The KNZ&RV marina in the shadow of the Muiderslot.  This castle dates back to 1280 but, of course, has been rebuilt and restored since then.

The Muiderslot Castle overlooking the mouth of the Vecht

The Vecht is a branch of the Rhein that flows from Utrecht to Muiden were it enters what is now the Markermeer.  It is not very long and we were advised to go slow and look at everything.  Most of the river has  a 5km/hr speed limit so going slow is really the only option.

The scenery along the river lives up to its reputation.  There are dozens of old style windmills. After all, this is Holland.

Two windmills between Muiden and Weesp

The scenery includes many interesting watercraft ranging from large sailing vessels to tiny motorboats and dinghies.  These are seem both along the banks and underway.

A cruising barge on the Vecht

There are many picturesque towns along the Vecht.  All are easily accessible by boat.  Some of the larger ones have marinas or yacht clubs.  The rest have places set aside for visiting boats to tie up.  One of our favorites was the Weesper Watersport Vereniging in Weesp.

Orca at Weesp yacht club

It was an unusually tranquil setting, tucked behind an island in the river.  Each member of the club served as harbormaster for one week each year.  As was the case everywhere in Holland, the people were friendly, helpful, and welcoming.  From Weesp we took a day trip by train to Naarden, a classic walled city dating to before 1300.

The Vecht was, and I suppose still is, the place for the region’s rich and famous to build their mansions.  These were (are) built facing the river and provide another attraction for cruising the river.  There are new ones, complete with plastic cow lawn ornaments.

New mansion on the Vecht

And old ones with moats and draw bridges.

Old mansion

And there are always the surprises, such as this ferry for carrying pedestrians and bicycles.

The bicycle ferry

Much of Holland was reclaimed from the sea.  It is crisscrossed by rivers and canals.  It is therefor not surprising that the culture is water oriented.  Still I enjoyed seeing adaptations that would be rare in the US such as this boat garage.

boat garage on the Vecht

The Vecht is a popular place for Dutch boaters in the summer.  At times there can be quite a bit of traffic.

traffic on the Vecht

But generally, everyone minds the speed limit and is courteous to and respectful of others.  All the other boats just add to the scenery.

In the evening, the locks and bridges quit operating and the river quiets down.  There is always a peaceful place to tie up for the night, either in an isolated spot on the river or in the center of a small town.  Here Orca lies alone next to a small park in the middle of Vreeland.

Orca in Vreeland

The reason more sailboats do not travel the Vecht is that the upper part of the river has height restrictions.  We picked Orca from the many boats we looked at because she is rigged to allow her crew the lower and raise her mast without hiring a crane.  So, when we got to Maarssen, the mast came down.

Orca with mast shipped in Maarssen

This is the first of about 17 reasons the mast had to be shipped.

Orca boldly goes were other sailboats cannot

The grand finale of any trip up the Vecht is passing through the city of Utrecht.  As you approach the city the river narrows.  As it passes through the center of town, it is, in places, maybe only 15 meters wide.

a narrow bridge in Utrecht

And only 3.25 meters high.

The bridges in Utrecht are only 3.25m high

I hope there is no one coming the other way!

The river flows by (through?) a number of restaurants.  Unfortunately, service was not up to catering to even a slow boat.

passing through a restaurant in Utrecht

But all good things must end.  We finally must lock out of the Vecht into the Merewed Kanaal.

Locking from the Vecht to the Merewede Kanaal

computer system spread out on saloon table

It did not take long to discover I had a problem.  This system is intended to run entirely off the boat’s 12 volt domestic battery.  Everything worked fine at first, even as the battery voltage went down.  However, the battery charger is designed to top off the batteries to 14.4 volts and I discovered the computer’s power supply would shutdown around 14.3V.  The engine driven alternator is also set to 14.4V so I was unable to run the computer and the engine at the same time.

I contacted Polywell, the company that sells the computer and they had a solution.  Their next larger computer, the ITX-30C uses a different regulator which tolerates higher input voltages but fits in the ITX-30B I have.  Five days and seventy dollars later, the new regulator showed up at my marina in Stavoren, Netherlands.  It took me about an hour to install because it comes with a lager power jack soldered on.  Now I have a system that works at any voltage I can throw at it.  It draws 4 amps with the monitor on, 2.5 with the monitor off.

