Amsterdam to Almere - Day 9

Saturday 11th August 2012 - Amsterdam to Almere - Day 9

It is was an overcast morning while we had tea and coffee in the Sixhaven club house, where I purchased a burgee from this lovely spot and were given advise to stay within the channels while in the inland sea.

Oranje Sluizen

At 11.30 we left Sixhaven and crossed to the cruise ship terminal and proceeded into the small boat channel.  It is two miles before you reach the lay by basin for the lock, there was a lot of boats waiting.  One of the locks is used for the commercial large barge traffic while the other is used by leisure craft.  By 12.30 we tied up against a converted fishing boat 'Jar'.  It did not take long as the water only rose about one foot within the Oranje Sluizen lock.

Shortly after the lock you have to wait for the opening of

 Schelling Wouderbrug 

the lifting bridge and move into the Markermeer.
The channels are very well marked and with the use of the local charts and own chart plotter which has all the relevant details for this part of Holland, it was a simple task following the marks.  It was the weekend and we could see lots of sails to the north as we turned at buoy P8 and took the channel towards Flevoland.  Across our path was a rather large road bridge and close to it a railway bridge.

Hollandse Brug

The clearance underneath the bridge was 12.7 metres while Selene's air draught is 12 metres we went under with a little apprehension.  We had been motoring so far and after the bridge ran with the full genoa.
The afternoon turned out fine and sunny with a fair breeze to push us along and at 16.00 we were tied up in our box at Almere.

Almere

At 20.00 we went to the marina beautiful club house called '10 Beaufort'and dined on onion soup, pork satays and chips which was lovely.
It was a short walk to the town quay with only one lively bar 'Levertij' while the rest were restaurants.
We returned to the boat around midnight and finished off the sloe gin.