The hospitalization of the best half of our crew ended last Tuesday, the 13th of June 2017. We stayed a bit longer in Zwolle, if only to enjoy this lovely city together. The (could be: a) harbourmaster, knowing about our situation, restricted his actions on both Wednesday and Thursday by just saying ‘hello’ to us. That made a difference – we thought. Having planned to leave on Thursday morning (the 15th of June) we discovered the bridges out of use because of an electricity problem. We were thus unable to leave and yep, what we un-eagerly expected: a municipal supervisor arrived and noted us not having paid lately. He bought our arguments, one of them being the ‘bridge-situation’ preventing us to leave earlier – broadly before he would have been able to check on us. Phew! After this narrow escape, we gave up on our comfort at 11:09AM and moored in front of the bridge as from 11:20AM, still out of use, indicated by the double red light – but in an ‘untouchable’ position. Eventually we could pass the bridge at 12:50PM.

Our destination being Steenwijk we had an overnight stop in the Beukersgracht, near Belt-Schutsloot. The engine was switched off at 3:46PM. Someone might notice that we have been here before – and he/she is dead right. The picture, of course, was taken from another angle, therefore looking different from the third-from-last picture that was published relating to Week 21.

The next morning it was dry weather, probably because of the high winds that prevented the heavy grey clouds to relieve themselves. The high wind was blowing from 270 degrees, in other words: exactly from the west. We left at 10:46AM. Where a lake was situated at the west-side of the waterway and the two were connected to each other the water was properly stirred up. This picture was taken around 11:20AM at the Kanaal Beukers-Steenwijk near Giethoorn. The latter was skipped this time.

At 12:27PM we left the Kanaal Beukers-Steenwijk and turned to starboard into wat is named (according to a sign on the bank) Steenwijk-de Linde. Sometimes it is difficult to determine the right name of a waterway one’s cruising – there are so many of them in this area. Anyway, when looking back one can (just) see the canal Beukers-Steenwijk at the far left, the Steenwijkerdiep at 11 o’clock and the Kanaal Steenwijk-Ossenzijl at 1 o’clock. The movement of both water and flag accentuate the high wind on that Friday.

Steenwijk, our present temporary residence inside its dead-end harbour-for-visitors. We arrived at 12:34PM and moored on the right-hand side, facing the Church Tower. As we had reason to prefer the other side, facing the exit, the harbourmaster assured us that we would be able to turn at the end – where the waterway widens, creating a genuine winding hole. (How to pronounce ‘winding’? A never-ending story…) We cruised towards the winding hole, turned… and our little ship became properly stuck. On hindsight -as always- even this picture, taken from a bridge in the centre of the harbour, shows the waterway narrowing but we (1) believed the harbourmaster and (2) did not judge the situation beforehand ourselves properly. As a consequence, we were forced to leave the entire harbour and after that come back halfway – all in reverse, a total distance of close to 800 metres/half a mile! Not that much this week, but we hope you enjoyed yourselves anyway.