Gouda to Dordrecht

Gouda

We ended up being in a raft of three boats, but there was a raft to the front and the rear. This meant that we would have to wait for others to leave the next morning but we were in no rush.

As you can see we where quite hemmed in. Luckily in the morning the boats in front of us left as did the boat rafted on to us. There was only the three boat raft to our rear to contend with - however that was the way we needed to go. John decided the best way was to go forward a bit, make a bit of space and reverse out. It was quite a long reverse but it went well. I can say that as I was supervising!

Soon we were back on the main canal and straight away we had to go under a bridge - they have one side for the  working boats and another side for 'sport'. We only had a 15 minute wait for this bridge, as the river wasn't in flood the lock was on free flow.

Looking at the size of these I was pleased they have the two separate sides.

Again a journey where I could have a nose at some lovely gardens and houses and of course the windmills.

This windmill was very near the marina in Gouda.

Today's journey would take us on to the outskirts of Rotterdam, one of the busiest waterways in the world. We had junctions we needed to turn on, crossing from one side to the other, you just need to keep your wits about you, eyes peeled and go for it. Needless to say careful passage planning had taken place so we knew where we  were going. An industrial part of the journey but very interesting.

When we passed this, we wondered if the Dutch knew something we didn't!

All was going well for the journey, the second bridge was half an hour wait so once again I took the opportunity to make lunch so we could eat in comfort down below rather than on the go. The snag came at the last road bridge. When I radioed ahead I was clearly told it would open at 15.40.  ( a forty minute wait) Now whether he thought I was at some other bridge I don't know, but the upshot was it didn't open until 16.25. Normally this is not a problem but there was nowhere to moor up. We with another boat managed to get into an old port area. The Dutch boat tried to moor against the wall, but there were huge bolts on the wall and it was very windy. He indicated once he had moored he would be happy for us to raft up. For various reasons we thanked him and declined. It was the right choice as he could not get a safe/comfortable mooring. John spent the time doing figure of eights in the old port and then I did figure of eights - we could have done this indefinitely but about ten to four several other boats joined us. It was not easy or comfortable milling around as the wind was getting up and space was limited. Eventually the bridge opened and we  got through.

Once through I followed the instructions in the cruising guide which was stick to the East side of the island - the other 6 boats shot down the West side. When we got to the end of the island they popped out slightly in front of us. Local knowledge!

Dordrecht is one of the oldest towns in the Netherlands and the old town is basically an island where three rivers meet. It looked very interesting, we located the entrance to our marina and shoot across the river. We were lucky as a boat was waiting on the pontoon and the bridge was about to open. We hung back and waiting for them to go in first. It was very crowded, we were given instructions to where to go, which meant a lot of manoeuvring in tight spaces. As John was doing his bit, I watched the boat in front of us having some difficulty with the boat they were mooring up to and the lady on the boat shouting at them. As I obviously couldn't understand it all I watched as they aborted and imagine my feelings when we were told to raft up to in the exact same spot. However, the lady couldn't have been nicer and all went well. The down side of this was we were the third boat out and clambering over the guard rails has given me my sailor legs - covered in bruises.

Speaking to the harbour master he said that as people left tomorrow there would be room for us to have a berth. As we wanted to do as little climbing as possible we eat out that night and found a really good restraint on the front - Steak and Chardonnay. Not only was the steak excellent but John felt he had 'hit pay dirt' with the starter - lobster soup.

We liked what we saw that evening and knew we would enjoy looking round the town properly.

The next morning brought torrential rain so it was an indoors sort of day. We had moved to a quieter berth but the wifi was intermittent here, which was a pain - so no chance to do the blog, but I did get the laundry done. The rain died off a bit in the afternoon and we had a stroll round. We liked what we saw and as the forecast was better for the next day we decided to stay a third night.

Boaty information

Electric and water included - 19.95 euros per night
Showers 50 cents
Washer token - 4 euros  1 euro for the drier
Good security - however if you are under the bridge you have to wall along the road to the facilties once you come out of the gate.
Wifi hit and miss
Quite a long walk to the Albert Hein.
Gouda to Dordrect 19.8 miles  (remember some of this was going round and round for nearly an hour waiting for the bridge.