Alkmaar - Nes, Ameland, Netherlands (14 September 2021)

Leaving Terschelling

 Our planned sailing for the summer of 2021 was severely curtailed by ongoing Covid-19 restrictions in the Netherlands. As citizens of a "third country" we would have been required to quarantine until late autumn. However, if we came from a country not regarded as "High Risk" and had been there for at least 10 days, quarantine was waived. So it was a tough call, but we decided to holiday in France for 10 days. We spent a very pleasant time in St Valery-sur-Somme and then St Simeon, about 60 km east of Paris. 

We arrived at the yard at Alkmaar on Tuesday 31 August and relaunched the following day.

A smooth relaunch at Nicolaas Witsen

Not surprisingly after an almost two year layup, relaunching revealed a few problems that had to be fixed including rigging tightness, dead bow thruster battery, setting up of new chart plotter and instruments installed March 2020, defective handheld VHF, etc. On the next afternoon, we gently motored 1 nm down the North Holland Canal to Alkmaar town centre. An enjoyable couple of days were spent in this attractive city, reprovisioning and getting familiar with the new chart plotter. We also reacquainted ourselves with the charming and helpful lady Harbour Master who found us space immediately off the main canal in front of the police station! We particularly enjoyed the busy Saturday Market with fresh vegetables, fish, meat, bread and cakes and so on.

                                                                                            A vibrant city

                                                                             The Weigh House

                                                                       Distributing cheese

                                                               Whileaway outside the Police station! 

 North Holland and the West Frisian Islands

By Saturday evening we were ready to leave so we decided to make a prompt start on Sunday morning. The bridges would not be available to lift until 0915 so we then made our way north along the North Holland canal. for the 22nm journey 16 bridges required opening, two of them railway bridges with opening at 30 minute intervals to fit timetables. We arrived just outside the sea lock at Den Helder at around 1415 and learned from a VHF call to the Lock Keeper that there would just be a short 10 minute wait. So we were soon through the lock, into the harbour beyond and then out to the Waddenzee and the short 5nm passage across to Oudeschild on Texel. Entering the harbour we realised that it was quite busy here, the Dutch were obviously having a staycation year.  

Within about 90 minutes of our arrival we were visited by two uniformed Douane (customs officers). They asked where we had come from and where we were going. They were most interested in the tax position of the boat. They took copies of our UK Certificate of Registry, EC T2L form showing VAT paid and the letter that we had from the yard where the boat was ashore (in the Netherlands) on 31 December 2020. They agreed that the latter two documents showed that Whileaway was a VAT paid EU boat. All very polite and friendly as you would expect from the Dutch. No other checks (passport, Covid vaccinations, stores etc) and they wished us good sailing.

We are the only "foreign" boat here as apart from the Dutch the only other nationalities seem to be German, Belgium, Norway and Switzerland, the latter two having trading and other arrangements with the EU.

We were last in Texel, the largest of the West Frisian islands, in September 2019. So we talked about the island then. During the three days that we were there we cycled along the coast and made some plans for the rest of the month.

 

The outer harbour at Texel

                                                                A North Sea beach on Texel

Early on the morning of Wednesday 8 September we left Texel. We had to head to starboard on leaving the port, sail clockwise around the west of the island and then head east along the North Sea passing Vlieland to Terschelling. We had to fight adverse currents for a while before gaining the tide on the north of the island. The total distance was 42nm and we arrived at West Terschelling in mid-afternoon. 

Terschelling was also quite busy. We were there in 2019 and liked it a lot. Plenty of cycling, walking and bird life. Plus lots of Dutch barges visiting.

 

Passing the barges on entering West Terschelling

 

Our favourite bar in the town 

Market day in one of the villages

 

  Old lifeboat, part of a small museum.

Plenty of sand at lower states of tide!

We then had an adventurous trip to Ameland. This is an even quieter island as it usually requires a passage between the islands and the mainland which is very shallow. Plenty of buoy or withy hopping required! We took advice from the West Terschelling Harbour Master who said that the passage was fine if your draught was less than 1.6m and you left around 3 hours before high water. We draw 1.4m. So we had the luxury of an extra 0.2m under the keel! We started following the main buoyed channels and after just under a couple of hours began crossing one of the shallow patches. Unfortunately after a short distance we ran into the sand. So with some assistance from the engine we went astern and retreated to the last buoy to wait 15 minutes for more water. A quarter of an hour later we repeated the experience! Annoyingly a Dutch barge with a flat bottom passed us, the skipper regularly hanging over the side and pushing a stick into the sea to check the position of the channel. On our next attempt we got past the problem buoy only to hit the sand again and have to retreat to the immediately previous buoy. We were on the last throw of the dice as we were less than half an hour before high water but we eventually made it with least depth 0.1m. But we had saved about 4 hours if we had gone around the North Sea side of the island.

It was though well worth going to Ameland. The main port is Nes and is very quiet. Whilst there are visitors who come by ferry from the mainland the difficult access deters others. There are plenty of birds and four attractive settlements with buildings back to the 1600's. 

 

 

                                                  Traditional homes on Ameland

 

                                                             Many wading birds

                                                Plenty of sheep on the levees

    The harbour at Nes with Whileaway in the centre

We spent a very enjoyable couple of days exploring Nes. It had a lovely relaxed atmosphere with excellent cyclepaths both hugging the coast and inland. Well worth the visit.