August 2025 – Part 1 (1st to 15th)
On 2nd August Nicki and I caught the train to the airport … at least, I travelled with her to Sloterdike station, and she caught a train for the last leg to Schipol airport. I returned to Shensi once I knew she was on her connecting train.
Arriving home, my intention had been to move Shensi back to a mooring that we had noticed before, which was just big enough for Shensi. However, I decided to wait till the following day to move, but sadly find out later that I had made a ‘technical’ mistake which resulted in the draining of the batteries and as luck would have it, the generator then wouldn’t charge. The end result was that I decided to move moorings later that evening on the basis that the engine would give me enough charge for the time being. Next problem – it was just getting dark and not much fun cruising at that time of day/night. Fortunately though I did manage to soon spot a mooring that we had previously used. That was all I was prepared to risk for the time being and I was soon settled in for the night.
In the morning I moved on fairly sharpish, and happily found the mooring I wanted, so set up home there for a few nights. The moorings along this stretch of river all seem to have substantial fences around them to separate them from grazing land but this one was fully populated with sheep as the gate had been left open. They all quickly exited though as I made my approach.
The mooring was perfect for me and the dogs, although with the absence of any mooring posts or rings, I had to deploy a number of stakes, and with this done I was confident that I was safely installed and would be able to crack on with my chores especially now that the generator had started behaving itself again.
With Nicki away, my days followed a pattern of daily dog walks, feeding the dogs, giving Casper his various eye drops, preparing for one of my many diy jobs (fixing, renewing, replacing, prep work for painting/varnishing, cleaning up the paintwork, to name just a few), then a second daily dog walk, second dog feeds, eye drops, making and eating my own dinner, watch tv, give the dogs a final nighttime wee walk …. and fall into bed. Then rinse and repeat. (It definitely helped that I didn’t have to worry about disturbing any neighbors – there weren’t any – when using power tools, although that was mostly limited to a bit of light sanding.)
Whilst the area generally looked a bit boring along the length of the canal, I did find that once I ventured down some of the joining footpaths there was a whole network of hidden small waterways with lovely properties nestled in the woods all just waiting to be discovered.
Meanwhile, Nicki was enjoying a relaxing visit to the UK, spending time with Isabella, Stuart and Sara, plus a couple of days at the weekend with Lucy, Amy and Tom who all came up to Worcester to visit.
Finally though, Nicki’s trip came to an end and she arrived back home on 12th to two excited dogs and one tired husband. By then I had returned to the mooring at Heerhugowaard, which was nice and close to a train station, and then the next morning we moved further along the river again, just for a night. With weather forecasts good for just a few more days, we left early-ish (for us) and pushed on, with a brief stop at Winkel for supplies, until we reached Middenmeer, a place we had had moored four years previously, so that the following morning we would be in a good position to reach and cross the Isjllmeer in favourable wind conditions. Whilst there we managed to fill up with over 1000 litres of water, which meant that finally the washing could be done!
After a restful night, we rose early to catch the good weather whilst cruising the Ijsselmeer, and were fortunate to have a very calm crossing.
The first lock we came across had an historic rail track crossing the sluis. This was used by a steam powered rail train and only closed between 12 and 2pm each day for the train to pass. Otherwise it remained in its open position.
Further on, our entry into the Medembliksluis (to gain access to the Ijsselmeer) was marred by our first locked-up rope of the season – partly due to the lock-keepers poor advice, partly us not concentrating as we were trying to keep away from a cruiser – resulting in the speedy use of a knife to free us.
After that silly error, we cruised across the lake for around a 17 km distance in nearly 3 hours, leaving the lake at Johan Frisosluis, only just squeezing in behind and alongside several other vessels.
Eventually however we made our way along the waterway keeping a watchful eye out for the nights mooring, and finally spotting a vacant jetty on Langehoekspolle, (eiland op Fluessen).
Roping up for the evening, we were all grateful to at last be stopping and settling down. (Altogether we spent 8 hours travelling, much to the dogs’ frustration.). Despite being extremely busy with other boaters on the island, there was a decent amount of space for walking the dogs, and as our space was on the outer edge, it was reasonably secluded and quiet.