This is "Onbekommerd"!

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Greetsiel and Juist

After leaving Delfzijl, we travelled through the Eems and onto the German 'Wad'. This is tidal water, so you have to take the varying water depths as well as the current into consideration:





We got to the lock at Leysiel:





We dropped about 2 m and then motored to the old fishing town on Greetsiel. It's a very picturesque old village, which still has a small but active shrimp fishing fleet:









It has also been discovered by tourists and understandably, the place is now full of fish restaurants and souvenir shops, although fortunately all done in pretty good taste. It still is a pleasant little town and at night quiet descends.

This morning, I took the bus to the regional town of Norden, to acquire a SIM card for the iPad. After I got back, we decided to move on to the island of Juist (Greetsiel is still on the mainland). Although it was cloudy and rainy, this seemed the best way to go, as the forecast for the next few days shows quite a bit of wind and it's better to be stuck on Juist than in the rather boring town of Greetsiel. So when the tide allowed, we left, passed through the lock again, and crossed to Juist. The weather was not great, with visibility poor due to the rain. With the help of GPS.it was however easy navigating. After tying up, after 7pm, we were pretty wet:






It now was time for well deserved drinks and a meal of asparagus, as they are in season.





Thanks for cooking them, Jet!

The next few days we plan to spend on Juist, before moving further East along the German islands.

Location:Hafen,Juist,Germany

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Groningen and Delfzijl

We left our quiet mooring 'in the wild' and motored up the Princes Margriet kanaal and the Van Starckenborgh kanaal towards Groningen. Usually, these canals are very busy with commercial traffic, but as it was a public holiday it was relatively quiet. The canalside was very pretty:





We spent the night in Groningen and the following morning went shopping at the market. Dutch markets have lots of stalls selling cheeses, fruit, vegetables, fish and meat. This in addition to items of clothing and haberdashery (I love that word!).









We are planning ahead for a few months outside the Netherlands and one thing that has not been planned by the EU is gas bottle connections. So we need sufficient supplies of 'Dutch gas' to survive a few months. In addition, the somewhat over ambitious safety regulations make it more and more difficult to sell gas bottles, with the result that it is not so easy to find a retailer on the water. After a bit of phoning around we located one in Delfzijl, which was our next stop.

Once we had the gas bottle (we now have two, with a total of 21 kegs of propane which - from experience - should last 14 weeks) we went through the lock onto salt water:






In the yacht harbour, we met Hans and Jet, with whom we'll spend the next few weeks on the German Wadden islands.

This is their boat, the 'Waterbufvel':




(Hans and I went to get diesel).

We spent the evening planning tomorrow's trip, to Greetsiel on the German mainland:





I am not sure when next we'll be able to update the blog. Up till now, I have used the 3G facility of the iPad to do these posts if there is no WiFi available, but I need to get a German 3G card to do this from tomorrow. It is not clear if a 3G card can be obtained in a small place like Greetsiel. We'll update as soon as we can though.

Location:Handelskade West,Delfzijl,The Netherlands

Sunday, May 27, 2012

The end of the DeltaLloyd regatta and back to Fryslân

The DeltaLloyd regatta ended yesterday. It was a busy, but fun week. Probably the best weather I have seen for a regatta for a long time, resulting in all races being completed to the time schedule.
I have already shared a picture of my working environment, this was Lyn's office:






We twice had Olympians on board, a real privilege!





The South African 470 crew of Asenathi Jim and Roger Hudson (including 'manager' Dave and Roger's fiancé Lucy).





Dutch 470 skipper Lisa Westerhof (having a rest) with parents and in-laws.


The prizegiving was part of a big party, which also included the 'send- off' of the Dutch Olympic and Paralympic sailing team:





This morning, still in fantastic weather conditions, we left Medemblik to go back to Fryslân (Frisian for 'Friesland'). We are meeting our friends Hans and Jet on Tuesday in Delfzijl (which is in the Groningen province) to start our trip to the German Wadden islands.
As it is a long weekend as well as stunning weather, it is very busy on the water. We went into Fryslân through the lock in Stavoren. The wait for the lock going into the province was not bad, about 20 minutes. But the wait for boats going the other way must have been several hours:





If I had collected a Euro for each boat we saw today, I could singlehandedly solve the Greek crisis!

Is this really a boat?





After a long day on the water (over 7 hours), we are now tied up along a canal. There are quite a few boats spending the night here, but now - at 9pm - the passing traffic is dying down and it's nice and quiet.





Tomorrow we plan to get as far as Groningen, then on Tuesday only a short stretch to Delfzijl.


