Day 29 - Makkum

Wednesday 1^st July 2015 – Makkum – Day 29

It is a very bright, warm and sunny morning and before leaving I went along to the chandlers  and bought the book which had been recommended, for navigating in the Waddenzee, namely, ‘HP33 Dutch Coast Tidal Streams’.

We left the marina at 10.30 and headed up the eastern side of the Ijsselmeer, close into the Friesland shore.  With the speed log unit removed from its tube, my speed instrument in the cockpit was showing zero and I had no indication of how far we had travelled.  Luckily, I had remembered to bring along my hand-held GPS, with power to it from the cigar-lighter socket, I at least knew what speed we were doing.

Old Harbour

Six mile along the coast and we entered the old harbour of Hindelopen, asking the harbour master, no problems to stay for two hours on the harbour wall.

This is a very picturesque town with its narrow streets and canal; it is immaculately clean.  It does not take long to walk around it and were delighted to see some very unusual works of art.

Happy Face

 

Sad but colourful

  

These wood carvings, one on a house wall facing the streets, while these colourful characters, overlooking the harbour.

Church

The local church with its tilting tower, the graveyard contains a section looked after by the war graves commission, of which there were six members of a crashed plane, five Canadian and one British airmen are buried here.

Main Street

Wee canal

  

Not far from the little canal, we stopped at a restaurant for a ham and eggs lunch, while watching others yachts manoeuvring in the harbour.

We had to be moving on and left at 13.30, continued north up the coast to our next port, Makkum.  Only a two hour run and we were alongside in this very large marina.  Booking in at the reception was hilarious, with this girl in fits of laughter, trying to explain the joys of Makkum.

This new marina complex has a supermarket, shops, bar, restaurant, swimming pool, children’s play area and on this very hot afternoon, the first stop was the small café and a large ice cream, sitting under an umbrella, it was a treat.

   

The ice cream was not sufficient to cool us down, it was into the open-air swimming pool.  Though it was 30 degrees, the water in comparison was very cold and just what we needed.

Shower block entrance

The shower block facilities are the best I have seen and I really enjoyed the experience.

The walk into town took longer than we were told, the half-hour stroll took us up the river past large  sheds belonging to ‘De Vries’, who look after the super-rich, building their super yachts.

In the town centre, we sat outside in the bar/restaurant ‘De Zwann’ and tucked into a large bowl of mussels with bread, roast potatoes and salad, this was delightful.

A taxi back to the marina bar, ‘Beaufort’ for ould genever night caps.

It had been an eventful, three ports, an excellent sail in very good conditions and the sun shone all day.