Sundday 14th July Ref: 2019/21
Cruising from Hoorn, the Hoornse Hop bay, south across the Markermeer through to Amsterdam, experiencing some windy weather but safely mooring up at Sixhaven in the 15m vessel boxes. Then taking a walk around Amsterdam and buying a few items and some pizza dinner before returning to the boat, catching up with the Ikon crew, and then struggling with various equipment problems to cope with
I had agreed with Chris on Ikon that we would leave at 10am this morning for Amsterdam. We had previously discussed the idea of going elsewhere, but I explained that the weather window for returning to England soon be upon us and we need to be situated in Amsterdam ready to take advantage of it.
I called Kathleen at 9am and then, after 10 minutes drinking our morning tea, we hurried to get Lady Martina ready for the trip. Some wind was forecast and so I took the precaution of getting her help me to roll up the porch canopy before we left. All was well at first and the weather was calm to begin with but, whether it was because we had left the shelter of the South coast of Hoorn, or whether the wind picked up as soon as we cleared the Hoornse Hop bay, it rose from a few knots to over 20 directly from the North.
Fortunately, the wind being right behind us, it was not a problem but there were ‘white horses’ and streaming foam in the middle of the Markermeer until it then calmed down again as we approached Amsterdam. I had a further problem today, which was Lady Martina failing to get up to 8 knot speed through the water with the engine speed of 1300 rpm and, after conferring with Chris on Ikon, I took his advice and reversed the engines as his diagnosis of me carrying a raft of weed with me was proved correct. He also had one of his propellers juddering and repeated the procedure to solve it for Ikon. He told me that last year the weed was so bad around Hoorn that the port was closed to both departures and arrival for some time until it was cleared.
Upon arriving in Amsterdam, we locked through the Oranjesluis and then made towards Sixhaven. It was on this trip, that I received a radio call from the crew of 'Great Escape', another British Broom motorboat which had just just arrived from England and were going to spend some 10 weeks in the Netherlands or ‘until the money ran out’.
We cruised on and into a very busy Sixhaven, where we eventually found separate spaces and could start our Amsterdam visit. The crew of Ikon wanted to rush off to the top of a very tall building where a ‘swing experience’, was installed for a thrill, but it did not interest us so Kathleen and I walked around the City.
We took refreshment in the form of a beer at the café by the tourist office opposite the main station and then, after our walk around the city, we treated ourselves to a pizza which we sat and ate it alongside the tour boat station. Tired, we returned to Sixhaven and Lady Martina, where we had a brief chat to the others on Ikon (who were watching their splendid satellite TV) and then came back to the boat for the night.