Thursday, May 24, 2012

DeltaLloyd regatta - ISAF World Cup

Like last year, we are both involved in the DeltaLloyd regatta, which is one of the ISAF World Cup regattas for Olympic and Paralympic classes. With several World Championships in the Olympic classes just having finished, some as late as last week, and the final ISAF World Cup event starting at the Olympic venue, Weymouth, in 2 weeks time, the entry is very much down on last year. But it still is an exciting buzz to be here. Lyn runs the logistics of the press office, including getting the photographers allocated to boats on the racecourses, I am again the 'speaker', on the PA system, keeping everyone on shore up to date on what happens on the racecourses.
What is really interesting this year is the use of IT in race management, results processing and tracking. In effect, the races are managed and recorded by computers. Each boat carries a GPS tracking device which sends its position to the computer on shore at a rate of several times per second. That gives an accuracy of less than a metre. From 5 minutes before the start until after all boats have finished, one can see the entire fleet on screens, but also on the Internet. Look on www.deltalloydregatta.org and click on 2D or on 3D tracking! But the computers also log the mark roundings and the finish of the boats. This way, the results are posted on the Internet automatically some 15 seconds after the last boat has finished. The race officer can of course override the computer's 'decisions', but so far, after up to 8 races on 6 courses each, this has not yet happened! In addition, there is hardly any paperwork. No finish lists in triplicate.....

The whole thing is a worlds' first and there is a whole back office staff of the company that does this, Swiss Timing, to make improvements and new functionality as the regatta goes on. In 65 days, at the Olympics, the same technology will be used and we are some of the guineapigs helping developing it!





Back office staff






Tracking screen. Green for boats, orange for marks etc.






Race management. What is the race status for every class on every course.

It was a great and very pleasant surprise to us to see these people here in Medemblik again:





From left to right, Roger Hudson, Asenathi Jim and Dave Hudson. Asenathi and Roger just last week managed to get a very coveted Olympic qualification. There are only a limited number of countries that can qualify to send a crew to the games in each sailing class. In the men's 470 class, it is 28. The battle for these places is fierce, and only one year after starting to sail 470's competitively, Asenathi and Roger gained such a place. We now all hope that SASCOC, the South African Olympic committee, will allow them to go. It appears that the South African contingent is 'oversubscribed' and it would be an enormous disappointment if the fact that money is channelled into parties for officials instead of spending it on athletes ends these guys' Olympic dream!


Location:Vooroever,Medemblik,The Netherlands

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Makkum and Medemblik

From Bolsward it was only a very short (5 nm) stretch to Makkum, but we enjoy the quiet mooring in Makkum so we decided to stop there anyway.
Although Makkum is very small and has not got a lot to do or see, it's still quite pretty:





And it's got pretty white ducks too (and clean water, you can see its feet!)





As we are assisting as volunteers at the DeltaLloyd regatta again (Lyn in the press office and Hans as 'speaker'), we had to cross the IJsselmeer again to Medemblik. Today the conditions were supposed to be good, but the visibility was a lot less than predicted. Especially in a few rain showers, we were happy to have the GPS, as one could see nothing but 'soup' around. We even used the radar to help look out for other vessels.
Medemblik however was exactly where it was supposed to be and we are safely in our berth for the week.
The weather has cleared up nicely and we have had the roof open this afternoon. Also dinner outside in the cockpit, but there is no picture of that.







Medemblik has a wonderful regatta centre.




There probably won't be too many posts the next few days, but we'll try to keep you updated a few times.
We plan to leave here next Sunday or Monday, weather dependent.

Location:Vooroever,Medemblik,The Netherlands

Friday, May 18, 2012

Made it to Bolsward

Sunsets on board are an occasion to take nice pictures:





After a very quiet night 'in the countryside', we went to face this low bridge. There was a 'not so low' one first, and Lyn measured the headroom we had. That made us slightly more comfortable that it would be possible. And yes, with 7cm to spare we slowly conquered 'Spiketille'.




We then discovered that the next bridge was very narrow, one chart said 3.8m, the other 4.4m. We are 3.45 m wide, so we should fit through in either case. It was closer to 4.4 than to 3.8, so not difficult in the end:





We only take these pics after we have passed the obstacle and the stress is gone!

A bit later we arrived in Bolsward and we decided to call it a day and tie up. As it is Ascension day weekend, it's quite busy on the water and the mooring facilities filled up soon after we arrived.

We have been in Bolsward before, it is one of the Frisian 11 towns and has good facilities for boats. On this picture, you can see the Dutch flag with the Orange streamer, which indicates a Royal occasion. Yesterday was princess Maxima's birthday, but I guess they don't fly the flag on Ascension day?





Location:Gleibakkerij,Bolsward,The Netherlands

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Franeker and Easterlittens

After a nice evening with our friends (and fellow boaters) Hans and Jet, we left the mooring in front of their house at 8am as we had an appointment at Valk Yachts, the 'birthplace' of Onbekommerd in the town of Franeker. We tied up at the boatyard at 11:30.





After we had a few things done (including removal of the heater, which - after the repair in Utrecht - is playing up again) and made arrangements for some TLC to Onbekommerd next winter, we tied up along the quayside of Franeker itself.
This morning we set out to explore this small but extremely interesting Frisian town. A University was founded here in 1585, only a year after the first University in the Netherlands in Leiden. It is no longer here, but was in existence for over 250 years.
Also, Franeker houses the oldest still working planetarium constructed by a mainly self taught woolcomber, mathematician and astronomer called Eise Eisinga. He built the planetarium in the space of 7 years in the ceiling of his living room. So even today you can see the actual positions of the planets, the moon and the sun there. It is fascinating! Here are some Franeker pictures:





Planetarium (unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside, but it is worthwhile to Google it!)





