2026 April (part 1) 1st to 18th
The start of our TENTH cruising season on Shensi (who’d have believed it!), and we woke to a lovely clear morning. Perfect.
After the usual dog walk near our marina, we de-roped off on our 2026 cruising season, gliding out of the marina with ease onto a quiet Reitdiep river.
There was some trepidation however, as we had been told there was a possibility that the first lock on our route (Dorkwerdersluis) was likely undergoing some maintenance work and possibly our journey was blocked before it had even begun! As we approached that lock we could see that there was indeed work taking place, but luckily on contacting the port authorities we were advised to wait half an hour and they would let us through (which turned into over an hour, but what the heck, we made it), along with two other craft also waiting to make their way along the river.
Out the other side, we made our way along the Reitdiep river to reach the ‘wierde*’ village of Garnwerd, somewhere we had visited several times before and enjoyed.
(*A ‘wierde’ village is identified as a village possessing a radial or “wagon wheel” structure, where roads lead to the central church primarily located in the province of Groningen. Wierden villages typically stand 2-5 meters high, providing, safety, against water, and many were developed around 600 BC-AD 1200, when dykes were built and the mounds became unnecessary. Garnwerd is typical of an elongated, mound village.)
As before, we passed under Brug Garnwerd and pulled into a vacant mooring outside of the Bij Hammingh restaurant.
(Bik Hammingh restaurant – Built in 1879 for the Hammingh family, the building historically has served as a cafe, a ferry house (veerhuis), a farm, a shipbreaking yard with an annual ‘Bouldag’ (boulder day) auction for scrap wood, and now a restaurant.)
After a good night’s sleep here, we woke to a cooler day with a plan – get out our bikes and ride ….something Nicki hasn’t done in probably over a year! … and, full of enthusiasm, we prepared for a trip to the nearby village of Winsum. The weather was a little more overcast and chillier than we’d expected, but we made good time along the virtually empty cycleways.
Reaching Winsum however the weather changed, and we ended up walking around the small village in fine rain – totally unprepared as we were for this, we snuck into an eet-cafe for a warm drink and sustenance (cheesecake, which as we all know can be very fortifying) before collecting our bikes and heading back home. The return trip was slightly less pleasant because of the drizzle and wind, and we arrived back more speedily than on the outward journey because of this!
(Winsum lies between the city of Groningen and the Wadden Sea. At it’s centre, 17th and 18th centuries old buildings stand alongside windmills, churches, modern houses, and restaurants. The Winsumerdiep flows straight through the village, with the Arch Bridge as a characteristic image of the village.)
Having spent three nights at this peaceful mooring (free, as no-one came to collect any charges), we set off for “Customs Island” (our unofficial name for this particular mooring) and were making good headway when we noticed a side arm (the Kromme Rakken) off the river with a decent-looking stretch of wooden staging. So, being the intrepid explorers that we are, we/I spin Shensi round and reversed along to the staging where we found a lovely quiet, unoccupied mooring alongside a nice grassy area. Ropes and dogs were deployed and we finally settled in for another couple of days/nights.
Once again, the bikes were put to use and a little later we were again pedalling along cycle paths to Winsum, where we parked the bikes and wandered the streets again before finding a supermarket to buy items for a picnic lunch, which we enjoyed in the sunshine on a bench by the Winsumerdiep waterway.
Despite this being a “two days only” stopover, we felt a third night shouldn’t be a problem since it was very quiet on the water just now, and also Kromme Raken was a very nice place to be. However, we didn’t want to push our luck and the following morning we continued on our way along the Reitdiep to “Customs Island”, a mere 45 minute cruise away.
This is a pleasant little stop, just room enough for us on the staging, set next to a nice grassy track with a copse at it’s centre and plenty of space for the dogs to run around. (Despite the name we have given to this mooring, it is in fact not an island, just a small area fenced off from a nearby farm and run by the local council as a short term mooring for passers-by. In recent years they’ve added a chalet-type hut for hikers, which is set back slightly in the tree line, and can be rented for a night or two.)
One night at the island and we were off again, still cruising the Reitdiep, this time heading to Zoutkamp (translates to Salt camp), a pretty little fishing village with a municipal harbour at it’s core.
Entering this smallish harbour we were pleased to see plenty of available mooring space, and easily made a 180 turn to slot into place near the entrance, ready for our departure the next day.
Here we had planned to pick up some basic supplies in a local supermarket, but sadly the one grocery store in the village seemed to have closed down (due to lack of trade caused by major road works along the main roads in and around the area). I chose to cycle off to a local farm shop for a few essentials, and Nicki took the dogs off for a nice long walk, so not a wasted day by any means.
Just one night spent in Zoutkamp and we were off again, passing under the Reitdiepbrug to continue on the Reitdiep, eventually entering the large open water of Oude Robbengat where we were advised on the radio that buoys has been removed further along our route so we needed to be extra vigilant as there would be no visual clues to guide us. Great! But by keeping a watchful eye on the navigation software we managed to pass through without any problems, thank goodness, eventually turning into the Balstiengat which appeared to be fully buoyed and led us to Noordergathaven in Lauwersoog.
