Page 14 - Yachter Autumn 2020

14 CRUISING REPORTS
CRUISING IN THE NETHERLANDS
IN DIFFERENT AREAS
In 2001 my wife, Rosemary, and I bought a Dehler 36CWS, Charlie,
in Holland. In fact, we were in the Rabobank in Numansdorp arranging the funds transfer on 11th September.
After some yard work on her, mainly a new rudder, a neighbour and I brought her home the second week in 2002, a cold trip taking 6 easy days although it included our first entry into Zeebrugge in the dark.We then used her around the Solent, cross channel etc. but kept getting vibes she wanted to go back to Holland. Strictly speaking of course Holland is only part of the Netherlands.We did Summer trips a few times and an RSYC rally was organised for summer 2006.There was no formal plan apart from meeting
in Middleburg in the Delta region, with
a vague plan based partly on experience from our trips in Charlie.This resulted in remaining in the Delta region.The route we followed for the rally as taken from my Seapro system running on a laptop is above.
Before I describe wandering in Holland further there are some points to be considered.The journey to the nearest point of entry to the Delta regions,Vlissingen,
is quite lengthy.We used to have stops
at Brighton, Dover, Dunkirk, Oostende, Vlissingen with tidal timing being important. The return trip would include Sovereign Harbour because of tidal constraints. Be aware of the Dover Straits TSS. One then enters the inland waters atVlissingen and going as far as Middleburg is a good plan. On this seemingly short trip a lesson will
be learned, trip times are often determined by bridge and lock timings, not boat speed which will have to be at 6kts to meet
bridge timings. See https://www.zeeland. nl/sluizen-en-bruggen/bedieningstijden- sluizen-en-bruggen and https://www. wvarne.nl/ using Chrome to get easy translation.You will need to consider the impact of the ban on red diesel, particularly
in Belgian waters, and this topic should be considered further.An ICC will be needed for inland waters and an ATIS equipped radio is expected but ignored a lot. Black water discharge is banned so a holding tank with deck pump out is desirable to avoid problems, there are lots of cheap pump out machines. Maximum easy mast height is 18m, same as our boat then.There are other navigation rules to follow so go to https:// www.varendoejesamen.nl/storage/app/ media/downloads/EN_sail-together.pdf
One other practical point is shopping which can be tricky, do not miss the chance of a shop whenever possible.There are supermarkets in towns but if you want to get away onto the islands you need to be stocked up.