Road trip to Harlingen and the Afsluitdijk. On to Jirnsum, Sneek, and Friends.

The start of our second week at our new jachthaven brought some really awful, cold, wet weather. It was officially 'rubbish'.  However there were some good photo opportunities as some spectacular storms bypassed us.  Crew began the varnish work on the companionway door but the drying phase was pretty slow due to the weather.  In turn, that meant the work had to be spread out over more rather than less days.  Skipper did untold amounts of hard labour polishing stainless steel and fittings on the topsides. 

Beautiful colours but I'm glad it missed us.  Photo credit Veronica Hayes

That's a hail storm passing to south of us. Nasty.  Photo credit Veronica Hayes

 On the Tuesday, we took a day off for 'good behaviour' and jumped into the car and headed to Harlingen on the coast.  Neither of us had been before and as it's on Nav's list of 'Places to Visit', we thought we'd suss the area out and maybe have some lunch too. First off, we detoured over the Afsluitdijk which is an amazing feat of engineering extending from the town of Zurich, near Harlingen, to Den Oever in North Holland. 32kms long, the causeway/dike connects the two provinces, Noord Holland and Friesland together. And effectively turns the now inner waters of the IJsselmeer into fresh water rather than the sea waters of the Waddenzee.  We didn't drive the whole way but stopped for some photos about halfway before turning back the way we'd come.

Looking out to the Waddenzee from the Afsluitdijk  Photo credit Veronica Hayes

Again the Waddenzee - somewhere out there is Terschelling! Photo credit Veronica Hayes

Sunny; but cold! Again looking at the Waddenzee.  Photo credit Veronica Hayes

And on the other side of the dike, pretty much flat calm. Photo credit Veronica Hayes

The dike encloses a massive amount of water and these little images really do not convey the vast area to the south of it.  Lots of aquatic birds enjoying the rich pickings close to the dike wall.

The IJsselmeer - in the distance two large sailing barges enjoying the breeze!  Photo credit Veronica Hayes

The contrast between one side of the dike and the other is quite amazing. 

The next photo shows the upper part of the sluizen structures that are responsible for controlling the water within the IJsselmeer - warning barriers and signals keep boats clear and out of the danger zone. 

Lorentz Sluizen    Photo credit Veronica Hayes

By the time we reached Harlingen, the wind had really picked up and we battled our way in and out of a couple of chandleries on the Waddenzee side before deciding to head into the town itself and find a parking space for the car.  And then the rain started! So sadly no photos of our short visit this time.  But definitely next time.  We were entranced by Harlingen and will be bringing Pirramimma here sometime soon.  Fingers crossed on our next visit.  

We stopped for lunch but the town centre was pretty much empty - only mad tourists would be out and about in the howling gale and torrential rain we were experiencing! Fortunately, on our way back to the car, we 'fell' into a wonderful, old fashioned chandlery and spent ages looking at all manner of wonders. We found a rather splendid clock to replace the existing onboard Pirramimma - which doesn't understand how to keep time in spite of all attempts to encourage it to do so.  Feeling pleased and happy, we drove back to our jachthaven and Pirramimma. 

The following day was a national holiday in the Netherlands; the occasion being Koningsdag which celebrates the birthday of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.  And happily, the sun shone for the occasion so the King, Queen Maxima and their children, were able to enjoy the celebrations in his honour. 

Meantime, the weather remained cold.  And we were still running the Webasto heater - and the coolant leak continued.  I emailed De Boarnstream and requested a berth at their jachthaven.  Skipper made a phone call to their engineers and booked some time for them to check the problem for us. On Thursday morning we cast off our lines, and turned to port to head up the Prinses Margriet Kanaal to Jirnsum.  We arrived in sunshine but with clouding skies and strong winds.  Skipper pulled into the fueling berth as we also needed to refuel. 

700 litres of diesel later...   Tanks topped up!  Photo credit Veronica Hayes.

