Yeah, I’ll admit it. After living on our boat in the Netherlands for over a month now, the things I miss about the Bay Area are:

1. My friends (though we are still in touch all the time)
2. Street tacos and margarita-flavored margaritas
3. My car

Having said that, I know that if we stayed in Grou (which is kind of like a small version of Point Richmond without the street tacos), we’d have a solid community within a few months. We’ve gotten good at meeting new people and making an effort at remembering people’s names. We’re reading Dutch non-street taco menus, and we’ve become pro at shopping at the Jumbo supermarkt (we even do the self-scanning line without putting it into English mode).

Also, we’re going to Leeuwarden tomorrow (by train), and I think lunch is going to be here.

Anyway, the last we left off, we were in Dark Pants…

We were sitting on the side of the canal in Donkerbroek. Did I mention that that translates into “dark pants”? We were there for 36 too many hours, and while the few people we met were nice, we were in the depths of Friesland where not only there are no possibilities of Dutch street tacos, there are just no people who speak Dutch (Frisian is like Old English… like Beowulf kind of stuff). We were as far into the depths of Friesland as some of the little towns between Stockton and Angels Camp – towns you may have blown through in a car but wouldn’t recognize the name of if someone asked if you’d been there.

The day we left Donkerbroek, David woke up and said, “we need to leave here. We need to go forward and go somewhere else.” We’d been sitting put because it was pouring outside, but we do drive inside anyway, so that isn’t an issue. We left. We didn’t know where we were going. 50km backward, 50km forward, we just had to keep going. By the time we got to a place where it seemed would be comfortable to sit for the evening, we were within an hour of Grou, so we went back to Grou.

Driving 50km in a boat that goes 8km makes for a long day. Also, remember we went up 4m through many locks, so we had to come back down the hill the other way. We went through 4 more locks and no less than 12 bridges. The locks on the southern route back are much deeper so they take longer. Again, we heard from 2 different lock keepers, “you are the first Americans I’ve ever seen come through here.”

Do they say that to all Americans?

Getting to Know You

Staying in Grou has allowed us to spend time really getting familiar with Compagnon. We’ve cleared off some trash, removed some of the ghost wires (that happens when the boat is from 1975), and moved stuff around so we are happy with the storage. We’ve been able to use our new used bikes to go to the American Diner at the train station and shared a cheeseburger and listened to 80s music. I’m really loving riding my bike… I don’t even have a bike in Point Richmond, but it feels so fun to do it here… and during the week mid-day, we can take our bikes on the trains. And, just about everywhere here plays 80s music, which is great because it’s our “golden oldies.”

Is Your Refrigerator Running?

Yesterday, while cleaning out the 2nd step down into the galley where I was keeping bags and foil, one of us inadvertently flipped a lever that had been horizontal to vertical. Neither of us thought much of it. A couple of hours later, I realized the refrigerator wasn’t working. We thought the fridge had died (it was new in 2012), so figured, “oh great, one more thing we need to replace.” This morning David wakes up and says, “I might know what happened with the fridge, give me a minute.” He reaches into the step and flips the lever back to horizontal, and the fridge comes back on.

On Wednesday, Vince and Debbie arrive, and we have an exciting possible loop laid out while they are here. All in all, I’m glad we did the Turf Route, because we now have a lot more understanding of how this boat moves and how to manage locks and bridges. And someday, we’ll do the Big Turf Route (170km). But, not this year.

We are sitting still in Donkerbroek (“Dark Pants”) for a couple of days. It’s raining, and we’ve been on the go since last weekend, so just taking a breather, doing a little work on the boat, and probably go for a bike ride sometime today. Gorredijk is to Point Richmond as Donkerbroek is to Fremont (for those of you from the Bay Area).

We left Gorredijk in the morning and went further east into deep Friesland (i.e. most of the people here speak Frisian, but not always great English if any). This part of the trip included 12 bridges (fixed, most of them lifting, and a couple of “self service”) as well as 4 locks. Some of the locks do not show up on the map, and are right on the other side of a lifting bridge. The only indication we have is looking under the bridge and seeing a wall.

We’re Not in France

We are traveling on the ‘Compagnonsvaart” (Compagnon’s Canal). Compagnon on Compagnon’s Canal.

The canals are getting thinner and much prettier. There are bike paths down both sides, and if we had little cafes and patisseries, I would swear we were in France.

The amount of focus that goes into driving on these parts of the canal with a boat that has a flat bottom and needs to be managed is immense. Thankfully David and I are both very good drivers as well as line handlers.

Coming up on a bridge with a bridge keeper usually involves a waiting area where you can temporarily wrap your spring line around the pole. When the bridge is a “self-service” bridge, there’s a tad bit of choreography involved, because one of you has to get off, open the bridge, someone has to drive through the opening (which is barely wider than the width of the boat), pull up to the waiting area on the other side, close the bridge, and then continue.

Locks, Locks, Locks and Locks

Locks are a little bit of a challenge also, because they require going through a very small opening (again barely wider than the boat), doubling back the spring line and wrapping it around a bar (so you can let the line out as the boat rises), and once the lock keeper opens the lock, going through another very small opening. So far, we have not hit anything, though we do have a long barge pole that helps to push the boat off the side of the lock before we depart.

