Thursday May 27 last day at “de Schinkel”

Written by Jack van Ommen on May 27th, 2010

Tonight I’ll be making another mid night trip through the city of Amsterdam on the “standing mast” route. The main highway bridge and the one rail road bridge into Amsterdam’s Central Station are opened just one time in the middle of the night.  We will be in a convoy of about 8 boats here from the club on our way to the island of Marken for the traditional bi-yearly cruise and club race. I participated in the same Schinkel cruise the last weekend of September. That was a lot of fun and I a looking forward to it again. Last year the race was a drifter.

Yesterday I made the arrangements to moor in Monnickendam, which is right across from Marken and about 10 miles North of Amsterdam. I plan to stay there till the end of July and then continue my adventure across central Europe to Turkey. So, as of this Monday you can find me at

Berth F-50 – Jachthaven Hemmeland, Postus 14, 1140 AA Monnickendam. Street address Hemmeland 1, 1141 LA Monnickendam.

The morage is higher than the very reasonable rate I am paying now at the “Schinkel”  but the attractive part of the Monnickendam fee system is that I can buy a 30 day or longer ticket at a daily rate based on their monthly rates, which in my case is 9 Euros per day (about $12), but for every overnight away I can apply this as a credit. Since I am planning to use Monnickendam as my base to explore the many old harbor towns along the old Zuiderzee coast line, Friesland and a crossing to the English East Coast, this will be good arrangement.

Besides my visit to Monnickendam, yesterday, I had to pick up my repaired mainsail and 140% genoa jib in Volendam and I dropped off the infamous laptop for another try in recovering my Vietnam photos. I think I found a good address there in the town of Hoorn. Hoorn is one of the “must see” by boat in the next months. Many of the earliest Dutch discoverers set out from this Zuiderzee port. Cape Horn was named after it. I had not been in Hoorn since the fall of 1956. Just before I left for the U.S.A., in January1957. My twin brother had this rickety old sail boat laying in Hoorn that we sailed that weekend to Durgerdam. Memories came back. Like going to see “Black Board Jungle” and the town’s teenagers going wild with “Rock Around the Clock”.

Tuesday afternoon there was this racket outside, it sounded like a helicopter landing. Turned out to be a Mute Swan trying to chase a Grebe and her Grebelings from its territory.

I leave my many friends here at “de Schinkel” with a heavy hart. They have treated me here as a visiting royalty and I could not have dreamed in my wildest imagination to find a spot like this for my stay in Amsterdam.  

The next blog shall have pictures of the Marken meet. It promises to be lots of fun. I have been drafted into the sea chanties club choir. We practiced last night for a performance in the old Marken harbour. I hope the weather cooperates, I might even forget about being in Victoria for the Swiftsure race. Wishing every one in America a great Memorial day weekend. 

 

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