Tuesday 28 April 2015
Whew, what a day!
Fired up the Webasto heater to take the early morning chill out of the
interior and, with a low dew-point night, there was no deck drying to do so it
was straight into a brand new day.
There had always been a wee bit of trepidation about
taking on the River Schelde with its strong currents and (for us) large tidal
range especially as the weather report had been predicting wind gusting up to
+20 knots (+37kph) which, when you are fiddling around on a small boat in a
busy commercial waterway, can get interesting – especially if there are locks
and lifting bridges to be contended with too.
Bright and early we handed back our Jachthaven Antwerpen
Willendok marina keys and were reimbursed the €25 deposit and given a
complementary yacht club courtesy flag/burgee in return. Then a quick cast-off
in order to be at the Londonbrug at the set opening time of 08h30 where we were
joined by two other boats, one being a barge named Tula who gave us a
‘Attention’ blast on his horn and gesticulated that we should get a move on
when we didn’t go through the bridge immediately it was opened. As the lights
were still red/green we thought we had to wait for a green but there are
different and unpredictably varying rules in this part of the world. I wonder
if the owner knows the meaning of ‘Tula’ in Zulu?
 |
| Njord exiting Londonbrug |
Into Sluis Kattendijk which took 45 minutes to drop us 2.5
meters as it had such a large area (roughly 90m x 80m) and then into the helter
skelter Schelde.
 |
| Waiting patiently for Sluis Kattendijk |
 |
| Njord waiting patiently on the other side of the lock. |
-
White-horse-wind dead on the nose and from both
quarters.
-
Rain, hail and sunshine.
-
Commercial, industrial, rural, suburban and
urban views,
we passed through the enormous, 180m long x 18m wide Merelbekesluis, turned right into a small tributary of the [take your pick: Schelde/Zeeschelde/Boven-Zeeschelde/Boven Schelde] heading toward Ghent and tied up on the canal bank just past the Jachthaven Merelbeke.
 |
| A big boy with Antwerp skyline. |
 |
| Boatbuilding yard. |
 |
| Njord pushing the big boys around (well sort of...). |
Thought of the La Granges as this 95m long lady went past.
 |
| Working on the deck boxes. |
 |
| Exiting the Schelde. |
 |
| Merelbeke mooring |
...and the evening ended with the feeding of ducklings.
We will save our grand entry into Ghent for tomorrow.
83 kms
8 hours, 15 minutes
2 locks
2 bridges
N51.02036 E003.74428
Great Pics and some rough water. Nice to see you are having a very interesting trip. We got back from Madikwe 3 weeks ago and spent 4 nights at Mkuse last week. Sent docs to Garth today so things starting to happen.
ReplyDeleteThanks James - trust that Madikwe was worth the journey? Pleased the transfer is in hand - I had been meaning to ask if you had heard anything.
ReplyDeleteTook us two days. Tide was turning at about 2pm on the first day, and we were very late into the lock on the second day. Same mooring though.
ReplyDeleteWe learned a lesson - always consult local knowledge. We had no idea that the tide difference between Antwerp and Ghent was something like 6 hours. But you made it safely - well done!
ReplyDelete