With continuing high winds forecast for the forthcoming week we took the opportunity to devise a cunning Plan B which would take us through Friesland and north Germany to Wilhelmshaven without leaving the safety of the shore. This would insulate us from weather delays and mean we only needed one good day to pop round from the Jade to the Elbe. The first stage of this plan was to make our way across the IJsselmeer to Lemmer, one of the old ports on the east coast of the Zuider Zee. Fortunately, the wind had dropped temporarily today which was a relief as even the shallow IJsselmeer can be choppy in high winds. The down side to this slight change in the weather was a dank grey morning and a persistent drizzle. The unappealing conditions and an early start meant we had the Oranjesluizen complex to ourselves and with 8m under the Schellingwoudebrug we were soon making our way up the Pampus channel towards Lelystad.

As we made our way out into more open waters we found that what we thought were lighter winds was still a quite lively force 5 north westerly which presented itself as a rolling beam sea to our north easterly passage. With an hour or two to go until the Lelystad lock we did wonder if we had made the right decision as we recovered the unstowed items crashing around the cabin and lurked in the slightly flatter water in the wake of a lone barge. We eventually made a safe passage through the Houtribsluis and with the wind now more on the nose and lessening, decided to continue on to our destination. We headed for the popular town centre mooring of 't Dok and were just pulling into an alongside mooring when we spotted CA friends Stuart, Marjorie & Laura waving from the quay.

They were making their way through Holland by motor caravan en route to their boat in Denmark and just happened to be returning from a waterside lunch stop. After a TV break to watch Norwich being relegated from the Premiership we joined Stuart & co to sample the delights of Lemmer and dined well at the very acceptable Restaurant Centrum. The evening was rounded off by coffee "on board" Dulcibella, the Bradleys' new van, which was "moored" in the Industrie Haven.

Cruising Statistics

Distance: 45 nm

Total to date: 379 nm

Avg Speed: 8 knots

Duration: 5:30 hours

Diesel: 104 litres

Wind: NW5 - N4

Mooring: €9/night

Electricity: €0,50 meter

Water: Metered

Bridges

Schellingwoudebrug (8m)

Oudesluisbrug (lift)

Locks

Oranjesluizen

Houtibsluis

Lemstersluis

Charts

1810.2

1810.3

1810.5

1810.4