Short cruise

8/9th April 2015

Short cruise.   In fact a very short cruise on Wednesday - about 3 nautical miles from Lemmer to the little town of Sloten.    Cool and overcast but little wind.   The harbour at Sloten is called Lemsterpoort and these people run the main marina as well as overseeing the public moorings in and around the small town.   Just before the marina there are two long fixed pontoons with shore access.   We chose the one nearer the town.  No facilities and very peaceful.   Overnight fee €1 per metre.

With the boat secure, we walked into the town via the harbourmaster's office.   It's a great place!   Very historic with a good museum and some restaurants.  There is also a small supermarket.

The canal (above) running through the centre is navigable but there are fixed bridges with low airdraft.   It would be great to come in by dinghy on a warm summer's evening for dinner, or just a drink, in the historic centre as the walk takes about 10 minutes.

There is a large and rather ugly factory just N of the bridge which, strangely enough, didn't seem to intrude too much.   It makes milk powder.

Just beside our mooring was a grebe sitting on her nest.

Next morning was flat calm (nearly) and warm for the first time this year.   What a difference.

We crossed the Slotermeer on the way to Woudsend; only about 3nm.   One interesting issue we found was that our Raymarine chart plotter was putting us about 15m outside the buoyed channel to port, and the Navionics system on the iPad was putting us about 15m outside the channel to starboard.   Odd, as they are usually accurate to about 2 metres - especially the Navionics system.  It's all very shallow around here - the depth of water in the buoyed channel is only 2m; outside is is variable down to 1.1m. One Dutch phrase worth knowing - "buiten de vaargeul"; 'variable depths'.

Anyway, we duly arrived in Woudsend without dragging the keel through the putty.  Through the bridge and moored at the JH [Yacht harbour] De Rakken on a very pleasant Spring afternoon.

Time for relaxing in the warm sunshine.

/Rich