With a little pain in our hearts we left Munnekeburen/Munnikebuorren/Nijetrijne/Nijetrine on Monday, September 26, 2022 at 9:40AM. We were planning to go to (the) Wetering (a waterway and also a place of residence), but disappointing weather (lots of wind and rain) and the alleged(?) needs of our pet forced us to stop again after only a little bit over half an hour and moor on the island at the Driewegsluis, still Friesland/Frieslân. The engine stopped at 10:16AM. Partly because the summer season has come to an end, we were the only boat. The bad weather made us decide to spend the night there.

The next morning, Tuesday the 27th, we left at 8:56AM. After we negotiated the Mr. H.P. Linthorst Homansluis, we briefly sailed on the border Friesland/Frieslân - Overijssel, after which we definitively exchanged Friesland/Frieslân for Overijssel and passed Ossenzijl, followed by the Kalenbergergracht. This waterway is really super picturesque. A genuine attraction. But that was partly nullified by the bad weather this time - see the photo. Let’s just say ‘hopefully better next time...’. (it wasn’t that bad during the entire section, btw.)

Well, we skipped all the moorings on the Wetering, including Muggenbeet (translated Mosquito-bite, which we only mention because of the funny name), and made it into the great harbour of Blokzijl. Even our favourite mooring space was available! Coming out of the Blokzijl lock it is more or less straight on the opposite side, close to the (other) entrance/exit of the harbour where we can moor in the longitudinal direction of the jetty. The engine was silenced at noon exactly, so we cruised for a bit over three hours. Note the autumn colours that some of the trees are already showing.

While walking the dog we discovered fairly close by a fuel station. Because we estimated that we had just over 300 litres of diesel in the tank, we effectively wanted to top up with almost 100 litres. This is partly to prevent dirt from the bottom of the tank ending up in the engine - with all the nasty consequences that entails. But... we needed a cart to transport our containers. Such a cart turned out to be available, thanks to the owner(?) of the fuel station, after which we moved our boat to another spot inside Blokzijl’s harbour - so that we were closer to the fuel station.

We left Blokzijl behind us the next day (Wednesday the 28th), but quite late: at 3:38PM. Because apart from the dog, the cart and the diesel, we also took water. All in all, it were time consuming chores. As we approached Vollenhove we noticed this impressive rainbow - which tells us something about the distant weather (it didn’t rain where we sailed) . The fact that we could also photograph some cormorants was a bonus.

The view, photographed against the low sun, over the Zwarte Water (‘Black Water’).

Later on, when we sailed on the Goot (‘Gutter’), we noticed the highest farmers' protest we have seen this season. An inverted national flag (the protest symbol) at the top of what appears to be a radio-signal transmission mast. We think we understand the farmers' feelings. Their very existence is indeed under threat. The used methodologies, however, are sometimes really reprehensible.

At 6:55 pm, after almost 3.5 hours of sailing, we reached our intended goal, namely Grafhorst. We've been there before, so there isn't much spectacular to say about it. That does not alter the fact that you can walk excellently here. So we have decided not to leave until Monday the 3rd of October - partly because the Nijkerkersluis (‘Nijkerk Lock’) (we are pretty far away from it now) cannot be passed before the 8th of October. We will therefore only arrive late in Amersfoort: towards mid-October perhaps.

In the evenings it is quite cold - well, cool anyway. Last week we lit the stove. By the way, only during some evenings.