Going foreign on a BIG Nordhavn

Despite the crew being out of commission, the captain managed a boat trip. No, not on our little Nordhavn around the bay. Instead it was a most exciting time - it involved the first flight and foreign trip since covid stopped such things. Alex and Gisele (the BIG Nordhavn 55 owners) had their boat in Hoorn, Netherlands for the summer and wanted to bring it back to Eastbourne for the winter period. Alex wanted some crew so the captain headed over to help whilst the crew was being pampered by the Toddlers instead of him..... 

Thanks to train strikes, getting to Southampton airport from Hythe involved two bus journeys and it felt so strange to see this kind of sign again:.

especially as whilst working, flying was almost a weekly event. By the way, the captain was happy not to be on the very delayed Belfast City flight shown above. KLM were pretty much on time to Amsterdam with their little Embraer jet:

Alex's son is a captain for KLM Cityhopper on that fleet and had looked up the name of the Captain flying SOU to AMS. He reported it as "Frank Blok, a weird but friendly guy". We would have preferred "competent and safe" but so be it.....

The original plan of taking the train from the airport into Amsterdam and then on to Hoorn was messed up as the airport train station was closed that weekend and there was bus chaos instead. So, Alex collected his new crew member by car instead - although there was quite a delay after landing. You always seem to taxi for ages there but we had to stop and wait - Captain Blok told us that a Eurowings plane had taken a wrong turn, was stuck across the taxiway and needed a tug to get pushed out of the way. Travel seemed fated that weekend.

Once on board, Alex made drinks and you can gauge how big the saloon is on their boat from how far away he appears:

The next morning we left a sunny Hoorn and headed to Ijmuiden. The pilothouse look a lot like our offering, just bigger. The same Furuno navigation kit meant a very easy learning curve for his new crew member:

Unlike our seating area and pilot berth, the 55 has the seating but then a full blown Captain's cabin and heads in the pilothouse area:

Big. The route towards Amsterdam looks strange to start with. The big loop round is to avoid an area that is infested with weed which has claimed many boats during the summer and also, sadly, the life of one guy who tried to go over the side of his boat to free the propellers of weed and didn't make it back alive. The charts do not show the weeded area as a no go zone of course, you need local knowledge:

Heading towards the canal through Amsterdam you can see the profusion of AIS targets - ie other vessels:

Just before the first lock, we saw this cute little lighthouse. It has to be added to our collection:

The wait for the first lock was brief  and then we were let loose on the canal that runs right through the city. Busy with ferries crossing all over the place but amazingly none that caused us any trouble. The gods of canal travel were with us it seemed. This picture was for Mrs Toddler - memories of her mother sending her / us on shopping expeditions in Groningen to the Albert Heijn store. Their big distribution depot this time:

 

Approaching the last lock before the sea, the lock keepers gaily told Alex that the Kleine Sluis that is normally for pleasure craft was not in use. 15 minutes of holding off in increasing winds were no fun for the skipper. Eventually, for no obvious reason,  they then decided that the little lock was in use and we could go into it.  Then it was a short run up to the Seaport marina which looks way nicer here than in real life:

There was nobody on duty so Alex found an empty  spot which was very tricky to berth on - the wind just wanted to carry him off any of the vacant berths. The pontoons were filthy and the power connections looked decidedly dodgy. A real shame as the location is perfect, probably how they can get away with the state of the place and still have a few visitors.

We had a bit of checking to do - the stern thruster stopped working just before we got alongside the pontoon. Luckily it had just overheated whilst working hard, forcing the boat into the wind. So after allowing it to cool, it happily worked again. Getting any work from his new crew was harder - Alex had to feed him. 

A civilised departure time was fixed for the next morning to work with the tides around the Dover area and a beautiful evening moon was enjoyed despite the surroundings:

So far, so good on the delivery trip.