Korendragershuisje.




Onbekommerd in Franeker


This morning we set out on a new adventure: through the 'Bolswarder Trekvaart' to another Frisian town, Bolsward. Why is this an adventure? Well the canal, which is supposed to be 1.65m deep, turns out to be 1.2 m (Onbekommerd needs 1m). So not a lot of water under the keel. On top of that, the bridges are 2.50m. That is exactly what we need. We are now tied up along the canal in a very rural setting:





This is near Easterlittens, about a third of the way to Bolsward.

The lowest bridge will be early tomorrow, we have dropped the GPS antenna to get minimum headroom requirement. So we'll see tomorrow 'if it fits'. If not, we'll have to turn around and retrace our steps to the bigger canals. Not really a problem.
Watch this space......

Location:Weakens,Iens,The Netherlands

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Discussing the German Wadden trip

It was one of these wet Dutch days today. We started by visiting the market in Sneek in a steady drizzle. After some shopping, we set course to Headammen where our friends Hans and Jet live. Together we are going to do a German Wadden trip early June, so we all thought it would be a good idea to do some pre-trip planning.
We had a nice dinner too!





Tomorrow, we'll set course to Onbekommerd's birthplace, Valk Yachts in Franeker to get some items sorted.

Monday, May 14, 2012

From Monnickendam to Lemmer and Sneek

The weather yesterday was almost perfect for an IJsselmeer crossing, so we set off from Monnickendam at 9:





A three hour trip with sun and little wind brought us to the 'Naviduct' lock at Enkhuizen. This lock is built as an aqueduct, on top of the motorway. Here we are waiting to enter:





As it was a Sunday, there was quite a bit of traffic, but not busy, just nice:









By 3pm we were tied up in Lemmer, back in the Fryslân province. Lemmer is not one on the 11 Frisian towns, it is a 'vlecke', wich means a large village. The old lock is quite nice and so is the quayside in the old quarter. Nice in the pre season, packed in mid summer and noisy with several bars and discos. The weather was still nice and we had pre dinner drinks outside in the cockpit for the first time this year.









This morning it was pretty windy, but as we are now only navigating lakes and canals that's fine. We made our way to Sneek, which being sort of a major town has a few facilities we need (such as a Vodafone shop to sort out the Internet on my iPad).

Tomorrow the plan is to visit our friends at the Headammen (that is also a Frisian word!).

Location:Koopmansgracht,Sneek,The Netherlands

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Monnickendam

Our first day back was quite busy in the end.
We had (and still have) lots of chores to do. Certainly, on a boat, the job list never ends.
Ed and Elly came to see us with their new dog, Bentley:






We had a real Dutch barbecue, as it was the opening of the season in Monnickendam. The allocated portions of meat will keep us going for a few days. There was nice live music too:










It's quite cold, but at least it is dry!

Tomorrow, the forecast is light winds and sun. Ideal to cross the IJsselmeer. We'll probably aim for Lemmer, we have never entered Fryslân there.


Friday, May 11, 2012

On our way back to Onbekommerd

After collecting Lyn's new passport on Wednesday, we could start planning our return to our 'home on the water'. It's not easy to find an affordable one way flight at short notice, but somewhat surprisingly, we could use some almost-expiring KLM frequent flyer miles to book tickets for Friday 6:40pm.

This morning, we enjoyed visiting the exhibition of Leonardo anatomical drawings with Gwilym and Janine at the Queen's Gallery:






Then we had lunch with Sean and John Eloff. Nice Japanese food!





Now we are at Heathrow, waiting to board our flight. We'll report from Onbekommerd tomorrow.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

M&M World

Yesterday was May Bank Holiday (for our South African readers: this has nothing to do with banks, it's what a public holiday is called here).
Rachel and Mathew, Lyn's niece and her husband who live in Cambridge had come down to London for the day to see the exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci's anatomical drawings in the Queen's Gallery (we are going on Friday). We met them afterwards and walked to Sean's office. He was there, studying for the CFA2 exam he is writing in under 4 weeks time. We went for coffee and muffins together:





After coffee, Sean went back to the books, but as Rachel and Mathew did not have any fixed plans what to do next, we asked Sean - who after all by now is a real Londoner - for suggestions. Somewhat to my surprise he suggested M & M World, which is in Leicester Square. So we walked there, not quite knowing what to expect.
This place is quite amazing, it's a classical example of the power of merchandising and branding. They have used the simple concept of an M & M (a coloured sugar-coated chocolate) into a cult. In this store, there are 4 floors (!!!) of M & M branded merchandise, anything you can think of has been "M & M'ed". Clothing, souvenirs, cups, glasses etc etc.


















And yes, you can buy M&M's too!




Thanks for the suggestion, Sean!