April 2021 – part 2
Arrived at Workum to stay for a couple of nights. The weather is starting to get a lot warmer and with the lockdown rules starting to ease, this town send to be coming alive. Our mooring was less than 100m from two supermarkets and just a short five minutes walk from the town centre, and opposite some pretty green areas. We decided to take a walk later in the evening to get a feel for the town at night, which was very quiet but also very pretty.
Old canal denoted by bollards 
On our first day (Saturday) we walked over to a nearby beach (Workum Strand, Iselmeer), about half an hour away, passing an old set of lock gates now repurposed as bench seats, an Alpaca farm, and many lovely houses with local character. Once at the beach – a lovely sandy stretch along the Iselmeer – we were lucky enough to see a few kite surfers in action, including an awesome 15 year old showing off his kite surfing skills. (On chatting to his mother it turned out that he has already been approached to take part in 2024 Olympics when they will be introducing kite surfing as a new entry.)
Once we arrived back in the town we took the opportunity of visiting various shops and even had time to stop at a cafe, and although seated outside it was a very pleasant experience, sat in a sunny, sheltered area, once again able to enjoy a coffee and the obligatory slice of cake.
A good night’s sleep saw us up and ready for the off again, and we said goodbye to Workum and headed off to our next destination, a free mooring at Parregaaster along the Workumervaart.
Leaving Parregaaster, we headed in the direction of Sneek but got sidetracked as we passed into the village of Ijlst, which turned out to be a lovely spot, with a picturesque small canal running through part of the old town – we decided to stop shortly after the lifting bridge in the town, close to a working windmill (unfortunately closed though because of Covid).
One of the 11 fountains along the canals
We moored outside Ijlst for a couple of nights, walking into Sneek on our second day, which turned out to be a good walk for Casper but a bit tiring for us. It didn’t feel as interesting as we had expected, but we had a wander round and also earmarked potential mooring for our next stop.
We set off on a meer half an hour’s trip to arrive in Sneek the next morning, mooring up for a few hours fairly close to its Waterpoort entrance to the city. We thought we’d just thave another look around and get some shopping in – on arrival it turned out that we could connect to the public electric meter to top up the batteries for free, a definite bonus although so far we’re having no issues in that respect.
After a few hours of wandering the streets, we disconnected from the power supply and continued on to our next overnighter – a free mooring on one of the lakes, Zwarte Brekken.
Next stop, Joure, which we decided to visit just for a look around the town rather than an overnight stay, Happily we picked up a mooring in the marina at the end of the canal, alongside a green area and next to the centre. The town was quite busy and it was very pleasant walking round the local park and the town (and getting even more shopping in). We also visited a fireplace store to investigate the possibility of getting a stove installed later.
After a relaxing few hours, it was time to set off and find somewhere for the night. On arriving earlier we had tied up forward facing, intending when we left to reverse back and into the marina entrance to make our turn and head back the way we had come. However, this was when it got a bit ‘interesting’ ….. the canal was clear of traffic as we began releasing the ropes, but then suddenly three cruisers appeared, one blocking access to the marina and the other two standing off waiting for us to departv but in such a way as to make the whole manoeuvre rather difficult. Such fun, but we managed it without any disasters thank goodness
From there we moved onto another Marrekite mooring a little further along the waterway, spending a couple of nights with long riverbank walks right next to us, and exploring a small hamlet nearby.
There was a bit of fun when we eventually left our mooring – Nicki handled the ropes and when I got the all clear from her we started moving off the bank, but we didn’t seem to make much progress, rather swinging across the waterway. I checked with Nicki that she had released all the ropes and she assured me she had, but still it didn’t feel like it, so I had a quick look along the length of them boat and sure enough there was still a stern line attached! With a few choice words (in my head obviously) we quickly got back to the staging and sorted it out without having caused any issues and more importantly, without spectators.
We didn’t go far, just over to an island with most of it below water level, so a bit squelchy underfoot in what appeared to be a good location, but during the day the wind direction changed, and that change made it a bit noisy overnight with water lapping continuously against the hull. After an unpleasant, restless night we decided to move a little further along onto a more sheltered site with better walking, especially as the idea has been to enjoy the sunshine for a couple of days then sit out a forecasted rainy day before we set off again.
As a side note, I’m really pleased with how the batteries are holding out, maintaining an almost 100% charge from solar input. I seemed to have forgotten that I’d installed a tube heater in the wardrobe to keep it heated in the winter. So for the last three summers we’ve had this heater draining the batteries with me believing that I’d got the configuration wrong – life is good again.
(Cruising expenses for April are circa ÂŁ225, which covers fuel, water and some marina fees.)