June 1st 2019
Change of plans, we’re not leaving today. We had initially planned to sail to an anchorage we found on the map, but yesterday evening when we went out to get a shower we already saw the number of boats in the marinas accumulating fast. And this morning it only had gotten worse. Considering the amount of boats we figured that it might be overcrowded at the anchorage we chose, so it probably would be wise to stay put and wait until Monday. Without further ado we went to the ticket machine to pay for two extra days. On our way back from the ticket machine we spoke to the harbour master who told us that this weekend and coming weekend are the indeed busiest weekends of the year, confirming our suspicion that the anchorage might be overcrowded.
More confirmation came when we took a walk later on to the harbour entrance at the ‘Buitenhaven’, another municipality marina, and saw one boat after another coming into the already packed marina. Literally every 5 minutes another boat came along, shepherded by the harbour master in a RIB (reinforced inflatable boat) to a designated spot. Very skilfully she had stacked rows of more than 5 boats thick with military precision alongside each other, filling the marina to the brim. It was no different in the other city marina. Only our marina was still relatively quiet. But unlike the other two city marinas there isn’t really the possibility to stack here, due to all the separate berths with mooring poles and finger docks. You can imagine that we were very glad to have arrived early and that we were moored in such a good spot. So after watching the mayhem whilst enjoying an ice cream we went back to our peaceful corner of the city and enjoyed the sunshine.