Having repaired our leaky windows, tinkered generally with the boat; also obtaining the long awaited VAT declaration form from customs, there was no good reason for us not to leave. And so it was; at 11:00 precisely on the 14th May 2003, we slipped our mooring lines, headed for the fuel pontoon and topped up our diesel tank(s). Colin, Urszula & Simba's 'Great European Journey' had actually started, at last - The only question being "Where were we actually heading toward"?
We had oroginally thought that we might just do a couple of days 'tour' of the Brabantse Biesboch area, to get a feel for things, however our Daughter was to return to the UK in late June, so 'plan-B' was formulated to take us from Gorinchem down the Afgedamde Maas then the Bergse Maas itself, in the direction of Nijmegen, then further south towards Maastricht intending to head into Belgium, turning West and North again to meet up with Deborah possibly near Bruxelles. Well it all sounded good at the time! So the order was:- "Turn right Colin, when you leave the Marina"
From the Sales Marina at Sleeuvijk, we had all of 3Km's to travel on the Waal, but that was enough! On these "Grote Rivieren" (the three estuaries of the mighty Rhine) commercial traffic is very heavy, sometimes up to five boats abreast, all overtaking or passing each other, seemingly heading in random directions and at break-neck speed. There are, of course good reasons for this, due to depth of water and the current etc. but it can be more than a little daunting for a small craft!
We heaved a sigh of relief as we turned right into the Afgedamde Maas, a short link between the Waal and the Maas. The only downside - our first ever lock was looming large! This was the Wilhelminasluis en Hepbrug. In fact, we had no problems at all, we had the lock to ourselves. As it was only a guard lock to prevent possible flooding; I don't think we went up or down more than a few inches, if that. Feeling quite 'cocky' we continued South, joined the Maas and almost immediately turned off again into a Jachthaven at Heusden. Our first real day of cruising, and we had at last left the "Land van Altena", where Freedom was built.
Now you will quickly come to realise that we will be breaking no records for touring Europe at this rate. It has taken us eight months to move onboard, 14 more days to leave the mooring and after 1600Kms cruising, it gets no better! Our main issue at that time was worrying if we would ever find anywhere to moor up for the night(s); also we have Simba the Dog to think of, he needs his comfort break as well! Consequently, as soon as we saw anywhere suitable, we stopped; besides, we'd had a strenuous first day!
Heusden is a very 'pretty' walled fortress town, thick with Churches. There are a couple
of marinas outside the town and some small moorings inside the lock-gated wharf, which would
be great for smaller craft. From a Dog walking point of view, it was not ideal, we had a
very long pontoon trek from the berth, just to get onto dry land. We fortunately found
problems paying the next day and so we just left (rather like some other
nationalities do, we later discovered). Our first night for free!
These small riverside walled towns are highly desirable places to live,
which actually means the shop prices are high, and there was no sign of a supermarket that
we could easily walk to. But don't let us put you off, the mooring was comfortable, well
away from the barge traffic; supplied with water & electricity and this town
is definitely worth an extended visit.
Next morning, after consulting the charts, it seemed a good, corner-cutting exercise would be to take the Zuid Willemsvaart (canal), direct to Maastricht. We duly headed off in this direction, but this day was not going to be a good one for us!
On our way down the Gekan-Dienze to 's-Hertogenbosch (no, we can't pronounce it either)! we passed through the first Schutsluis (lock) OK. After cruising through some fairly industrial areas, we stopped near a clutch of Dutch sailing ships and took stock of our situation. Checking the chart drawer, we did not seem to have anything detailed for this particular canal and it appeared there were several bridges marked at 3.0m headroom or even less, just ahead of us. Looking at the railway bridge right ahead it was doubtful if we could get through anyway. Keep in mind here, that we were new to all this, with no idea who to talk to, we were not sure if the radio worked and had no clue as to 'the rules' by which everyone else seemed to be navigating.
We moored up and took a quick walk, in the hope that a chandlery, or book shop might leap out at us, but we had no such luck. We decided therefore to err on the side of caution and that the longer, but much busier route via the River Maas to Maastricht, might be more sensible, so we turned back from 's-Hertogenbosch. Things started to go wrong for us from then on.
Back at the Schutsluis, we were unsure of procedures as there were two barges of 700-tonne+ already in the lock, however the gates stayed open and we still had a green light, so in we went:- This was not a wise decision.
There was no room that I could see to moor up, in addition this particular lock had odd
curving sides, being wider internally than the gates at each end. The longer
barge, on the left was occupying almost the whole length of the lock, there was
room ahead of the barge on the right , but he wasn't giving any of this to us, a mere
pleasure-boat!
Hindsight is great isn't it? Knowing what I know now, we should have gone between
the two barges and tied off alongside, towards the front of either of them, but I tried to
moor behind! The barge in front had a single rope forward and his prop under power,
with the rudder hard to port, to keep him close alongside the wall. This is quite common
practise and we are now used to coping with this, however his prop-wash was reflecting off
of the side of the barge to our left, so I had two powerful and conflicting side currents to
contend with and this was only our second ever lock!
Our bow and pulpit took an immediate dive for the right wall of the lock under this water pressure, whilst the stern was neatly jammed onto the curved part of the rear of the lock, we were stuck, such that not a single fender was protecting us from the rough stone wall. If I went forward, we scraped and crumpled the bow rail against the wall, if I went backwards the stern came off the curve a little, but then the bow turned even harder into the wall. Our bow-thruster had no effect against the much more powerful barge engine and all the while our railing and paint work were being wrecked.
Each time I tried to correct the problem we seemed to get into a worse mess, ever more sideways across the lock and our davit's were getting perilously close to the windows of the barge on our left as I reversed. Unfortunately our stern was still in the way of the lock gates and as these were interlocked with the road bridge; which had been lifted to allow us all into the lock in the first place, no road traffic could pass either!
I don't know how long this went on for, I do know there were several drivers who abandoned their cars and were patiently(?) watching events unfold from the lock-side way above us. Eventually the lock-keeper; using his 'Tannoy', shouted at the barge to move forward (he had to do this twice) also to cut his engine and somehow we managed to get tied up and through the lock with no further damage, apart from our nerves!
We crept back into the river Maas and 'borrowed' a private mooring for an hour or so in a club marina at Hedel to take stock of recent events, and to have a 'discussion'...!