We are rising 4m from Akkrum to Aachen (from west to east on the Turf Route), which means we have to go 13 feet back down when we start to close the circle (I’m guessing we have another 6-8 locks ahead of us).

You could make a life goal out of traveling through cool locks: Falkirk Wheel, Caen Hill Locks, and of course Panama.

Another Magical Cruiser’s Kind of Evening

I was gearing up for an evening meeting when David got back onto the boat and told me that I should reschedule my meeting because there was going to be a 25 piece brass band setting up just off our port side, and it would be too loud to have a meeting. I thought he was kidding, but sure enough there they were gathering for their once a year performance on the lawn next to our boat.

Out of curiosity, I went over to chat with the few earlybirds and ask if they knew who Sousa was (they did). I also chatted with a woman (named Klaaska) who was there for the performance all the way from “almost Utrecht”, and we invited her to join us in the “balcony” on our boat stern to watch the performance and have a glass of wine. She told me she’d never been on the canal on a boat either! We had a marvelous hour laughing, talking and listening to this brass band play Dutch favorites as well as “Sweet Caroline”.

Donkerbroek Local Knowledge

From Gorredijk, I’m not sure we could have gone much farther than Donkerbroek. It was a lot of focusing and work. Klein Groningen (where the canal takes a right turn) looks like a decent place to stay for the night, but there’s nothing there other than 49 houses and some horses.

There is a grocery store in Donkerbroek called “Coop”. It’s a convenience store, and it’s not inexpensive. Oosterwolde is 18 minutes bike ride south, and much larger. There are at least 3 bridges between here and Oosterwolde.

Mooring in Donkerbroek, coming from west to east, is beyond the second bridge on the left side. There are maybe 8 tieups. It’s free, and electricity is free.

If you stay here, Sannie the harbormaster will come out and chat (a lot) with you. She’s lovely. Buy a Donkerbroek flag from here – it helps the mooring, and it will make her happy.

Last night was so unbearably hot, we slept with 3 fans in our cabin. Each one of us has our own fan, and an oscillating one to keep the air shifting around. It was 91 degrees yesterday, which means it was a solid 86 at 11pm. In Aldeboarn this morning, the internet was a bit spotty (not sporty), so we decided to leave and head for Gorredijk and take our chances that the connectivity was better there (and it is).

On exiting Aldeboarn this morning, we drove under a fixed bridge that was only a few inches taller than our flag pole. Oh, I probably haven’t mentioned that this route requires us to have the mast folded down as well as the upper steering station windows due to the low height of the bridges. The other interesting thing about the bridges is that the heights are in DECIMETERS, so a bridge height that says 9 really means .9 (which you probably couldn’t even slide under if you were laying on a paddleboard).

Nature on Steroids

We found ourselves in beautiful nature, surrounded by kilometers and kilometers of farmland and cows. Occasionally there would be someone riding past on a bike, or a small family in a small boat, but for the most part we were by ourselves. Except for the cows. At 10.6m, we’re one of the larger boats on the Turf Route, and it really shows when you are going down the canal in the middle of a town.

To get to Gorredijk, you drive past the Sudergemaal pumping station. Sadly, it is currently closed. It was built in 1924 to drain the polders and was one of the first electric pumping stations built in Friesland. After passing that, we went under another fixed bridge, and then through 3 more opening bridges (they are either drawbridges or they rotate). Finally we were at the opening bridge to get into Gorredijk.

Once you get the attention of the first bridgekeeper, that person sticks with you for the entire set of bridges. It seems that it’s this way for these small villages, but these are small bridges and small hops (maybe 100m) between the bridges.

Bridges and Bridges and Bridges and Locks

As soon as we were at the entrance to Gorredijk, we went through:

1. Drawbridge #1
2. Drawbridge #2
3. Drawbridge #3
4. Rotating Bridge #1
5. A LOCK! We did a lock today! Manually operated!!!
6. Rotating Bridge #2
7. Drawbridge #4
8. Drawbridge #5

I get why they want experienced boaters only on this route.

Opsterlandse Compagnonsvaart

We are currently moored just outside of the last bridge in Gorredijk on the Opsterlandse Compagnonsvaart (haha, Compagnon the boat is on the Compagnon canal!). The canal is a 34km canal between Gorredijk and Appelscha. It was dug in 1630 for the transport of peat (which was used to heat houses). In 1974, there was a movement to do away with the canal, but an individual said “no way”, and managed to keep the canal open. About 1500 boats pass down this route every year.

We are Going Uphill

There are NINE LOCKS ahead of us, and they are ALL manually operated. This is because Appelscha (which is technically the beginning of the Turf Route, but we got on the road in the middle of it) is 12m higher than Gorredijk. There are no facilities for pumping up the water in the Opsterlandse Compagnonsvaart. All the water that flows through the canal comes from the area itself.

