With fresh winds lingering in the North Sea we took the opportunity to linger a few days in our comfortable berth and the next day decided to try out the bus service to Amsterdam. An hourly service takes you the 15 minute journey to Buikslotermeerplein, a large suburban shopping centre with an Albert Heijn supermarket and late night opening on Thursdays. From here we took a connecting service to Amsterdam's central station, a journey which took about another 15 minutes. We took the opportunity to drop in on the excellent nautical bookshops on Prins Hendrikkade as well as take a stroll along the canals in the afternoon sunshine. The city was full of the usual compliment of backpackers and pleasure seekers, and signs in the cafe windows requesting customers to 'Please roll your joints inside' reminded us of the anything-goes attitude of Holland's capital city. Our return bus journey was not so straight forward, as services after 1830 have been replaced by a request in advance taxi service, which must be booked by telephone with an hour's notice. This trial system has proved very confusing for visitors and unpopular with the drivers so we expect further changes in future years.

The next day we decided to venture even further afield and visit the HISWA on-the-water boat show, being held at Seaport Marina at IJmuiden. This annual event is always held during the first week in September, and visitor places at Seaport are very limited during this time. As well as seeing the show, we would take the opportunity to talk to the harbour staff and find out whether we could arrive by boat later in the week. The bus journey took about two hours and involved three changes but armed with the requisite timetables it went fairly smoothly and proved an efficient way to avoid the long queues for the car park.

With good weather expected for Saturday or Sunday we set off on Friday in order to position ourselves near the port ready for our channel crossing. We would be cruising at a diesel-saving 10 knots, meaning the journey would take about ten hours, so we wanted to start as near to IJmuiden as possible. After an unexpected wait at the Schellingwoude fuel barge for the unusual 3-4pm lunch break, we could proceed through the Oranjesluizen locks, where a bridal party was having some nautically-themed photos taken. Not the most picturesque location we thought, but they obviously felt differently.

After an hour's cruise along the Noordzeekanaal time was moving on as we approached IJmuiden so we decided to stop at one of the small harbours en-route which we had not been able to visit on our inward cruise. Beverwijk lies at the head of Zijkanaal A, on the north side of the canal close to its western end. Mainly a commercial harbour, we understood that leisure moorings were available near a restaurant ship, but were still surprised to see a fleet of five or six yachts already tied up as we approached. As well as 't Schip, Beverwijk is famous for its weekly covered market, the Beverwijkse Bazaar, which claims to be the largest indoor market in Europe and has several halls full of professional and private stalls - a real treat for frustrated market traders!

In the afternoon we decided to try our luck amongst the boat show revellers and cruised through the sea locks to Seaport Marina. During this week, all visitors have to raft on the visitors pontoon, immediately to port on entering, as the box berths are taken up with the show boats. We were allocated a space alongside two larger motor boats and considered ourselves lucky not to be five or six boats out.

Cruising Statistics

Distance (inland): 21nm

Total to date: 978 nm

Avg Speed: 3.8 kn

Duration: : 5:30hrs

Diesel: ltrs

Mooring:
Free at Beverwijk;
€26/night at IJmuiden

Electricity:
N/A at Beverwijk;
Included at IJmuiden

Water:
Free at Beverwijk
€0,50/100l at IJmuiden

Charts

1810 folio

Locks

Oranjesluizen

IJmuiden Kleine Sluis

Bridges

1 closed (7 m)