The next obvious problem was the “installation”.  It was very easy to trip over wires while moving about the cabin.  I had to wait until my tools arrived from the states and we had a rainy day that restricted me to doing chores.

The Polywell computer comes with a vesa mount.  I used this to secure the computer to the underside of the saloon table.

computer mounted under table

The vesa mount is designed to attach to a vertical surface and relies on gravity to keep the computer from falling off.  Since I have it on a (mostly) horizontal surface, I am currently relying on masking tape.

The wiring mess was cleaned up by running the power and ethernet wires under the cabin sole and up a post that is conveniently situated next to the table.  The wires will be dressed out better in the future after some more improvements are made.

Next on the to-do list is to build a shelf on the post to mount the monitor.

improved computer installation

The monitor will be firmly attached to the shelf so I will not have to stow it under normal opperating conditions.  Gravity cannot be relied upon to keep things in place on a boat.

So far, using the Omnilite antenna from GreatBoatGear, I have been able to get WiFi access about nine nights out of ten – either through a marina or someone who generously leaves their system unencrypted.  The antenna is mounted on a pole about 8 feet above the water.

I am now looking for a good, tiny, low power printer/scanner for those occassions when someone sends me a form that must be signed and sent back.  Any ideas?

Enkhuizen is known for hosting a major port of the Dutch East India Company, at one time, the biggest company in the world.

One time offices of the Dutch East India Company

It was in Enkhuizen, at the Jachthaven Buyshaven that I first noticed that whenever we checked into a marina, someone would hoist an American flag.  While in the clubhouse there we witnessed the defeat of Netherlands in the World Cup football finals.

Hoorn was only a rainy daysail away.

Our berth in Hoorn

The trip from Hoorn to the Aeolus marina in Amsterdam was much more “interesting”.  We left Hoorn about 08:30 and had fair winds for the first two hours.  Then they came around to our nose, lightened and eventually became calm.  While we were motoring into the long channel that is the western approach to the city, I was down below and heard a strange screeching sound.  It seemed to be coming from the port side.  It lasted only about 45 seconds then went away.  A short time later I noticed our speed was considerably slower than expected at all engine speeds.  We looked all around the boat but could not see anything fouled or dragging.

We came to a bridge that opens at 20 minute intervals and we tied up to wait.  Immediately after the bridge is what must be Hollands slowest lock.  We waited to get into that then waited for it to operate.  On exiting the lock we found or speed had returned to normal.  I can only guess that we had fowled something on a keel and it had fallen off when we were stopped.

As we approach were we thought Aeolus would be I could sense there was something unusual going on.  The first hint was all the helicopters circling – particularly the big military Chinook.  Then, as we got closer, the river became chock full of all sorts of boats.  There was everything from little runabouts to fireboats with water displays.   Meantime, we are trying to find to entrance to our marina – which we had never seen before.  We did spot it it and had to maneuver around a tug and a police boat to get in.  The harbormaster was watching the action on his TV.  It was the homecoming of the Netherlands football team from the World Cup games in South Africa.

Amsterdam Harbor

We found a fantastic hardware store in north Amsterdam called W. Burger & Zn.  It looked very small with standing room for about a half dozen customers.  But if you asked a sales person for almost anything, they would disappear for a minute or two then come back with your requested item.  I had a pretty long list of things to buy but the salesman kept finding everything.  I tried getting creative just to test him.  I asked for a sewing palm.  To my surprise, the salesman said, “We used to carry those.  Let me see if there are any left”.  Sadly there were none but I was amazed that he even knew what a sewing palm was.  This was just a hardware store not a marine store.

The trip from Amsterdam to Muiden had plenty of wind.  Once we got through the lock and bridge we were able to sail all the way.  In fact, the GPS clocked us at 5.8kn with just a reefed head sail up.

Muidenslot

Muiden is just a village and aside from the castle there is not that much to see.  We had to leave early the next morning in order to catch a bridge that opens only three times a day.  Other than waiting for locks and bridges, it takes only an hour or so to motor from Muiden to Weesp down the river Vecht.  This part of the river is lined with house boats.

