9th June - 14th June. Back in the Netherlands. Lemmer towards Leeuwarden.

We had a good trip over to Hoek van Holland and an easy journey to Lemmer via car, arriving at Pirramimma at about 2015 on Sunday evening. Travelling on a Sunday gives the added bonus of avoiding the peak hour traffic around Amsterdam. We'd been away from Pirramimma for about 9 weeks and the spiders and other creatures had a field day during that time. Some serious cleaning will be required over the course of the next couple of days before we take her out on the water again. The aft deck area was pretty clean though, thanks to the full canopy. After we'd brought all our kit onboard, we sat on deck with our feet up and a glass of something cold, fizzy and restorative. This photo was taken after 2200 hours so it was a little cool. 

Feet up and a glass of Champagne. We're back onboard Pirramimma!

I won't bore you with the cleaning details but suffice it so say that two full days with both of us working hard was needed till we were happy. As a reward for effort, we decided to visit the Beach Club Lemmer and enjoyed a cup of coffee and a slice of apple tart each. Blue skies and bright sunshine was the order of the day!  We were entertained by some very cheeky sparrows who seemed to believe that the cake really was for them. Very sweet really. 

Had to be done! 

After our.. ahem.. little treat, we wandered down to the water's edge and enjoyed a walk along the sand, watching all the boats sailing on the Ijsselmeer.  I think I mentioned we weren't particularly happy with our berth at our current marina due to the size and extremely limited space for manoeuvring? Now that summer's here and the road traffic is increased, we also find how noisy the marina is. It's located adjacent to a very busy road with lots of large and heavy vehicles travelling at speed. However, I didn't tell you that we'd inquired at another haven/marina for space in 2016. At the time, it wasn't looking as though there would be anywhere for us. We'd been given a quote and our names were put onto a waiting list. During these last few weeks we've been back in the UK, we received an email to say there'd been a cancellation so if we wanted it, we could have a berth. Hence the courtesy visit to say Hi! and to say we were looking forward to being there next year. Still no formal details as to which space we'll be in, but it's a step forward as it were. 

New haven/marina for Pirramimma in 2016.

Again it was warm enough to sit out on deck to enjoy our evening meal that night. A rather luscious chicken and mango salad accompanied by a chilled glass or two of Sauvignon Blanc. Perfect.

The next day, we motored out of our berth and headed to the fuel berth. We took on 560l of diesel, pumped out our holding tank, and motored north along the Prinses Margriet Kanal. It was a beautifully sunny day and the waterways were busy with folk enjoying an early start to the weekend. A turn to starboard and we headed east along the Follegeasleat into the Tjeukemeer where we turned to port to head north up into the Skarster Rein towards Langweer where we'd considered spending the night. Then we decided to keep moving and veered away to the north east to the Alde Wei. Time for our first wild/nature mooring at one of the wonderful Marrekrite nature moorings. These moorings don't have power or water. They're very quiet as everyone respects their neighbours and the natural environment they've chosen to enjoy. To stay at these moorings, all you have to do is buy, on an annual basis, one of the Marrekrite 'wimpels' (flag/pennant) and fly it on your boat. It's a brilliant system and we have grown to love these moorings and the times we spend at them.

The Follegeasleat, looking towards the Prinses Margriet Kanal…

Travelling along the Skarster Rien…

The little village at Skarsterbrug…

Our Marrekrite mooring on the Alde Wei. And it was hot!

And the view aft. In the distance, the Sneekermeer and Terhorne…

The Alde Wei weaves its way towards the Sneekermeer…

Time for a cooling G & T…

And also time to get the Cobb BBQ going…

The perfect evening and we sat out on the aft deck watching the sun go down…
#nofilter

The next day dawned, wet and very windy. We had wind gusts of over 30 knots and so we decided to stay put. Friends who were on their boat at Terhorne cancelled a visit to us as the Sneekermeer was too rough for their dinghy. That was a good call on their part. As the afternoon wore on, the weather deteriorated even further. Earlier in the morning, a swallow decided to rest for a few minutes on the port railing of Pirramimma where it had some shelter from the wind…

It was far too wet, windy and cold to BBQ, so that night we ate 'indoors'…

Sometime during the night, the storm abated and the next morning, though overcast, was quite calm. We left the mooring at 0920 and motored slowly along the remainder of the Alde Wei and entered the Sneekermeer. We knew where our friends were moored at Terhorne, so on the off-chance, motored over to see if they were still there. And hurrah; they were. We had a lovely time onboard their gorgeous barge, Harmonie. Petra and Klaus live onboard Harmonie, a 1927 luxe-motor barge which is 30m in length. What a fabulous place to live! Their son, Pim, kindly took this photo of us all at the end of our little get together. And don't you just love Klaus's T-shirt!! 

We left them at 1215 and motored a short distance down to the Heerenzijlbrug where we moored up as the brug was closed for the lunchtime break. Once we were through the brug, we motored towards Akkrum where we had a bruggeld  of €2. It's a narrow brug with a sharp left turn afterwards to take us back to the Prinses Margriet Kanal and the town of Grou. Another very picturesque village though it was also busy on this Sunday afternoon. Again, sorry no photos as I was on the helm and Richard was busy with other boat-type stuff. Turned to starboard onto the Prinses Margriet and joined the flow of boats towards the railway bridge just before Grou. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait for it to open as it's about 10m high, so we cruised straight under it. Immediately past Grou, we turned to port off the Prinses Margriet and slowly wove our way north towards the village of Wergea. Petra and Klaus had told us about a lovely nature mooring on the outskirts of the village and we were keen to visit. We had two more brugs to get through. Both were remote controlled using camera sensors to notify 'someone' a boat was approaching/waiting. Such a brilliant system! We arrived at the mooring place which is owned by a local farmer, at about 1550. Engines off at 1600.

Vxx