How to navigate with google earth

THE

NETHERLANDS

START

Rotterdam

Dordrecht

Drimmelen

Hellevoetsluis

Hook of

Holland

Gouda

Houthavens

AMSTERDAM

Willemspoorbrug

Rembrandt Park

Schiphol

Airport

Nieuwe Meer A10

A10

Vondel Park

IJmuiden

FINISH

Boskoop

Stellendam

0 5nm

CRUISING

40 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com MARCH 2016

of the pontoon-tow. This proved a very
tight fit, but Harry has nerves of steel. In
the dark he nudged the great ketch further
and further ahead until Urania’s bobstay
was almost rubbing on the taffrail of the
sternmost tug.
‘Whoa now!’ shouted Urania’s
quartermaster, Wilbert Jongerius, from
the bow, as Mark Balm, the bosun,
tightened the bow spring. As the lock gates
closed behind us there was, again, no room
to slip in a cigarette paper.
As the lock released us the A10’s five
bridges sprung up, phantom-like into the
black night and we rushed through. As
soon as we passed the last one they fell
back down like a row of apartment blocks
tumbling over. It was a surreal sight.
Now, entering the open water of the
Nieuwe Meer, we got some speed on
and overtook the accursed pontoon
tow, as Wilbert shone a torch at buoys
for the helmsman to see. But soon we
were moored once more to
await the bridges adjacent
to Schiphol Airport,
Amsterdam’s Heathrow, and
the pontoon-tow steamed
ahead of us once more, her
decks, which accommodated
two motor-cars belonging to
her delivery crew, wet with
driving rain.
At 0530, cold, wet and
tired, I confess that I turned
in. If you’ve seen one bridge...
Back on deck at 0910 I felt
guilty: there were Harry and
Wilbert even colder, wetter
and yet seemingly tireless,
still on watch.
We were now steaming
along a canal, which looked
down on the road each
side. Lorries and cars were
streaming past us heading
for Amsterdam, their lights a long line of
bleary illumination in the grey, cold, wet
and windy half-light of day.
The only thing that cheered us as gusts
of 38 knots threw icy rain and sometimes
hail into our faces, was that we were
moving faster than the heavy traffic going
in the opposite direction.
Just past Boskoop, it was
discovered the generator
was not charging the
battery. Mark and
Wilbert got to work
in the engine room
and soon discovered the
impeller in the generator

Preferred canal routes

Alternative routes

Delfzijl

THE NETHERLANDS

Den Helder

AMSTERDAM

Gouda

Dordrecht

Vlissingen

(Flushing)

CHARTS: MAXINE HEATH

L-R: Midn. Maarten Stigter, Lt. Cdr. Harry Dekkers and Maj. Liz Marquat Scholtz at the wheel

PHOTOS: DICK DURHAM UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED