Cruise to Harderwijk, Spakenburg, return to Elburg. 26th October - 31st October 2014.

'Tis true what they say about the best laid plans! Our plans for a 3 day cruise starting on Sunday had to be postponed. The galley slave (me) had planned on purchasing fresh food early this morning in readiness for the journey. Supermarkets are closed on Sundays in the 'out of season' months. And October is definitely out of season.  We walked into Elburg anyway and enjoyed a koffie at one of the surprisingly busy cafés and restaurants in town.  All the outdoor tables and chairs were occupied and there was a very social, vibrant atmosphere in the town. It's such a lovely town and if you get the chance to visit it, then do take that chance. 

We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon on deck, watching all the boats moving past us.  In the early evening, the wind dropped and the temperature was a little warmer so we continued to sit on deck with a glass of Hibiki for me, and a G&T for Richard. A simple supper of nachos as we had next to no food in the store cupboard and were far too relaxed/lazy to head out for a meal.

Next morning, with the fridge and store cupboards replenished, we started the engine at 11.30, backed out of our berth and spun gently around and headed out of the harbour.  A lovely surprise as Rob, from Elburg Yachting, whistled and waved to us from the upper balcony at the office. "Enjoy!" he shouted.  Thanks, Rob, we certainly will do that!  We turned to port and headed south into glorious sunshine, delightful scenery and clean, blue water. Our lunch stop was at another wild/nature mooring. De Ral was unoccupied apart from us and Pirramimma. It was beautiful! And lush prawns and salad in freshly baked bread rolls were the perfect lunch time treat.

De Ral. Veluwemeer.

Having decided to overnight in Harderwijk, I rang ahead to book a place at the jachthaven. We arrived to find the entrance channel to the haven had been completely and utterly changed by massive, ongoing works in the town: two nasty 90 degree angle turns to port in a very tight channel.  The berth we'd been allocated had been taken by a yacht which left Richard trying to gently manoeuvre in very narrow approaches to find an alternative berth. We slid into a tiny space and went ashore to find the harbour master and pay our dues. The harbour master graciously acknowledged the error. 

We returned to Pirramimma and sat on the aft deck, once again enjoying glorious sunshine. Three men from the aforementioned yacht came to chat about sailing they'd done in the UK. Nice people, all speaking excellent English and putting us to shame with our lack of Dutch.  

Sunset at Harderwijk.

Home cooked meal of chicken breasts stuffed with black peppercorns, cream cheese and tarragon, wrapped in prosciutto and pan fried. Served with pasta on the side and a green salad.

Was delicious! And huuuge!! 

A lazy start with a strong breeze blowing outside. Breakfast of freshly squeezed orange juice, coffee and croissants. Richard did a great job of easing out of the berth and out of the harbour. It was a tight squeeze coming into the berth last night and now in a strong breeze, the squeeze was even tighter.  We turned to port out of Harderwijk and headed down in the channel towards Spakenburg. Locked down through the Nijkerk sluis - what a calm and pleasant experience for our first sluis/lock in NL. And after the locks in France!! 

We arrived at Spakenburg and looked for a place to moor. What a fabulous town this is! We lunched on deck - brown shrimps and salad with apple cake and cream to follow.  The havenmeester visited us and told us we would have to move a little bit. We were guided to a spot just behind a brand new Sturier. The owners had discouraged us from mooring behind them when we'd first arrived, but they gave in with good grace and were utterly charming. Though, naturally, we left them in peace and quiet.  Once we'd sorted ourselves out again and were happy with our lines, we tidied up and then headed into town for a long walk around the harbour and into the old town itself.  

Looking out from Spakenburg haven.

The town is literally a working museum of old wooden boats in varying stages of repair.

Easy to imagine the old days in Spakenburg.

Once we were back onboard Pirramimma, we retreated below decks as the weather turned cold, despite the sunshine. I cooked a delicious Thai panang style red curry of pork with peanuts for our evening meal. An early night as we'd decided to leave relatively early tomorrow morning for the journey back to Elburg.

By the time we'd showered and breakfasted, there was a slight spattering of rain. By 0930 we'd slipped our lines and were motoring out of Spakenburg haven.  Warm clothing was the order of the day for we had fairly dense fog and visibility was reduced. Steaming lights on. There was a lot more traffic with a lot of commercials passing us. Coffee followed by ham and cheese 'toasties' on the 'hoof', as it were.  At Nijkerk sluis, we had a commercial behind us and we thought we'd have to wait for it to enter the lock first, but the lock keeper asked us to come in first.  He then closed the lock behind us and after we'd sorted ourselves out, realised the commercial had pulled over to the wachtplaats for lunch. Visibility continued to reduce and the wind picked up nicely. Pirramimma just smoothed her way through the water with no discernible motion at all. A lovely smooth ride from our girl! 

By the time we were nearly back at Elburg, the fog had really come down and vis was even further reduced. Richard reversed the boat into our berth as an experiment to see if it would be possible to bring our dog with us so we could spend Christmas and New Year with her onboard. After much discussion and trying to work out a solution, we sadly decided it was too dangerous to both Richard and our dog to do so.  We left the rest of the discussion till later in the evening, after we'd cleaned up the boat and sorted everything out.  Champagne to celebrate our first real voyage. All in all, it's been absolutely great and we are thrilled with how the boat has handled. Thrilled too with how comfortable she is.  Tomorrow we have a few things to do in Kampen and then we will come back to Pirramimma and begin the cleaning up/packing up for our return home. 

But here are some more photos of Spakenburg haven for you to enjoy.

Old wooden boats in varying stages of repair/decay up on the slips to wait for repair. And below, the old haven absolutely packed with boats.

Finally, the trompe d'oeil at the end of the haven.

Postscript:  As we'd decided it was too dangerous to bring our darling dog with us to spend Christmas and New Year onboard - think relatively narrow pontoons and the icy, slippery conditions over winter - we reluctantly arranged for Pirramimma to be craned out of the water after we'd left Elburg at the end of this trip.  She had all the muck washed from her hull and was pulled into the 'work hall' to spend the winter; safe and sound .  We returned to Elburg for a week in January 2015 and completed some maintenance and repair work during that time.  

Vxx