Tuesday 2nd July Ref: 2019/13
We leave Giethoorn and set off north up the Kanaal Beukers Steenwijk turning west at Steenwijk along the Kanaal Steenwijk to Ossenzil turning north along De Lende and then north-west again along the Jonkers of Heloma to Zevenbuurt. By this time we are in Friesland as we turn north again along De Kuunder of De Tsjonger until the Engelenfeart which we took to the unassuming but quiet town of Heerenveen.
We made the effort to have a fairly early start this morning, casting off at 9am and cruising over to the ‘pump out’ station, where both Lady Martina and Ikon emptied their foul water tanks. I led the day’s cruise again, turning left out of the moorings and through both the Giethoorn bridges, south and north, as we cruised the Kanaal Beukers Steenwijk.
Once we arrived at Steenvijk, we turn north to Ossenzil as the cruise continued through beautiful open agricultural countryside with cows grazing and being milked in parlours. Most of the waterways had a 9 km/h speed limit, with some as low as six as our journey continues into Friesland along the De Lende Kanaal and then north-west again along the Jonkers of Heloma to Zevenbuurt.
I climbed on the pushpit to access the mast and raised the Frieze flag of heart-shaped waterlilies directly below the Dutch courtesy flag as our local adherence to etiquette whilst the cruise continued north again along De Kuunder of De Tsjonger until the Engelenfeart took us towards Heerenveen. It had been our plan to carry on to Akkrum but it was already mid-afternoon and a quick reading of my past cruising logs had reminded me that there were not very good morning facilities there for boats of more than 10 m length, apart from commercial Marina on the outskirts which would be expensive and remote.
I judged that it is best used (as I had done in the past) as a lunchtime shopping stop. As an alternative, I spotted two good morning spaces in the Herenveen visitors moorings and turned Lady Martina into there and moored up, inviting Ikon to do likewise. Although a quiet and comfortable mooring, it is situated within a modern housing estate and so this choice was not universally acclaimed but it was accepted as we had been cruising for a long time and it was uncertain what we could accomplish by carrying on.
We gathered on Ikon for some refreshment and a chat, after which I offered to cycle into the centre of Herenveen to buy some meat and other food in order that Kathleen and I could host a barbecue on board Lady Martina, utilising our all-electric George Foreman Grill. We undertook our cycle ride, myself using our Blackberry Priv phones to take some photos of the more central moorings for future reference and using Google Maps on them in order to find a very good butchers and bakers from which we bought some healthy and fresh pre-prepared barbecue specialities. We then visited the neighbouring Jumbo Supermarket to get some other plain burgers, milk and other groceries before cycling back.
After some slight choreographic challenges assembling our party, we then started cooking the food and serving it with salad and bread at the start of what proved to be very enjoyable and successful social evening aboard Lady Martina. We sat, drank, and talked until the evening became cool and then Kathleen and I stayed up late cleaning utensils and tidying the boat until, tired but happy, we hit our comfortable bed
