1st - 4th October. Our location in Holland on Flevoland. On to Almere-stad, then across Gooimeer and Markermeer to the island of Hooft.

Having been right over to the eastern border of the Netherlands, we are now back in Flevoland, as shown by the orange dot.

This mooring in Flevoland caters for campervans too, and we found extremely good walking in the woods nearby. We are quite near to the town of Lelystad here.

Our original idea was take our time on Flevoland, and to cross the Markermeer on Sunday, but the weather forecast has changed its mind, so we have pushed on, missing a visit to Lelystad. We managed to reach our friends, Ed and Olga, in Almere-stad by Thursday evening and had a great time with them.

In order to reach the lock at Almere-Haven by 10am, our booked time, we set off just after 7am, as soon as it was light. However, our route was across the Noorder Plassen, where we had to stop for half an hour, as the mist was too thick to see anything! After a while it began to clear, so we crept on until we found a marker to follow for our route.

Almere Sluis is built into the dike ahead of us. At this time of year it is only opened at 10am and 3pm, by arrangement. We managed to get here by 9.45, despite being delayed by the mist, as the sun eventually broke through.

Once in the lock, it seems a long way to go up!

We go up 5 metres in this lock, but these "floating" bollards make it so gentle. I kept waiting for the surge of water coming into the lock, but it never came!

From Almere-Haven we sail along Gooimeer, which is the most westerly part of the Randermeer. If we had wanted, we could have sailed along the full length of the Randermeer, to the south of Flevoland, all the way from Ketelmeer, but we prefer the inland route to these wide waters. We do not have a choice about this part though!

We have to go left of the green marker, then on  through the arch marked by the two yellow lights at Hollandse Bridge, which looks tricky, from this view! However the work barges are actually further from the bridge than it looks, and there was plenty of room to go behind them. They seem to be building a new bridge here, beside the current one.

In the distance we could see innumerable swans, sitting on the rocks.

As the weather was so calm, we went across to Hooft Island for a break, before the final stretch across to Muiden. It was so lovely that we stayed there until Sunday, only regretting it during some strong winds on Saturday, when we did bounce! During the weekend more boats of all types arrived, and the wind moved to the north, so the island protected us.

The island of Hooft is made of sand, but is protected from the waves by breakwaters, especially on this northern shoreline.

Well, everyone needs their own director's chair!

28th - 30th September. On to Meppelerdiep and Zwartsluis. Across Ketelmeer to Ketelhaven on Flevoland.

It was a lovely day on Sunday so Andy and Shannon decided to do some sunbathing.

Moving on on Monday, we joined Meppelerdiep, a bigger waterway, but there were few ships about today.

There are speed limits on Meppelerdiep, with 9 kilometres per hour for laden barges, and 12 kph for unladen ones. Our usual speed is about 8kph, so they are all faster than The Puzzler!

Zwartsluis is a town of boating contrasts, with a marina full of small craft on the outskirts.

To get to the centre of town for shopping however, we take a right turn past several moored barges. There is an extremely good chandlery near to the mooring, which was useful. The museum was closed again! It closes on Mondays and this is our third visit to Zwartsluis, each time being on a Monday! I expect that it is a very good museum.

We left Zwartsluis by going through the open lock, under two low bridges there, out on to Zwarte Water, another big barge canal.

An empty barge overtook us soon after this, going at top speed. He was out of sight before we came round the corner, but we turned off on to a smaller canal, Ganzendiep, to go southwards to join the River Ijssel.

The new road bridge over the Ijssel dwarfs the mighty river below it. Having reached the mouth of the Ijssel, which is 1005 kilometres from the source of navigation on the Rhine, we went across Ketelmeer. It was a little breezy, but not too uncomfortable.

It was nice to be off the open water, and we were joined by a cruiser in the lock. In Ketelsluis we dropped 5 metres to get down to Flevoland.

There is a pleasant free mooring, quite near to Ketelhaven. The lock can be seen behind The Puzzler, with the dike protecting the polder from the waters of Ketelmeer.

Later on, we walked through the village of Ketelhaven, which seemed a very peaceful place to live. The gardens were lovely, with each house a different design. We continued on to the dike above the town, to look back across Ketelmeer, which we crossed earlier today. Were we really out there?

Coming back along the dike, we could see Ketelhaven marina, which was full of sailing boats.

9th - 11th June. A visit to Almere-Stad, then back across Flevoland on the Hoge Vaart.

From the Lage Vaart, which is a canal stretching across Northern Flevoland, we continued into the lake, Noorde Plassen, to get to the town of Almere. We joined all the small hire boats from the resort there, which came in many different designs. We saw one big round inflatable one, with a barbeque in the middle, holding ten happy people.

In Almere we managed to find Ed and Olga's house, and moored The Puzzler at the bottom of their garden. They had kindly moved their boat to a neighbour's mooring, to make room for us. Every house here has its own waterfront, by some very imaginative designing.

We all went to the supermarket by boat, with Ed at the wheel.

We enjoyed crossing the Noorde Plassen in the sloop, and are heading for the far shore, to reach the shops. This lake is bigger than it looked on the chart!

As we arrived back at the house, Shannon was very pleased to see us again. I completed sewing our new mosquito nets on Olga's sewing machine, saving myself a few hours of hand sewing! This was a great help and was much appreciated.

