banks. To cap it all, the sun made a welcome appearance. Numerous, small fishing boats peppered the water.

    We skirted to the north of the island of Tiengemeten, waved to Hellevoet, and within a few hours we arrived at Stellendam. Here was the defence against the North Sea in the form of the Haringvlietsluizen, which controlled the flow of water between the Haringvliet and the North Sea. We veered left into the Binnenhaven, passing the marina entrance to our left, and found ourselves in a huge basin containing many fishing trawlers plus dry docks. We picked our way through this to a waiting pontoon and contacted the lock bridge keeper, giving details of our mast height. "Wait five minutes, please," advised the keeper. Five minutes passed, the lock light turned to red/green (get ready in Dutch) and magically the lock gates swung open. The nervous anticipation; Rex and Dave go through the Stellendam.
    A few moments later, bells indicated the road bridge traffic barriers were coming down. Once the traffic stopped, the bridge amazingly opened. The tension was unbearable, Rex stood with his jaw wide open - what manner of possibilities lay beyond? A small motorboat shot in front of us creating a fair amount of wake. When the bridge was fully opened, we entered and tied up in the far end of a very long lock.
    The motorboat occupants appeared to be a Chinese couple, the woman wearing a face mask that stretched from her eyes to her chest, her attire completed with a fluorescent orange cagoule. Hmm .. The Lion, the Witch and Wonderwoman. With the lock gate closed behind us, we were raised by about 2m and then one lock barrier to the North Sea was opened, followed by a second gate shortly afterwards. For some inexplicable reason the motorboat started to perform a series of traverses from side to side of the lock, churning up the water, before heading into the Buitenhaven. With the bridge now open we followed the small craft out.
    We departed the Buitenhaven, passing the huge construction of the Haringvlietsluizen, and then proceeded to follow a well buoyed channel, the Slijkgat, for about 1.5 hours. We had been strongly advised by locals to stick to the centre of this channel and continue right to the very end in order to avoid notorious shifting sandbanks.
    Rain started to pelt down. The monotony of the Slijkgat was broken by a lifeboat hurtling in at great speed, and a dredger scouring the sea bed towards the outer reaches of the channel.

Maasvlakte with Europort Beyond

Turbine Erection on Maasvlakte

    After we had left the Slijkgat, we set a course slightly east of north, acknowledging the huge sandbank on our starboard side. A huge anchorage stretched to port. Ahead, to starboard, stretched a huge industrial complex, Maasvlakte, with Europort beyond. Large wind turbines were being erected by the Maasvlakteweg.
    On our approach to the busy entrance to Europort and Rotterdam, we were obliged to call port control and advise them of our intentions to cross the channel. They were fine and just asked us to keep listening for any instructions on channel 03. A group of ships were entering the channel as we approached, and we got the inevitable call asking us to pass around the stern of a ship leaving the port.
    It was then that I spotted a couple of porpoises just off our starboard side. What they were doing swimming in a busy shipping channel is anybody's guess.

Gas Rig

    An hour later, the rain had stopped and we were passing through an anchorage populated by half a dozen ships off the coast at Scheveningen. On our port side a curtain of wind turbines hemmed us in, complete with five gas rigs.
    As the sun sank, it peeped through a bank of clouds near the horizon, bathing the coastline in a ethereal golden light; sheer magic.

Scheveningen with Den Haag Behind

Sunset off South Holland

    It was a seemingly endless drag up to Ijmuiden, and we were eventually overwhelmed to be passing between the breakwaters. We knew the marina well, and with not much of a fanfare we made our way in, with me standing at the bow picking out the buoyed entry channel with a torch. It was all silent and ram packed. We quietly motored along a very long pontoon frantically looking for anywhere to tie up for the night. The ghostly figures of fishermen lined the sea wall hoping to catch breakfast. A gap was spotted midst the seething mass of yachts, and we just went for it as quietly and quickly as we could. It was 2am.
    It had been a long trek. Rex wanted to devour copious amounts of bread and butter now, I just wanted to sleep, so I left him to it.