April 2025 – Part 2 (16th to 30th)
0
0
We began our first full day in Almere with a long walk over to a forest and parkland, which we all enjoyed. Again, the walk started off in cooler but dry weather, but as we neared home the rain began again. I had been having a problem with jaw/tooth pain so had managed to get an appointment with a local dentist.
The dental visit went really badly and the dentist identified a tooth with decay in the root but he was unable to extract it. It proved to be a really painful (unsuccessful) experience and ended up with a referral to a dental surgeon in Amsterdam, where amazingly Nicki managed to arrange an appointment for the very next day. After an uncomfortable night I took a bus to the dental practice and was relieved when they easily and quickly extracted the tooth with no real pain. Arriving back at Shensi I was at last able to relax and begin recovering from the ordeal. That evening Nicki and I had an enjoyable zoom call with Tim and Glynis, during which the setting sun have us this glorious backdrop.
In the morning we said goodbye to Almere and our lovely mooring, and tracked back along the Hoge Vaart, before crossing the Markermeer and heading in to Marken, an island between Markermeer and Gouwzee. Approaching the old Marken harbour, we moved into a great perfectly Shensi-sized mooring.
Marken turned out to be a delightful little village reached by a causeway from the main land of by boat. Until c.1957 it was an island in the turner Zuiderzee, and until the 17th century, residents built their houses on ‘werfs’, artificial hills in order to prevent damage from flooding. After that, the houses were built on stilts, although with the construction of the Afsluitdijk, the island no longer floods, but the typical wooden houses remain to this day in the historic town centre area 8. (On the evening of January 13, 1916, a storm with wind force 10 blew over Marken. Houses were knocked down and the damage was enormous with 16 people losing their lives, including 7 children.)
On our way across the Markermeer we noticed a large dredger near to the shoreline with a long pipe extending out to the waters edge. It turned out that this was part of a strengthening of the existing dyke around the island, to protect the land from the ingress of water while preserving the history, special landscape and character of Marken.
The dredger pulled up sand from the Markermeer and then pumped it through the pipeline to shore, where the sand was repurposed as part of the base for the new dyke. Initially a 100 metre test section was created along the shore intended for monitoring the behaviour of the subsoil, and the results from this can be used to optimise the implementation design – to that end there appeared to be hundreds of monitors placed strategically along the shore.
Building a strong, safe dyke takes time and is deliberately built up layer by layer so that the dyke can settle. An illustrated step-by-step plan was posted nearby to show the process –
Translation … Step 0: The current dyke; Step 1: Place monitoring equipment; Step 2: Apply first sand layer of 0.50 cm; Step 3: Apply vertical drainage to quickly discharge water pressure.
Step 4 : To provide a solid base for the new dyke, a zinc piece is applied to the sand layer; Step 5-8 – Apply three layers of sand per layer with a rest period of approx. 60 days, so that the sand and subsoil can stabilize; Steps 9-10 – Remove existing covering, then apply vertically in the best applied dyke; Steps 11-15 – Five layers of sand are applied. Each layer has a rest period of approx. 60 days. Then the consolidation phase starts. An anti-dust agent is applied to prevent dust nuisance.
Interesting stuff, and obviously extremely time-consuming.
Leaving Marken three days later (21st), we began our journey to Amsterdam, crossing the Geuldoorhet Monnickendam (a ‘gully through Monnickendammergat’) and cruised along the Trekvaart.
Some of the waterways were tight and even the depth gauge stopped registering for about 5k. Then came the moored/abandoned small cruisers to our left and, to our right, houseboats – lots and lots of houseboats – whose only access to/from the roadside was via their own hand-operated cable ferries. So we were constantly going into neutral just in case we might snag one of the cables. It also involved a bit of a zig zag route as pontoons and ferries were not equally balanced. Yet further along was a car ferry which, despite looking quite menacing with its cables trailing above the water at about deck height, did have sufficient warning lights in place. Once the lights had stopped flashing we knew that the cables had dropped to the canal bed and we were ok to proceed. Last but not least were the large construction barges, abandoned haphazardly on either side during this national holiday period and creating another obstacle course, although at least in a wider section of the canal this time.
Finally however we reached Amsterdam Marina, quickly spotted our allotted berth and reversed into position, settling in to await the arrival of Amy, Tom and Lucy over the next couple of days.
Amy and Tom arrived on 22nd April, guided seamlessly by my instructions until the last minute when they entered the marina at a different point from where we were waiting, which caused a little confusion! Pip was overjoyed to see Amy again, and Casper probably was too once he realised she was there. That evening we walked around the area for a bit, then stopped at a nice little bar for a quick drink before heading back. Next morning Amy and Tom took two of our bikes and cycled into Amsterdam central, via the Lookout to take the swing off the rooftop for the view across the city. We arranged to meet up with them a little later for a few hours before Lucy’s arrival that evening (23rd).