Next morning we sailed to the far end of the lake Noorde Plassen, to go through the centre of Almere-Stad, on the canals. As The Puzzler can manage a bridge of 1.9 metres, the standard height here of 2.5 metres was not a problem. We found the modern architecture of the new town of Almere very interesting and varied.

As we were leaving Almere-Stad, across another lake, the view back to the town shows some more of this varied architecture.

We sailed on to the Hoge Vaart, which is the main canal running right across the southern half of Flevoland. We found this lagoon mooring, off the main canal, just to the south of Almere. We have been so lucky with the weather, with little daytime rain, and plenty of sun.

5th - 8th June. Back down the River Eem and across the Randmeren to Flevoland, dropping 20 feet below sea level!

We carried on down the River Eem, and enjoyed another lovely evening here. The cycle path makes very good walking, and we saw a spoonbill for the first time. He was the size of a heron, but with a different pattern of flight, and he also had the distinctive spoon shape on the end of his long bill.

From the Eem, we went back on to the Randmeren. Here the windmills are modern ones, alongside this wide water.

This barge looked as though it was too heavily laden to stay afloat. There must be about 12 feet of boat under the water here.

We left the Randmeren to enter Flevoland at Lovink Sluis, where we kept on going down and down! This sluis is over 5 metres deep, so with a further drop of another metre at the next lock, we are now nearly 20 feet below sea level. Let us hope that there is not a breach in the dyke!

The weather is very hot now so a spot of relaxation on the jetty seemed to be a good idea.

There is a great deal of woodland in Flevoland. This polder was made completely out of sand, which was piped here out of the Ijsselmeer, and under these trees this can be seen clearly.

This is Lage Knarsluis, which was used during the construction of Flevoland, and could still be used today, in an emergency, to control the water.

It is Whit Monday, or Tweede Pinksterdag, so it is quite busy. We found some new friends, who allowed us to moor alongside, and then later plied us with Irish coffe and wine, until after 1am! A good time was had by all.

1st - 4th June. Lost on the Loosedrechtsche Plassen, then on down the Vecht to Muiden. At sea on the Ijmeer, and via the Randmeren to the Eem and Amersfoort.

From Widje Blik, we turned right towards Hilversum, then right again to find this charming lock, which we had to work ourselves. It is very unusual in The Netherlands to do your own work! This led on to a small canal, which in turn led on to the Loosedrechtsche Plassen.

This is a large lake, with many small islands. We had to follow a line of these islands to get to the sluis on the other side, but turned too soon, on entering the lake, and then managed to get completely lost! We hailed a passing cruiser, and they put us right, though the route they gave us took us rather too close to these racing yachts.

Eventually we reached the lock, sharing it with eight small boats. Do the crowd of gongoozlers ( non-boaters who idle their time away watching boats) remind you of Foxton Locks in England on a Sunday?

This staithe was the only type of mooring available on this part of The River Vecht, with no land access. Shannon did not approve!

At Muiden we followed the Vecht past many marinas. This jachthaven is The Royal Netherlands Sailing and Rowing Club, and is the home of the Royal Yacht, De Groene Draeck, but sadly we did not see it!

Then it was out on to the Ijmeer, on a lovely calm day. By taking the inner route, we avoid commercial traffic on the first part of this wide water, which leads to the south of Flevoland. The polder which is Flevoland was created out of part of the Zuider Zee in the 1950's. Our route takes us along the Randmeren, a well buoyed channel through the various meers which separate the mainland from Flevoland. Having first crossed Gooimeer, we head right in Eemmeer, and on to the River Eem.

This was a better mooring on the River Eem, both for us and for Shannon.

The barge Cascade was one of at least six passing our mooring that evening, all carrying sand or earth for dyke improvement. It makes all our boats look small, when some of these barges carry up to 1000 tons.

On Wednesday it was on into Amersfoort, where the Koppelpoort seen here dates back to the year 1400. Amersfoort is the second largest town in the Utrecht province. We visited the Mondriaanhuis art gallery, as well as the  Museum Flehite, which told the history of the town. Both of them were very interesting, in different ways. 

Sint Joriskerk, or St. George's Church, dominates the main town square. The small roofed area in front of it is still the site of the fish market.

This street claims to be the best street in Amersfoort. Sally is making mosquito curtains for the windows, and we bought our final Velcro for these here. It was a fascinating shop, selling absolutely anything that could be needed for sewing. We                                get the impression that the Dutch do a lot of dressmaking.

While we were in Amersfoort a local reporter interviewed us for an article in the local paper. This is his picture to accompany the article.

Leaving Amersfoort, the Fietsboet overtook us, then we both met a fully laden barge, Fiat V Luntas. The gunnels of the barge are nearly underwater, due to the heavy cargo of sand. The Fietsboet is a cycle ferry, which can hold up to 125 people, presumably all with their bikes. It goes up and down the River Eem from Amersfoort, then out into the Randermeer to other towns too.

At another riverside mooring, the barge Cascade seemed to be very close to our window! We are getting used to these emormous barges.

The reason for all this barge traffic on the River Eem just now can be seen here. They are transporting the earth needed to strengthen the dyke all along this section of the river.