Vecht river between Muiden and Weesp

Further on, I am told, the river is lined with mansions.  We will see soon.

As is so often the case it all comes down to “stuff”.  We shipped the “stuff” we didn’t get rid of from San Francisco in mid-May.  It was scheduled to arrive in Rotterdam in June 18.  Instead, the ship went into Antwerp on June 19 and the “stuff” was trucked to Rotterdam on June 23.  The shipper is now trying to move it through customs so we can rent a truck and go pick it up.  I don’t know what the hold up is but there does not seem to be much I can do about it.

So we are still in Stavoren.  Lest you think we have just been sitting in the slip, we have gotten out and gone sailing.  To date, we have sailed (or motorsailed) through the canals to Heeg, Sneek, Koudum (by accident), and Workum.  We have also been out in the IJsselmeer and sailed to Hindeloopen and back to Stavoren.  All of these towns are boating oriented and fun to visit.

Sneek is the largest town in the area and we spent 3 nights there at Jachthaven De Domp.  Although there are no security issue there, this boater was taking no chances!

watch gator

When we didn’t get clearance to collect or “stuff” Friday, we headed back to Stavoren.  Saturday we thought we would try out a second mainsail that came with the boat.  The first was made for  a larger boat and cut down to fit – sort of.  The other main worked great so we decided to go to Workum.  There are two ways to get there from Stavoren.  You can go out into the IJsselmeer or you can take the canals.  To get to the IJsselmeer, you must go through a lock.  It was beautiful Saturday afternoon and there was a long line of boats waiting to lock through.  Not liking lines, we decide to go to Workum the long way, through the canals.

Orca was sailing well.  There were lots of other boats in the canals.  I became distracted with something below while Mary had the helm.  When I came out of the cabin I misread a buoy number and told Mary we needed to turn into a different channel.  She did and we went merrily down  an ever narrowing canal.

on the road to Koudum

It was all pleasant enough but it didn’t quite match the chart.  When we saw the sign pointing to Koudum, we realized we were miles from where we thought we were.  Time to backtrack.

We eventually made it to Workum and tied up at a free spot along the canal provided by the town.  It was a nice facility that included restrooms and showers.  After dinner, as we walked into town I commented that the streets seemed deserted for a Saturday night.  After another block or two I could hear some music being played over loudspeakers.  When we reach the town square we found most of the towns people at a big party.  There was a DJ, a dance floor, a mechanical bull and plenty of inexpensive beer and wine.  We enjoyed the party till around 12:30 when we gave up and went back to the boat to sleep.

Sunday morning was the true definition of cruising – “performing boat maintenance in exotic places”.

cleaning the compnionway hatch slides

After getting thoroughly dirty cleaning the hatch slides, we went through the four bridges of Workum (70 cents bruggeld each) and locked up into the IJsselmeer.

The IJsselmeer (pronounced aye-sel-meer) was once part of the North Sea but the Dutch have converted it into a huge fresh water lake.  Although it covers 1,100 square kilometers, it has an average depth of only 5 – 6 meters.  The winds were light, the water was calm and the sail to Hindeloopen was idyllic.

Hindeloopen from the IJsselmeer

We went ashore for some coffee and applegebak and to look around the very small village.  Follow that, it was back to sea (lake) and on the Stavoren.

Stavoren from the IJsselmeer

So here we are, still waiting for the “stuff”.  Latest report is we can pick it up Thursday.  We will see.

Before leaving the dock, we spent a day hanking on the sails, figuring out how to rig the roller furling jib and trying to find the right battens for the mainsail.  Then I had to stow my computer and generally make the interior seaworthy.  Not that we were expecting heavy weather.  The winds were forecast to peak at 9 knots.  But it is good practice clearing for action.

We started by heading up the Johan Friso canal.  It is part of a vast system of canals in Holland that totals around 6,000 km.

Up the Johan Friso canal

There are a lot of boats here.  I have never seen so many boats.  It seems not only does everyone in Netherlands have a boat but, everyone in Germany has a boat in here too.

The day started out calm so we motored.  That was fine because we have to learn how the boat performs under power.  We headed east up the canal, across De Morra and De Orden.  A little breeze can up when we got to De Fluezzen and we raised sail.  By the time we reach Hegemer Mar, the wind was 5 to 10 knots and there was enough room to start trying all the different points of sail.

