The weather, Hindeloopen, the lock and the Cobb

The weather has been perfect the last few days: not a cloud in the sky, almost no wind and close to 20C. As this is unusual in this country, at least at this time of the year and for more than one or two days, it is a main topic of conversation. Although there may be a bit more cloud in the next few days, it should remain dry a bit longer and get warmer too!

Yesterday we cycled to Hindeloopen, a city (very small, but one of the 11 Frisian cities as is Stavoren where we still are). Hindeloopen is very picturesque and a favourite amongst yachtsmen to spend a Saturday night. Combine that with the weather and you get 'traffic jams' of yachts trying to get into the small harbour. The harbour master (complete with peaked cap and tie) sits like a king on his throne at the end of one of the jetties and directs traffic by pointing to the allocated berth:






Of course in no time people have to double up as the municipal harbour is very small:




This afternoon, I went to have a look at the lock here in Stavoren. As you may remember from an earlier post, a brand new second lock chamber was opened only 10 days ago exactly. Unfortunately, it is already out of order. From what I can see a problem with the electronics of one of the interlocks. The lights for the road traffic are continuously flashing, but the booms stay up, the bridge down, the doors closed and the lock empty:





As it is busy because of the nice weather, the old lock chamber is full and the queue outside considerable:








It struck me that the locking cycle of the new lock takes twice as long as that of the old one (if it works at all, that is). This is because the amount of water to be moved is about double, which in turn is because there is a lot of 'dead water' inside the lock. If you look at the picture of the empty lock above you probably will understand what I am trying to say. I really struggle to understand the thought process of the designers: yes, it's pretty, no it's not efficient.

Finally, we cooked on the Cobb barbecue for the forth consecutive night. We smoked our own salmon this time, using 'smoking pellets'. Delicious!

Tomorrow, we'll move on to Sneek.

Location:Stadsfenne,Nijefurd,The Netherlands