October 5, 2019February 12, 2020 Andrew

A Year in Statistics

Blog

2019 in boating terms started for us on 4th April when we left our winter mooring at the Flandria jachthaven in Bruges heading towards the Netherlands, and our final boating day was on 30th September, arriving back in Flandria jachthaven late afternoon that day.

Over the season we cruised for 179 days, racking up 303 engine hours.

During that time we visited roughly 67 towns (some of which we visited more than once), not to mention various overnight moorings alongside canals and rivers :-

• Spanjaveer (first night’s stop, still in Belgium)
• Welmeldinge (first stop in Netherlands)
• Tholen
• Willemstad (very quaint harbour town)
• Biesboche (National park in Netherlands) (so peaceful)
• Dordecht (interesting town)
• Gouda (lovely harbour master, Robert)
• Alphen aan den Rijn
• Lisse
• Harlem
• Amsterdam (King’sDay during our first visit was spectacular)
• Zaandam
• Wormerveer (not a lot to say about this one)
• Alkmaar (loved everything about Alkmaar)
• Schagen
• Den Helder
• Schoorl
• Purmerend
• Diemen
• Weespe (spent quite a few days here over several visits, nice mooring and town)
• Tiel
• ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) – DBA rally held here. Great fun, and found a lovely quirky bar in the town that shouldn’t be missed.
• Heusden
• Leerdam (this is when we discovered that Leerdam is famous for its glassware, not just its cheese!)
• Meerkerk
• Oud Zuilen
• Maarsden
• Loenen
• De Scheld (island)
• Almere Haven
• Dode Hond (island)
• Amersfoort (great place to stay, lots of things to see and do and explore)
• Eembridge
• Malebrug (a free mooring outside of Amersfoort, but worth a mention as it was so quiet and peaceful)
• Spakenbrug
• Zeewolde
• Harderwijk
• Knaarland
• Elburg
• Kettlehaven
• Kraggenburg
• Hasselt
• Zwolle
• Dalfsen
• Ommen
• Hattem
• Wijhe
• Deventer (looking into winter mooring here 2020/21)
• Zutphen
• Doesburg
• Nijmegen (great mooring, felt like we were in some sort of hippy commune with bars, music etc. next to the harbour)
• Aarle-Rixtel (last stop in Netherlands)
• Bree (back in Belgium)
• Maasmechelen
• Maastricht
• Liege
• Beez
• Floreff (very little to see/do here)
• Auvalais
• Charleroi (just cruised through, but worth mentioning anyway)
• Viesville
• Ronquiere Inclined Plane (made the journey twice just for the experience/fun of it)
• Strepy-Thieu (awesome piece of engineering)
• Mons
• Antoing
• Tournai (could only pass though here as there were lots of works going on along the canal)
• Oudenaarde
• Gavere
• Flandria

In terms of mooring fees, we think we paid out round about 1600+ euros at various jachthavens/towns. There were also many, many stops where we were able to moor for nothing. So, all things considered, not as bad as we had anticipated for the season.

Some of the paid moorings included water and electricity in which case we made full use of the facilities; other moorings charged extra or you paid by coin-operated machines (so we didn’t use either of those); and at times water was freely available in/near some sluices – naturally we took advantage of this.

So, with free water keeping our tanks topped up whenever possible, and lovely sunny weather charging up the batteries via the solar panels, in the main we were pretty much self-sufficient most of the time.

Some of the waterways we took, but not necessarily in this order, were:-

• Gent-Oostende
• Gent-Ternejuzen
• Moervaart canal
• Westerschelde
• Kanaal Zuid Beveland
• River Ijssel
• Meuse
• Afgeddamde Maas
• Sambre
• Canal Charleroi-Bruxelles
• Blaton-Peronnes
• Albert Kanaal
• Zuid Williamsvaart
• Canal Nimy
• Meerkerk
• Haut Escaut
• Bovenschelde
• Noord Hollandsche Kanaal
• Vecht
• Markermeer
• Gooimeer
• Hoge vaart
• Leemvaart