On Hegemer Mar

Heger Mar is a fair sized lake, maybe a couple of miles by three miles but with an average depth only  7 feet.  On a nice summer Sunday afternoon, there may be 200 boats on it.  You can see everything from sailing dinghies to 80 foot sailing barges.

We found problems with the jib sheets and the mainsail traveler and a few other minor items.  Most have been fixed now and tomorrow we will go out and test your repairs.  We only touched bottom once so it was a good day.

On the way back we watched a Dutch family out for a Sunday sail.

Sunday sail

Marina Stavoren is on the Johan Friso-kanaal just outside of the town of Stavoren.  There are thousands of boats in the area, many of them of classic Dutch design.  While in the yard, our stern faced the canal and we had a good view of canal trafic sometimes ghosting along in the morning fog.

A typical Dutch sailing barge

Wednesday morning, Mary and I returned from our daily walk into town and found a workman finishing the anode replacement on our propeller.  We went on board and found the sea-cock had also been replaced.  A few minutes later, a workman climb our stern ladder and asked “Are you ready to launch?”   Surprised, I asked “Right now?”  He said “Yes, now.”

We had been discussing what to do about the bottom of Orca.  She has had the gellcoat peeled but not epoxied.  She has bottom paint over bare fiberglass.  Our decision was to just paint her with anti-fouling around the waterline then haul in the fall for more extensive work.  I talked to the yard manager and negotiated a launch at 3 o’clock the next afternoon.

We went back into town bought paint, rollers and masking tape.  It was raining so we could not paint immediately.  When the rain stopped in the evening we applied the asking tape so we could get an early start the next morning.

It was 9:30 Thursday morning when things dried out enough to consider painting.  We were used to painting with brushes but now rollers seem to be in style.  We applied bottom paint around the waterline and on the rudder.  It was much easier than we expected and much more of the paint wound up on the boat rather than on us than during previous haul outs.  The job was done by 10:30.

Watching paint dry

At 3 o’clock sharp, equipment was rolled out and Orca was launched.  We were in the water.  I burped the seal on the stern gland as instructed by the previous owner and went into the office to pay the bill.  The bill was a shocker – but in a good way.  It was about a third of what I expected (based on experience in the Caribbean 30 years ago).

Friday was spent shopping in the nearby town of Sneek and stowing extra gear.  Saturday we put the sails on.  Today, perhaps we will take her out and see how she sails – assuming we remember how thats done.

All dressed up and ready to go

I was trying to take a picture of the Iceland Air jet we would soon be boarding.  I held the lens against the window to avoid any reflections from the glass.  Then I hit the zoom button and the camera dutifully attempted to extend the lens.  Being unable to move the lens, it stripped a gear – or something.  I will take it apart and do a post mortem when I get my tools.

From Seattle, we flew to Reykjavik.  A tolerable 7-hour flight that got us in at 7am.  I have always wanted to see Iceland.  Since it is not someplace I fancy sailing to, this seemed the perfect opportunity, so we stayed for four days.  If like geology, volcanoes, hot water, or cold weather, Iceland is the place to go.  For sailing – not so much.

Sailing in Iceland

This is Icelandic sailing on a sunny day in June.  I said sunny, not warm.  Although the locals were wearing T-shirts and shorts this day, I was in a sweatshirt and windbreaker.  My idea of good sailing weather requires only sunscreen.

After four interesting days in Iceland – including one during which an ash cloud covered the city – we headed south toward our boat.  It took 11 hours, 2 buses, an airplane, 2 trains, and an automobile but, we got there.  At long last we are on our boat…

A sailboat on a perch

… and under our boat.  As long as we are here, we might as well replace that old gate valve and put on a new zinc.  We hope to go sailing real soon now.

As we have prepared for our departure over the past two weeks, we have been overwhelmed by all the good wishes from friends, acquaintances and strangers.  There have been so many farewell lunches and dinners that we may need to consider getting a larger boat.  As long as we still fit in our airline seats, I suppose we will be OK.

