The nautical adventures of Mr. and Mrs. Gray
Time to plan the next passage
We spent the whole day returning the car to Zoetermeer and getting back to Enkhuizen again by public transport. In Enkhuizen we were welcomed by all kinds of musical interventions throughout the inner city. There we choirs singing in boats, people with guitars singing on the embankments and fanfares in the streets. For such a small town, there’s always something happening here.
We were glad to finally close this dentist chapter and started planning next passage.
Our last day in Enkhuizen
Our last day in Enkhuizen. We needed to replenish our food supplies before we leave and since we were planning not to moor in a marina the coming week, that meant lots of heavy bags with groceries. We still needed to do a few minor boat chores, like fastening the iPad mount we had just bought for navigation, and gluing a piece of teak back in place that didn’t want to be part of the boat anymore.
Although the day started rainy, the sun bursted trough the clouds around noon. So when Jeroen’s mother came to visit in the afternoon, we were able to sit outside in the cockpit.
This weekend there is a big Jazz festival in Enkhuizen. There are stages with Jazz bands all through town, and parades of Dixieland orchestras playing happy tunes. So after we waved Jeroen’s mother goodbye we went for a stroll through the town to watch the festivities. When we had heard quite enough Jazz to last us a lifetime, we went for a long walk through the city. As if saying goodbye. We felt a bit sad because we’re leaving tomorrow. On the one hand we feel that it is time to go on, but we like it so much here that we don’t want to leave. But that is the essence of travelling: knowing that you have to say goodbye someday.
Brewing Elderflower champagne
We’re on the hunt for Elderflowers.
Elderflowers are the blossoms of the Elderflower shrub, and they are the key ingredient for our favourite spring beverage: Elderflower champagne. As this is the time of the year that they grow in abundance, so time to go outside and find us some flowers! The Elderflower shrub is like a weed. It grows anywhere and everywhere, so it shouldn’t be hard to find some. The winds and rain had subsided, so it was a perfect day for a walk along the cities’ ramparts.
And as we thought, we didn’t have to search long before we found loads of Elderflower shrubs laden with flowers. A quick d-tour via the supermarket for the necessary sugar and lemons, and quickly back to the boat to brew our champagne. Just add the Elderflower heads, sugar, lemons and a small splash of apple vinegar to a bucket of water and cover it loosely with a cloth. Then you have to wait a few days until it starts to ferment, and then it’s done.
The fragrance of Elderflowers is wafting through the boat, so we’re happily anticipating the brew. We just have to wait patiently for the wild yeast to do it work.
Planning the next passage
Quite strong winds today, the perfect time to plan our next passage. The past week we have tried to find suitable anchorages at the IJsselmeer. But there are not many places for us to anchor comfortably with our draft. We’ve only found about five or six spots, so maybe this is the universe telling us that after six passages it is high time to head towards the islands. The plan is to leave – and really leave, otherwise we might as well rent a permanent mooring here – on Sunday or Monday, depending on the wind.
Captain Fluffy isn’t looking forward to leave. He loves his evening walks through the city. So he went for a long walk this evening to make the most of the time ashore…
Will the trip end in Enkhuizen?
We’re still in Enkhuizen. There is hardly any wind, so we wouldn’t get anywhere far by sailboat. But it’s not a punishment to stay a bit longer. Not in the slightest. We love it here.
Although the marina lies in the middle of the city, it’s peaceful and calm. Enkhuizen has a train station, the sailing area is great with direct access to the IJsselmeer and the scenery is beautiful. It really is a nice town with friendly people. Not too small like Edam, just big enough to have things to do. We’re even considering this as our permanent marina if we would ever stop travelling.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We’re not planning to settle down yet. There are so many places we haven’t been to, and they might even be better than Enkhuizen, who knows…
Swamped by holiday makers
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.
How the Dutch became a naval force
Today we went for a stroll in the old city. Enkhuizen is a city with beautiful old architecture and a rich history. It used to be the fourth biggest city of the Netherlands thanks to its importance for the the VOC, The Dutch East India Trading Company. A lot of street names and buildings are reminders of the Golden Age when the Netherlands was one of the important naval countries, dominating the high seas. Enkhuizen was also the residence of Jan Huygen. Here revered as a hero, others could argue Jan Huygen was nothing more than a common thief who stole the sea maps of the Portuguese and passed that knowledge on to the Dutch and the English. Without this theft the Netherlands wouldn’t have become such a powerful maritime state and the VOC probably wouldn’t have existed. Funny that what is nothing more than industrial espionage now is remembered like an act of bravery.
In search for a launderette
It was high time to do the laundry again.
The municipality marina was supposed to have a washing machine, but since all the facilities are spread over the three locations, it took a while before we found out where it was. There was only one machine which was already in use. Bummer. It was also quite far away from our boat so walking back and forth with two batches of laundry would be really cumbersome. The washing program had just started, and since we had to wait for an hour anyway we went in search for a launderette. After a quick internet search we found one nearby, but when we got there it turned out it indeed used to be a launderette, but was now a lifestyle shop called ‘t oude Washhuys (washhuys is old Dutch for launderette). There was one other option though. The Compagnieshaven, which is the commercial marina, was just on the other side of the street from where our berth in the Oosterhaven was. We saw on the internet that they also had laundry facilities, and decided to try our luck there. And yes! Four big washing machines and two dryers, all empty. We got our laundry, bought the necessary tokens at their marina office, put our stuff in the washing machine and took a shower while we waited. We felt a bit like stowaways, but clean ones, fully refreshed and with clean clothes.
Visiting the Zuiderzee museum
Thanks to a disgruntled Captain Fluffy, who was angrily jumping off and on the bed to growl at birds hopping on the deck we woke up early. We decided to make use of the early start and go to the Zuiderzee museum, an open air museum here in Enkhuizen dedicated to the history of arts and crafts of the former Zuiderzee. We were so early that the museum was just opening and we were the first ones to enter.
What is now known as the IJsselmeer used to be called the Zuiderzee. It was a big inner sea with an open connection with the Wadden and the North sea. Many cities and towns around the former Zuiderzee relied on fishing and trades connected to the fishing industry like basket weaving, coopery and smoke houses before it got closed of by the ‘Afsluitdijk’, one of the Deltaworks. After the Afsluitdijk was closed, a lot of these trades disappeared.
The many volunteers and professionals that work here are involved in living archaeology. By recreating historical artefacts they try to figure out how they used to be made, because a lot of knowledge has been lost even though it has only been less than a hundred years ago that people were living like this. Sometimes they try to recreate artefacts from historical paintings, which can be difficult because a painter allows himself artistic freedom in altering reality to better the painting. Some artefacts turn out to be Esther like objects, that can’t exist in reality. A friend of ours who recreates historical costumes for movies also had to recreate dresses that were impossible to make or wear because the painter had left out the creases and folds, probably because it looks better. Apart from the paintings, artifacts that have survived the test of time or slivers of knowledge that have been passed on somehow, there actually isn’t much to go on. The cooper that works here at the museum is one of the last professional coopers in The Netherlands and the sailmakers are still trying to figure out how the traditional water repellent fishing clothes were made and prepared. It is actually a bit unsettling to realize how fast knowledge disappears.
We love these open air historical musea, and spend the whole day chatting with the craftsmen and exploring the buildings, and we even had a crash course on how to knit fishing nets. The day was over before we knew it. We might have been the first to arrive, but we were the last to leave.
