CRUISING
38 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com MARCH 2016Dick Durham joins the Royal Netherlands Navy’s sail-
training ship HNLMS Urania on a midnight passage
through Amsterdam, bound for her winter base
A night-time
passage through
Amsterdam
PHOTO ABOVE: COURTESY ROYAL NETHERLANDS NAVY
port to veer the 27m (90ft) ketch into the
entry dock at Houthaven.
‘Not nice out at sea tonight,’ he agreed
as, having shot the fi rst bridge, we ranged
alongside the brickwork dock and, with
streetlights glittering off the rain-soaked
cobbles of Amsterdam, fought to save our
night vision as we put springs ashore.
We now had to wait until midnight
when the main railway bridge, the
Willemspoorbrug, lifted to let us pass.
Yellow panels of light clattered by with
occasional sparks as the seemingly empty
late-night trains serving the great Dutch
city rumbled across the span. One, two,
then a long gap, surely the bridge must
now open? No, another train, this time
inbound, then another. Five trains passed
in both directions before a chunk of
blackness detached itself from the night
sky: 45 degrees, 60 degrees, then upright.
The rail bridge was open.
Green lights fl ickered on and our
passage was approved: Amsterdam
would remain cut off by rail until we were
through. But before we could pass, a 150ftT
he halo around the moon did not
bode well when I joined Urania,
the sail-training ketch run by
the Royal Netherlands Navy,
as she tugged at her moorings
in Amsterdam Marina. It was blowing a
steady Force 5 from the south-west and
judging by the ragged clouds fl ying across
the sickly moon, the breeze was building.
Sure enough, as we crossed the North Sea
Canal to begin the classic Staande Mast
(Mast-Up) route through the sleeping city,
the wind piped up. In The Netherlands,
Force 6 is referred to as a gale.
‘Not a night for a small cruising yacht to
be making a passage along the North Sea
coast,’ I said to Lt. Cdr. Harry Dekkers,
Wilbert Jongerius, Mark Balm, Harry Dekkers Urania’s skipper, as he turned the wheel toUrania noses
through the fi rst
bridge of the
‘Midnight Express’
run through
Amsterdam