Volendam to Hoorn - Day 18

Monday 20th August 2012 - Volendam to Hoorn - Day 18

In the office at 09.00 still no spare parts, Bill went to the shop and made breakfast, I plodded on with the blogsite.

New parts fitted

At 11.30 the parts were hand delivered and we had a cup of tea to celebrate.
Between 12.00 and 14.00 we fitted the new exhaust pipe elbow with flexible from the thermostat.  A new stop solenoid was fitted and a successful engine trial was completed.
We said our goodbyes to the marina staff who had really looked after us over the past five days.

At 14.45 we left Volendam with the full genoa unfurled at 15.00 and passing GZ2 buoy hoisted the full main and popeye (auto-helm)  engaged.

At 15.30 the engine was stopped and we were sailing, at last.

Hoorn

The wind from the west force 3 to 4 and on a beam reach with a calm sea we were making 5 to 5 1/2 knots and in the warm sunshine it was most satisfying.
At 17.30 were in our box in Hoorn and informed by the harbour master it was the last day of the town's fair and most of youngsters were on the drink.
We went ashore at 19.30 to find all of the pubs and restaurants which I knew were all closed.  Bill could not believe I had brought him to a port with no pubs.

When we arrived at the town square it was a mess, there was discarded plastic mugs everywhere.  While all chairs had been removed to  inside the bars and the music was once again too much for us.  The fair ground was shutting down as we looked for somewhere to find refreshment and found a hotel with comfortable chairs outside where they actually served beer in a proper glass.  They told us the town was shut down between 16.00 and 20.00 to allow the place to be cleaned up after the fair.
Strolling back to the harbour we found a very friendly bar open and had an excellent conversation with the locals and dined again on toasties.  We were back on board just after midnight and pleased we had made another port and enjoyed the company of the local inhabitants.