Overnight in Urk. Pirramimma cruising back home to Elburg: Part 2.

As we cruised away from Lemmer, we were delighted to see the stream of boats - mostly yachts - coming out from the Prinses Margrietsluis on the northern side of the town. The sunshine was superb and the water was like a millpond. We joined the throng of boats for a little time, Skipper handed the helm over to Crew and we peeled away to the south and motored on towards Urk.

In the photo above, you can see the parade of windmills along the coast. They march all the way from Lemmer to Urk and beyond. Impressive sentinels.

We were comfortably motoring around 7 knots in near perfect conditions with most of the clouds being massed over the land rather than the direction we were taking.

After about 45 minutes we were hit by an area of flying insects of all manner and description. Thousands and thousands of the little blighters, all of which wanted to tag along for the ride. Unfortunately, hunger had set in by this stage so the Galley Slave made some delicious prawn and salad rolls to eat on the move. It's fair to say that eating our food in Bug City was quite challenging and I suspect we both ingested a lot more protein than just the prawns in the rolls. Later discussions with some other boating friends suggest that these bugs are a regular event along this stretch of coast. 

Closer to Urk, a pleasant breeze kicked all the bugs away - hurray!

Before we knew it, we were approaching Urk lighthouse. It's in the centre of the photo below. To the right of the lighthouse you can see the Ketelbrug and to the left of the lighthouse, you can see new windmills under construction. 

Our course takes us past the lighthouse before a slow sweep to port and into the safe water channel to the haven. We motored into Urk haven and started the serious business of finding a berth. Nothing available in the inner haven so we decided to moor, port side to, on the long pontoon which runs along the substantial breakwater into the port. We knew Pirramimma would be sheltered in the forecast conditions. It's a fantastic pontoon with electricity and water points built into the structure. Very new and very, very strong. Perfect! 

Engine off at 1415 hours. Soon after we'd secured Pirramimma, the havenmeester arrived on his bicycle. €20.55 haven dues inclusive of water, electricity, wi-fi and Tourist Tax for 2 adults. Pretty darn good. We chatted for a little bit and Crew did her best to speak a sentence or two of Dutch. He kindly pretended to understand every word she said. Bless him! 

Here's the view from our port side deck and if you look at the bottom right of the pic, you can see the built-in electric point which our white power cable is plugged in to. Very neat. 

Skipper took a stroll along the pontoon and along the breakwater whilst Crew concentrated on the serious stuff of catching up on social media goings on. 

Meanwhile, Crew took this next photo from Pirramimma's starboard side deck. It was a busy little place that day.

A little later, we both settled down to the even more serious business of people and boat watching. We recognised a lot of boats from Lemmer - clearly a sunny and warm weekend beckoned to many folk. Many people stopped to chat to us and to inquire as to both the origins of our blue ensign and the boat name.

Later still we walked into town to find a restaurant to eat at. No problem finding a restaurant as there are many in the town but they were all fully booked (lesson learnt:- warm, sunny weekend = busy weekend at restaurants and havens = make advance reservations!) So we walked all the way around the haven to dine at 't Achterhuis above the havenkantoor. You can see the terrace in the photo above. It's just a short swim across the water and a very pleasant 1.3km walk through the town. 

Sunset that evening was pretty spectacular.  I took this photo from the restaurant terrace. The big commercial in the foreground came into port around 1700 hours, taking up the whole of that vacant space in the photo above. And then some.

After dinner, we strolled back through the town and along the haven front, enjoying the balmy evening as well as the sights and sounds of Saturday night in town. Back on Pirramimma, we sat out on the aft deck for an hour or so watching all the navigation lights on the boats that were still moving around the haven and on the IJsselmeer. Tomorrow, we head south under the Ketelbrug to Elburg.