More bridges, more traffic

Sat 24th June – to Alphen an der Rhein and then on to the Kaag – 17.3nm

We had left the Hollandse Ijssel river now and were on the Gouwe which passes through some very wet country. A lot of the land around here is very low polder, reclaimed years ago from big old salty lakes and constantly being drained, but my photo of the chart plotter as we approached Boskoop shows it particularly soggy looking.


Watery view of Boskoop on our electronic chart plotter - black boat shape in middle shows our position.
Course is 011 degrees, speed over the ground is 5.7kts


Bridges can get a bit repetitive to wait around for on a windy day, and also pretty dull to read about I imagine, so we'll gloss over those. After one of them, in the centre of Alphen an der Rhein, we stopped to have a look around and do some shopping.


Sail cover is on as we are not attempting to sail in the canals - some yachts do hoist (or unfurl) a head sail when the wind is right, and we could do that but haven't done so far.

View from the bridge - sails lying untidily on our foredeck as the shelves in the forepeak are not yet assembled, though the poo tank is of course back in and working


It looks a small waterway and most of the traffic is leisure boats, but even on a Saturday something bigger can appear.




The commercial vessels can be very low in the water when laden...

...but they are generally very long

Very long! It must be my age but the chap driving this beast looked as if he should be in school

Speedboat on the roof of his accommodation and a crane to lift it on and off. Many of them have a car there too : perhaps he hasn't passed his test yet

After he's passed the bridge closes and normal Saturday traffic resumes


From the largest to the smallest users of the waterway: unless she's been cradle snatching from her chums this lucky duck appears to have brought a brood of 14 into the world. They won't all survive of course but sticking close together like this will surely help their chances.


Ahhhh!




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