Tag: pond weed

Preparing the next passage

Getting away from Pond weed

May 26th 2019

Feeding the ducklings our last scraps of bread

Time to get some work done and prepare for the next passage. We had initially planned to go to the Markerwadden, but the weather isn’t looking good the coming week.

Another thing that slightly worries us is the enormous amounts of Pond weed here in the Markermeer. We mentioned it before, it is a water plant with really tough stringy stems. The Markermeer was intended to become a polder, to create more land for agriculture and housing. But shortly after they had started building, the idea was abandoned. The only thing they had build so far was a dyke to form the contour of the land. They left it in place, and now a road runs over it from Flevoland to Enkhuizen. But due to the dyke the water flow has been altered and the water gets muddier. With all the mud particles floating around sunlight has trouble to penetrate the water and the fish and water plants slowly die out, except for this particular Pond weed. Somehow this plant seems to thrive in these conditions. Every year the water gets muddier and the pond weed grows more excessively. As a counter measure Rijkswaterstaat (governmental organization in charge of infrastructure) is constructing the Markerwadden, artificial islands in the Markermeer that have the purpose to collect the suspended clay particles and clarify the water. But that will take a while.

For now the pond weed is still going strong and causing a lot of grief. Because of the massive growth a lot of boats get the stringy stems of the weed entangled in their prop, rendering them immobile. Some individuals take advantage of that. We were warned by people in the marina only to accept help from the coast guard if you’re in trouble. Otherwise kindly decline any offers for help. What happens is that these individuals conveniently pop up when you’re in trouble and offer to tow you back to a marina. They make it look like they are accidentally in the vicinity, but in reality they are salvage companies waiting in areas with excessive pondweed growth. So the minute you accept their help, or accept a rope being thrown at you, they’ll send you a cheque of €5000,-.

We don’t want to get the nasty stuff in our prop and having to dive under the boat to cut away the pond weed or to ward of pushy salvage people, therefore we want to leave the Markermeer as soon as possible.

So no Markerwadden, maybe next year in early spring when the pond weed isn’t that much of a problem yet. The plan is now to go to Enkhuizen. Let’s see what the weather does tomorrow.

Enough clay for a pottery

Sailing to Edam from our anchorage

May 20th 2019

Anchorage near Uitdam to Edam: 15 nautical miles

The weather is changing and the barometer is plummeting like a rock. Time to move today because tomorrow the wind is going to increase even more and it will start to rain. Despite our worries of the last days our anchor had set well. We could tell it had dug in really deep, because when the last shackles and the anchor surfaced it was covered in such a thick layer of clay that we could provide for a whole pottery.

We had also dragged up pieces of pond weed (Potamogeton), common water plants for this area that in summer grow so fast that the authorities need to mow them to enable boats to move. But it is still springtime so hopefully the growth isn’t that severe yet. As the plants appear to be edible we probably need to graze our way through the Markermeer in summertime.

The Horse of Marken in the distance

The wind was perfect for sailing, thus after hauling in the anchor we hoisted all the sails and headed towards Edam. We made good speed, and soon rounded the Horse of Marken, a historic lighthouse built in 1839 on the former island. Although heavily overcast, it was quite an enjoyable sail. Later in the afternoon the wind started to increase steadily, and before long it had increased to wind force 4 with gusts of 5 and was still increasing. All the other sailboats were heading towards shore, and soon we were the only boat left on the water. But we were already approaching the entrance to the marina of Edam, so we took down the sails and traversed the last bit by engine.

Carmen at the helm

The harbour entrance was a bit shallow for our draft, but we docked in the marina of W.S.V. De Zeevang without difficulties. What proved to be difficult was getting electricity. Just like in Leiden, there are poles with sockets in which you have to insert €0,50 to get electricity. But after trying two sockets and loosing 2 coins we decided that this is a problem for tomorrow.