October 9th, 2009

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Friday, October 9th, 2009

It was a cold night through the Amsterdam canals. It got down to near freezing this morning. What a difference two months make. The first trek through the canals, in mid August, was a warm summer evening. Four more boats showed up for the “standing mast” route, so we were six. I arrived at 2.30 in the morning on the Nieuwe Meer, near the “Schinkel” and decided to moor along the lake’s bank till daylight and get a few hours of sleep. There was just one boat that came the opposite direction on this midnight run through the city and it was “Skua”. I heard people yelling: “Fleetwood”!! and then I just noticed the boat’s name on the stern and the Canadian ensign. Just like I met Bart Boosman, crossing the Atlantic, on “Herb”‘s weather talk on the short wave radio. They are a Dutch Canadian couple who were sailing from Novia Scotia to Holland but had to divert south for a stop at the Azores for repairs. I hope I get to meet them somewhere along the way here in Holland. I f anyone knows their e-mail address, let me know.

The below pictures were taken in the same spot I took photos around August 17, in the Houtmankade, waiting for the once a night openeing of the railroad bridge.