#notpanama

Gorredijk Local Knowledge

All the major chain stores are here: Jumbo, Albert Heine, Aldi, Action, Blokker, Hema, Kruidvat

There is mooring on the west side of town on the right side of the canal. It appears to be pay for the evening. No trees there. There is mooring on the east side of town, covered trees, but electricity is 3 hours for 50 cents. If it’s a hot day, I’d moor where the electricity doesn’t run out.

As I write this, we are tied up to the side of the canal in a tiny village named Aldeboarn. The fact that we got here was an interesting international story, actually. (Let the adventure begin.)

Let’s start back a week ago when we first heard of the “Turf Route“…

We have a book about 50 great cruising routes in the Netherlands, but the Turf Route is not on it. If you search for the Turf Route, what you discover is this:

• A network of waterways was under construction in the 16th century where turf skippers transported cargo to the west part of the country.
• The Turf Route travels over these ancient waterways.
• It goes through 4 national parks.
• The route’s name refers to the past of men of position, turf bosses and poor turf diggers. The turf trade made some of the major Frisian families quite rich. Their legacy, country estates with beautiful gardens and parks, can be seen at places like Bakkeveen, Oldeberkoop, Beetsterzwaag and Oranjewoud.
• The Turf Route is recommended for “experienced” cruisers (I suspect they mean people who know how to stop their boat, tie up to the waiting area, and not hit things).

We left Grou this morning and went through Akkrum (which has small canals going through raising bridges). After the 2nd bridge, as I was taking a picture of a cute wooden skiff on the side of the canal, there was a “clunk clunk” noise, and David said, “the prop just fell off, we don’t have any forward or reverse.” We were in the middle of a crossing without any propulsion other than the bow thruster. David was able to thrust us (and we drifted) over to a private dock, at which point we realized we could push the boat up towards the waiting area and grab one of the bollards from the bow. Once we were one line on, we walked the boat forward down the bollards until we were tied onto the waiting area, then turned the engine off and had to think about what to do.

The bridgekeeper was talking to us across the canal, at which point we explained the situation, and he gave us his personal phone number and said to call in 3 minutes. The second time I called him, it was to inquire about a diver, because by then we assumed the prop had fallen off and was in the middle of the canal, and we were going to be rescued by our boat yard owner sometime later today or tomorrow morning. That was when he told me that he’d met us before 5 years ago when he was the harbormaster in Grou (that was obviously not us)… and then he told the neighbors across the canal from us what was going on, and the neighbors on our side (Klaus and Linda) and the 2 guys on the other side (Andres and Jan) decided they must come to our rescue. And rescue they did!

5 Star Review for the People of Akkrum (or at least our 4 friends)

Klaus and Andres rowed over to our boat. They determined the prop was absolutely on there, and then heads down into the engine and saw bolts and nuts laying down around the shaft. The guy that installed the engine had not installed the bolts/nuts with nylocks, washers, or anything to lock them onto there, so they vibrated off, and ultimately our shaft and clutch were disengaged from each other. For 45 minutes, the three guys worked on the engine and voila – they pieced it back together. After a beer, and an exchange of a card, we bid our new Dutch friends farewell and continued on to Aldeboarn.

Not as High as Tzum

Aldeboarn is a tiny little village, population less than 2000 people. It was first mentioned in 1243 as “jn Bornde” (“Boorne” is a river name here, “Alde” is old). Aldeboarn developed in the 11th or 12th century along the Boorne river. It was a long terp (artificial living mound) village, surrounded by water at one point. It was a trading place, and a regional center. It hasn’t grown much.

Back when they built the church tower (quite a few hundred years ago), the builders wanted it to be the tallest tower in Friesland. At the time, the church at Tzum was the tallest tower. So, 2 guys visited Tzum, climbed to the top of the church tower, and measured the height with a rope. That evening, while they were sleeping in the inn, the keeper (who knew what they were up to) cut a bunch of feet off the rope. The tower still isn’t taller than the one in Tzum.

Climate Change

It is hotter than hell here today. High 80’s, 80% humidity, and it’s been hot for a few days now. It’s not supposed to be this hot here, and even though there’s water everywhere surrounded by land, the land is now dry and yellow. This is not the way it’s supposed to be here. Tomorrow it should be cooler, and we are going to get a few days of rain in the coming week. I do worry that this heat and the dry land is fodder for Netherlands catching fire like America’s west and east coast has.

Tacos and Margarita Flavored Margaritas

Every afternoon I get to have the same conversation with my girlfriends over Signal that I have every morning when we all wake up on west coast time. We’re regularly in touch, short of a few hours where we don’t overlap. I am also carrying on business the same way I always have, and having Zoom meetings with clients (some don’t even know we’re over here). But, the one thing I miss most of all is street tacos. I miss Masa in Point Richmond and their street tacos. Leeuwarden does have a street taco shop, so when we go up there (first stop after Turf Route), that may be my first stop in Leeuwarden.

Adios amigos!

Aldeboarn Local Knowledge

Best place to moor: left side of canal in the middle of town, just past the 2nd of 2 bridges

There is a green board with a button on it to call the bridgekeeper on the left side just before the 1st bridge. Don’t miss it. If you are coming the other way, it’s the same situation.

There is a toilet, but no showers. Electricity appears to have been free.