Jan, the havenmeester at De Boarnstream was his usual helpful, friendly and efficient self - such a great team at De Boarnstream - and told us to come back after we'd been to the factory berth re: the Webasto and gave instructions for the foul water emptying berth which we had not needed on previous visits. At the factory berth, the engineer came onboard, took one look at the Webasto and said it would need to be removed and taken to the main agents in Grou. He knew immediately what the problem was and the best way to get it fixed! We arranged for the works engineer to come to the boat next morning to sort it all out and then he would drive the part/s to Grou. By now the rain was falling again, the wind had picked up, so we headed back to jachthaven and dear Jan was there immediately to help us berth and took care of the pump-out for us too. Then, bless him, he cycled over in the absolutely deluging rain and took our lines when we moved the boat yet again into a berth for the night.   

Next morning, Berthus and his engineer called to remove the part. Our hopes for a quick solution to the problem were dashed as they told us it would not be until at least Tuesday the following week before the repairs would be complete.  Thank goodness we had a small electric fan heater onboard!  Our original plan to stay the whole weekend at De Boarnstream wasn't looking like our best option... there are no shops close by, no restaurants etc and although the sun came out again, our berth was in the shadow of the main building.... brrrrr!   It's a beautiful, peaceful location but not ideal for us this time.  

Late afternoon view from the side deck at De Boarnstream  Photo credit Veronica Hayes

The Webasto main gubbins (technical term!) should be here on this wall in our engine room.....   

Dear Webasto...we love you... please come back soon!  Photo credit Veronica Hayes

So Navigator decided it would be best to decamp to Sneek which benefits from being close by should we have needed to return for the Webasto to be refitted; it really is a lovely town based berth, with loads to see and do, plus lots of restaurants to choose from.  We arrived in Sneek around 1130 hours on Saturday morning and were able to park up pretty much where we were last year on the Koopmansgracht - just that tiny bit out of the main hub-bub of town but close enough for everything we needed.

And this time I managed to get a photo of the famous Water Poort in the sunshine. Stunning construction and so impressive. But look how bare the trees are... we used that little electric fan heater a lot and were extremely grateful to have it.

Here we are, happily parked up in a lovely spot with lots of sunshine.  

and a couple more shots taken on Monday when it was a little quieter and most of the boats had moved on or back to their home jachthavens. 

Looking aft and the bridge lifting for a boat to come into the gracht.  Photo credit Veronica Hayes

Peace and quiet. And blessed sunshine too.  Photo credit Veronica Hayes

Looking across that bridge that was lifting and further into one of the many little waterways that run through Sneek.  Photo credit Veronica Hayes

Such a lovely town. One of our favourites.  Photo credit Veronica Hayes

We were also able to catch up with a couple of lovely friends, Petra and Klaus who had come into Sneek to fill up their water tanks on their beautiful, historic barge "Harmonie".  We walked around to them and sat outside on deck, drinking coffee and eating delicious apple cake.  And talking and laughing. Catching up on all their news and seeing them again was so good.  

Harmonie looking splendid in the sunshine.  Photo credit Veronica Hayes

 

Klaus, Petra and Richard enjoying coffee and sunshine.  Photo credit Veronica Hayes

The best hug ever! Petra and Crew catch up on giggles! Photo credit Richard Hayes

Skipper and Crew are all smiles.   Photo credit Klaus and Petra Spithost

Too quickly it was time to say Goodbye - until next time!  We waved them off as they cruised away...

Till next time! Thank you for hugs, cake, coffee and another wonderful memory! Photo credit Richard Hayes

 

Harmonie leaving Sneek.   Photo credit  Richard Hayes

On Tuesday, we received the rather sad news that there was more wrong with the Webasto than we'd hoped.... two cracks needed to be welded and further repairs also.  Sigh.  There was no chance it would be repaired this week though we were all hoping it might be done in time before we left the Netherlands for home.  However, Skipper had a most useful and informative conversation with the senior engineer at the Webasto agent so we were doubly pleased that we'd taken the action we had and had returned the unit to De Boarnstream. Very grateful for all their expertise!

There was little point in waiting around any longer so we mulled our options and double checked weather and wind forecasts. The coming week and weekend were going to be very windy so we decided to leave Sneek and head back to our home jachthaven.  We had a gentle cruise back down the Prinses Margriet Kanaal and pulled into our berth, settled our lines and the boat and received a warm 'Hello and welcome back' from our neighbours in the adjacent berth. It was good to be home again.