Monday, May 9th, 2016.
The last week with a home port has begun. My berth here in Almere/Muiderzand is paid till the end of the week, so i have a countdown running. If my last shipment of equipment (dinghy and some other stuff) and my absentee ballot arrive until then. Which i hope.
The weekend i’ve spent for another trip to Amsterdam. This time into the heart of the city – including passing a draw bridge and a lock. It was really great to drive with mala moja through Amsterdam. And the marina Sixhaven, located in the very heart of the city, is a marvel. I so fell in love with it.
Nevertheless, on the way out i had trouble pulling out with the wind and slightly touched another boat. Seems that pulling out is harder (at least for me) than driving into a berth.
In a lock towards Amsterdam
It does scare me a bit, but the boat is almost ready. Today i bought the cables to set up a (very) rudimentary NMEA 2000 bus system so i will try hooking up the new wind instrument with the old depth & log tomorrow. The sat-phone went active today too and i brought some order into the boat. Not that it’s perfect, but i can store the most things away safely now.
Of course there is a bunch of “small stuff” that still needs to be done. But for that i do not need to stay at this place (service the remaining two winches, measure and mark the anchor chain, check the furler of the fore sail, fit the water-absorbing mat under the bed, …).
(Cover image: Boats passing when leaving from Amsterdam for Muiderzand)