During our first evening here, the wind picked up a bit and rain came in, so we had a rather restless night, but woke to a much better morning. From here I intended to travel back to Groningen by bus to (1) pick up my newly issued Dutch driving license at the council offices, (2) retrieve any post from Spilsluizen, and then (3) catch a second bus to Reitdiephaven to do a major shop at the Jumbo supermarket before collecting our car and driving back to Lauwersoog. Nicki spent that same time walking the dogs, and making full use of the free electricity available to us – four wash loads, the cooker on and the dishwasher running.
Checking weather conditions for the following few days, it seemed the wind might be increasing enough that leaving this marina could be difficult, so we agreed to stay another couple of nights, and take the opportunity to visit one of the five Wadden islands – Schiermonnikoog – across the Waddenzee (by ferry, not by Shensi!).
Schiermonnikoog is one of the West Frisian Islands (Netherlands) along with Texel, Vlieland, Terschelling and Ameland, all of which are characterized by wide beaches, sometimes hundreds of meters wide, and which are bordered only by dunes and the North Sea.). Then there are the East Frisian Islands (Germany), a chain of seven inhabited islands (Borkum, Juist, Norderney, Baltrum, Langeoog, Spiekeroog, Wangerooge) along the Lower Saxon coast, and the North Frisian Islands (Germany/ Denmark) known for islands like Sylt, Föhr, and Amrum, as well as the rocky island of Helgoland.
Having booked a 9.35am crossing for ourselves plus the dogs on the ‘Monnika’, we rose early (for us) to give ourselves plenty of time to walk over to the ferry terminus, so much time in fact that we must have been one of the first on the ship! We were pleased though, as that meant we got a good seat before the ship filled up, which it did quite rapidly.
Arriving on Schiermonnikoog, we followed everybody else and joined the queue to exit the terminus, only to be told we were queuing for bicycles …. well, we’re British, we truly will queue for anything it seems. Realising our error, we quickly found the pedestrian exit and headed off to the town and the beaches.
As we walked along, most of the surrounding area was fields dominated by flocks of barnacle geese grazing everywhere, with the odd gull swooping among them. (In winter, tens of thousands of them fly in from the far north to arrive on Schiermonnikoog where they can regain their strength from the protein-rich grass available to them, and they can survive here for a few months. Mid-May they return to their breeding grounds in the far north, with majority going to Spitsbergen, Siberia, and Novaya Zemlya.)
Once in the town we headed off for a much needed warm drink in a warm cafe, before making our way over to the beaches on the far side of the island.
(Schiermonnikoog has two towers, one white (the Zuidertoren) and one red (the Noordertoren). Only the red lighthouse is still in operation and is manned 24 hours a day. (In 1853 King Willem III ordered that two lighthouses be placed on the island and a year later a static lighting device was added. These towers acted as beacons for the shipping traffic – when the two lights coincided, ship captains would know that they could sail between the sandbanks of the North sea and the Wadden sea. At the beginning of the 20th Century, the red lighthouse was fitted with a mechanical turning light, making the white lighthouse redundant. Following this, the white tower was used for many years as a water tower. These days it is only used an antenna mast.)
We walked past both the red and the white towers, a tourist wagon pulled by two beautiful cart horses, and several ‘twitchers’ (the island is a popular bird watching destination), before we found a track leading us onto the beaches. They were indeed vast, and the dogs (particularly Pip) had great fun racing around on our mammoth walk. Casper, Nicki and I were exhausted by the time we made it back to the town, and felt we deserved yet another rest and drink, before catching a bus back to the ferry. Pip was still ready for action.
After a very long, tiring but interesting day, we finally made our way onto Shensi, where we breathed a sigh of relief at being able to sit and put our feet up for the rest for the evening.
We woke up to another slightly windy, cool day, and headed off to an island in the Lauwersmeer that we had spotted on our way to Lauwersoog, once again navigating our way through the un-buoyed stretch of waterway to reach one of the many individual Marrekrite islands, which someone seemed to have unofficially named “Capibara Eiland”.
We did have some trouble reaching the mooring as we turned into a very shallow section, but with some revving of the engine and the generous use of our thrusters, we made it, just as a solitary small sailing vessel departed leaving the island ours for a couple of days.
Technically these Marrekrite moorings are only for a two or three day stay, but with it being early in the cruising season and so quiet we choose to stay a little longer and get some boat maintenance done without bothering anyone.
I managed to get quite a bit of sanding, polishing and painting done in the time we stayed, whilst Nicki mostly ‘relaxed’ with the dogs and all the many friends they were making … this island appears to have a great deal of ticks just waiting for a couple of juicy dogs to stroll by!
Luckily we had already given Casper and Pip an early dose of anti-tick treatment, but that didn’t stop the little buggers climbing into their fur and coming home to the boat with them. So Nicki spent copious amounts of time combing out and drowning the ticks, plus cleaning and hoovering everywhere the dogs slept, in an effort to stop them climbing into us!
We did have the odd boat or two pull into the island for a night, but otherwise (and despite the ticks) this was a lovely place to stay.
As it turned out we ended up staying on the island for a week, but with time moving on we prepared to set off again on 19th to reach Dokkum where we were scheduled to have our new bimini fitted.