I had told Lucy that I would meet her at the central station when she was due in, and so I left Nicki, Amy and Tom on the boat while I caught a ferry across to the station, but unfortunately in my haste I caught the wrong ferry and ended up about a 30 minute walk from our meeting point, late and frustrated! Still we made it back ready for food. Once again, Pip was very excited to see another family member arrive to stay with us, and Casper too, although somewhat less energetically!
The next morning, after a very wet and windy night, highlighted by the creaking of ropes, we prepared Shensi for our trip on to Weespe, our hoped-for mooring for the next few days, and wanting to give everyone a trip through the canals of Amsterdam itself, excitedly turned into the canal system. Almost immediately though we came across our first obstacle – despite having bought and paid for a permit to make this passage, the bridgekeepers didn’t want to cooperate, even suggesting we take a different route as it would be inconvenient this way! We stuck to our guns though, and they reluctantly began to open up bridges for us (provided we didn’t dawdle).
Towards the end of this route march one bridgekeeper seemed to think that we’d be able to slide under a 3.2 metre low bridge, and wouldn’t open it until we’d made at least one attempt and proved that it wasn’t possible!
Finally we arrived in Weespe, to find that we were one of only five boats berthed there, whereas in the past this long stretch of moorings had been full. New rules for cruising in/around Amsterdam had been established – the need for a special permit to enter the Amsterdam canals, which also extended the reach of said rules to include Weespe, an increase in mooring charge fees within this area – along with recent bad weather had probably all had a big effect on the amount of boat traffic up to that point. In addition, and most definitely in our favour, when Nora, the harbour mistress came along, she advised us that a new payment system via an app had been introduced – but it wasn’t working properly and for now only boats up to 10 metres would have to pay! For once our size worked in our favour.
Now Shensi came into her own – with her bunting flying and lights decorating her from bow to stern she was more than ready for her part in the Kings Day celebration. (She was probably doubly attractive since she was the only boat sporting any decorations.)
Tom and Amy got up earlier than the rest of us and caught the train into town to take advantage of Tom’s gym membership, and Lucy, Nicki and I followed later to meet up with them for lunch at a Pancake House, after which the girls and Tom stayed for the rest of the afternoon to take a walking tour and visit the red light district.
Lucy came back in the evening and Tom and Amy even later still, ready for dinner at 11 pm.
Kings Day dawned with lovely sunshine, and everything seemed perfect for the day – we all dressed up in our orange themed outfits and headed off to catch the train into the centre of Amsterdam.
Amy had an itinerary all worked out and we followed her lead to see canals heaving with boats and revellers, street vendors, music blasting out of windows or decks and djs just set out on the streets, food and drink vendors (mostly just pop-up tables outside of people’s homes). The atmosphere was fun filled and exciting and there seemed to be something going on everywhere you looked, but in the end Nicki and I decided to duck out and head back home, leaving the others to carry on enjoying themselves until they’d had enough.
After a busy, active day, everyone was ready for sleep – especially Amy and Tom, who had a very early 5.15am start the next day for their return to the UK. Nicki and I managed to get up to say goodbye, but we’re back in bed fairly quickly once they’d left. After all the excitement of the previous day, we were able to chill out and relax a bit, with just dog walks and some shopping providing our exercise for the day, and luckily Lucy was happy to join in with this, and to make a fuss of the dogs whenever possible.
Due to damage to a bridge at the other side of town, it seemed that boats were not allowed into the town harbour, but on Monday we spoke to a bridge keeper and he said that it was in fact possible to enter so long as we weren’t expecting to go further. We were pretty excited to do that and returned to the boat, turned her round and cruised down to the first bridge, calling on the phone for the bridge to be raised. Problem 1, the bridgekeeper said he’d be with us in a few minutes, but 15+ minutes later he still hadn’t arrived. Problem 2, I called again and this time he said no, big boats aren’t allowed in! Problem 3, we couldn’t turn round at that location, so had to reverse all the way back for a mooring. Ah well, we tried. Anyway, the next morning as we began our daily dog walk, we almost immediately noticed that the bridge was now in operation. The excitement! We hurried back to the boat, started her up and ‘raced’ down to the bridge, with fingers crossed that it would work out for us and, yes, minutes later we sailed through and made our way into the town harbour, settling into the very spot I had identified as ‘The One’. A quick look around nearby and we realised we’d arrived on a market day, so there was lots going on for the day.
With just one more night to spend with us, Lucy made us a dinner of excellent pancakes, followed by a tv viewing of the stage show, Hamilton. A perfect ending for her and us.
Her return flight was later the following day, so after a slowish start, we walked her over to the train station where we all said goodbye. And that was our end of April 2025. The remainder of that day was spent tidying up and general maintenance, with copious amounts of coffees as we went.