All the good-bye parties culminated with a Seven Sea Cruising Association farewell brunch yesterday at the Tiburon Yacht Club.  We were deeply touched by the turnout of about 25 people, many of whom we had never before met.  All of this was organized by Carolyn Carvey of Tambadil.

Thank you to all of our friends who have been so supportive over the past two months.

Tomorrow we are off to Reykjavik.

This is “Orca”, our new home.

Bought: Orca

She is a 31-foot Westerly Berwick, currently lying at Stavoren, Netherlands.  She has twin keels and a draft of 1.1 meters (3′ 7″) making her well suited for our plan to travel the inland waterways next year from the North Sea to the Black Sea.  An added bonus is that the rig has been modified so the mast can be stepped and unstepped without the aid of a crane.  This will give us access to places we would not otherwise be able to go.

Next we came back and sold our house.

Sold: House

It seems our timing was good.  There has been an uptick in the local market recently and with the expert guidance of Katie Kane, our real-estate agent, we were able to sell for a reasonable price in 4 weeks.  The house was well suited to our needs (expect for being stationary) and will be missed.

Then came the hardest part: divesting ourselves of 25 years of accumulated stuff.  This is the “stuff” George Carlin talked about.  We had three big yard sales, gave tons of stuff to friends, and made countless trips to Goodwill.  Several people asked why we just didn’t put it in storage.  I explained that doing that would suggest we were coming back.  Funny how hard it is for some people to imagine “not coming back”.

So we sold the furniture, the TV sets, the file cabinets, lawn furniture, books, CDs, DVDs, pots and pans, power tools (different voltage in Europe).  We sold things I didn’t know we had.  I couldn’t figure out where it all came from.  Its like someone broke into our house at night and left stuff.

Finally it came down to the stuff we might actually be able to use.  Clothing, a few books, some electronics.  We got rid of a lot of each of those things but it gets cold in Europe and I hate to have to buy something I just discarded.  Plus, there is a minimum charge for shipping.  Anything less than one cubic meter costs the same.  This led to the conclusion that we could do the final sort on the boat, where we could see how much room we have, for the same cost as doing it here.

So this is our “stuff”.

Shipped: Stuff

It came to 0.97 cubic meters.  The cost to surface ship this much volume (weight is not important) from San Fransisco to Rotterdam is about $420.  We are using APX and so far, everything has been fairly easy.  I will let you know how it goes at the other end.

The sexy model in the picture is my wife Mary.  She gets to fly with me.

So the next step is going back to the boat.  That will be an adventure in itself – at least the way we are doing it.

A normal desktop computer is of course too big and would use way too much power.  They can also be noisy.  So what to do?

My solution, recently assembled is this: 

First, the computer.

Pollywell computer

This is the ITX-30B computer from Polywell in San Francisco.  It contains an dual core Intel Atom processor, 2GB of memory and a 250GB disk.  It runs directly from a 12V supply.  Measured power usage is from 1.75A to 2.25A at 13.2V depending on what applications are running.  It is running Ubuntu Linux.  The little puck in the upper left corner is a little $50 GPS receiver that plugs directly into one of the USB ports.

I write a lot of documents so I like to have a large screen on which I can view two documents at a time.  Also, at 60, my vision is not what it used to be.  A big screen is important to my productivity.  The monitor I chose is an LG E2350.

LG E2350 Monitor

This unit also runs directly on 12V.  It has 1920×1080 resolution and LED backlighting.  I have measured power consumption at 0.9A to 1.75A at 13.2V depending on the brightness setting.  My only concern with this unit is figuring out how and where I will mount it in the boat.  OpenCPN, the free chart-plotting software, looks great on it.

Finally, having internet access is vital to my business.  I prefer anchoring and mooring to docks and I am a cheap skate so WiFi access is my best bet.  But WiFi is a short range medium.  The solution is a high gain WiFi receiver that can be mounted outside the boat.

my WiFi antenna

This high gain antenna has a receiver mounted in the base.  It takes 12V power through it ethernet connector so it can be mounted anywhere on the boat and can be used by more than one computer at a time.  This unit is called the “OmniLite” and is made and sold by GreatBoatGear.  I have only tested it on land so far but the results were impressive.

It looks like I will have boat to install all this on in a few weeks.  More on that later.