May 2023 – Part 2
It was good to get back out on the water again, and we made a leisurely cruise on a sunny day to the edge of Utrecht, mooring up for the night at the Noordersluizen where we were joined later in the evening by someone who apparently loves their teddy bears!
Next day we were on our way toward Vianen where we came across a Tug Boat rally, with dozens and dozens of these boats exiting the sluis.
Passing through Vianen, we carried on along the Merwedekanaal until we arrived at our planned destination in the Biesbosch and managed to squeeze onto a grassy bank (just about fitting in front of a cruiser that has also just arrived). After a good night’s rest we woke to a cooler day and headed off to Willemstad across open water. Unfortunately – and for a second time – we managed to lose all bar a couple of our remaining glasses during the crossing when we were hit by large swells for a few minutes. Finally however we reached our destination and were pointed towards a mooring in the town harbor, joined a little later by about ten sailing boats. Willemstad is a very picturesque village with some lovely walking routes, and we spent a pleasant evening relaxing here.
We had hoped to leave Willemstad in better weather than the previous day, but it was still fairly windy as we set off with plenty of commercial traffic on the move. Still, everything settled down as the day wore on and we arrived at Tholen mid afternoon in lovely sunshine.
In Tholen we were rafted up next to an old tjalk, with a large passenger ship arriving a little later and mooring just in front of us. We managed a nice evening walk along the dyke before getting out heads down for the night.
Continuing on, we had planned to arrive and moor at the Hansweert Sluis to be ready to go through the lock and catch the tide early next morning. Sadly however, the lock keeper had other ideas and refused to allow us to stay there overnight, telling us to head back along the canal to the harbour of Wemeldinge instead. Unfortunately luck was not with us as on contacting that marina, the havenmaster also refused to allow us to stay due to projected high overnight winds and an issue with our tonnage and previous problems with damage to moorings. He suggested another marina even further back in Yerseke and thankfully on phoning there we were given confirmation at last that we could spend the night in the Prinses Beatrixhaven on the Oosterschelde, and so that’s where we ended up for the night.
As a bonus, the mooring was very pleasant with a few nice areas to walk the dogs and a nearby oyster farm and processing unit.
After a good night’s rest we left around 6.30 the next morning to return to the Hansweertsluis and catch the tide out onto the Westerschelde and over to Oostersluis at Terneuzen. Arriving there we had a bit of a wait for our turn in the lock, but eventually we were squeezed in at the back behind several large commercials.
After such an early start, we cruised on until just past midday, stopping to give the dogs a quick comfort break at Sluiskil on the Kanaal Gent-Terneuzen. However, although not an obvious overnight stop we decided to call it a day at that point and moored up.
Leaving next morning, a little later than usual (for us), we were halted – as it turned out, briefly – for a rail bridge to open. We arrived at about 12.30 only to be told by the bridgekeeper that it was closed until 2.55. so we tied up to wait, thinking we’d use the time to walk the dogs and look in the town, only to notice a slight distances from us, a tjalk waiting by the bridge. We told him it was closed, but apparently he’d arranged to go through at 1pm so we rushed back on board to release our lines and pass through behind him. That was a lucky break for us, as it meant we could get on with it travels and hopefully finish earlier. We passed through the centre of Gent weaving to other English boats moored there and although one of the bridges further on was broken, we managed to squeeze under it. Continuing on, we made it as far as the Stropbrug Ghent on the Schelde where we found a concrete bank mooring to stop at, close to the shops and a park, and after a short burst of activity we were settled in for the evening.
Nearing the end of May and now in Belgium, we set off about midday on Saturday, 27th May ready to catch the tide down the Schelt after passing through Merelbekesluis. This took us down and onto the Dender and at about 6.10pm we arrived in Aalst, but just too late to get through the final bridge (Zwarte Hoekbrug) which meant we had to moor alongside a road for the night (and although there was not much of a walk available there for the dogs, we did have a very quiet and peaceful night).
Ready to go by 10am the next day (Sunday) when the bridge re-opened, the bridgekeeper turned up to tell us that due to a diesel spillage further along, we could only pass into the town and would not be able to leave until midday the following day. We duly settled in and prepared to bide our time and just relax, until the bridgekeeper turned up again to give us the all clear to move on if we wanted, so by 1.30pm we were moving and on our way out of Aalst and heading in our way to Ninove.
These last few days seemed to bring a series of hiccups, and at around 5.30pm as we approached Ninove the bridgekeeper on that stretch of water told us we could either stay where we were for the night (a less than perfect roadside mooring at the Oude Kaibrug) or he could let us pass through but he didn’t feel there was anywhere in the town we could stop and so might have to just carry on till potentially much later in order to find a decent mooring.
We chose the former, tied up at the bridge and then walked into the town to walk the dogs in Ninove’s lovely park. Annoyingly we did find a free mooring that would have been great for us, but by then it was too late to do anything about it as the bridge service had closed for the day. Despite the noise from traffic using the road and the bridge, and from a nearby fairground, we did have a reasonable night, but we were happy to be on our way the next day (and being a feestdag/public holiday, the bridge didn’t begin operation until 10am).
Now on our way to the Ath-Blaton canal, we were beginning to hear rumours of a bridge closure on that stretch of water, but we decided to continue on and hope for the best. Five hours later we arrived at Ecluse de Deux Acren on the Dender (Wallonia), but there was no response to our repeated attempts at contact until a further two hours had passed and an eclusier called by to tell us that we’d have to stay the might at the ecluse, and that the ecluse would be-open around 9am the next day. Although a little disappointed, the mooring was actually quite a nice, rural location, so it wasn’t all bad.
In the morning of 30th May a team of eclusiers arrived and took us along the canal and into Ath, where we were able to moor in our ‘usual’ spot between the passerelle and Ecluse 21 on the Ath-Blaton canal.
At this point we still hadn’t had confirmation of the bridge closure at Ecluse 18, so we decided to spend a couple of nights in Ath whilst we decided what to do.
Our first full day in Ath started well in good sunshine, and a little later in the day we were joined by Keith Sweet, who we hadn’t seen for a couple of years.
It was nice to spend a few hours catching up with him again, and he came along with us later to the Dream Bar in the town centre where we were meeting Phillipe (the bar owner/ lock-keeper on the Blaton-Ath canal). Yet again we enjoyed a great evening at the bar, joining in with Phillipe’s family, friends and customers, before heading home.