Aug. 28, 2007 - No Mussels!
On Sunday morning we didn't bother going into the town of Sint Annaland as the "book" suggested it wasn't that great, so we headed off west towards the Zeelandbrug. With the wind coming from the northwest it was a series of long beats with a few short ones thrown in to get back across the channel. We got upto 17 knots apparent and briefly got Emjaytoo over 6 knots - peaking at 6.4! All with the full rig up. Had the wind stayed consistently over 15 knots then we would have put a reef in, but it was mostly 12 - 14 knots, so great fun!
As we closed the bridge, the wind came right on to the nose, so we dropped the sails and motored the last half mile or so, since we were getting tired. The pilot book said the bridge opened every hour, but our observations showed it opening every half hour, so we didn't have to wait long. We went through with about half a dozen other boats.
Once through, it was only a short distance until we entered the canal leading upto Zierikzee.
As we entered the harbour, the Havenmiester came out in his rib and guided us down to a spot where he wanted us to raft up to a boat already on the pontoon.
It was yet another new experience for us as there were already boats rafted 3 deep to one side, but Kim put her alongside with out any problem at all (not quite sure how come it went so perfectly!). After paying the equivellent of £10.50 (power and water on the pontoon and showers/WCs on the quayside), we went for a walk around - not before having our now customary beer to celebrate landfall!
The harbour was packed out, not just with pleasure craft, but loads of Dutch sailing barges and big mussel dredgers all decked out in flags. It soon became apparent that we had arrived at the tail end of a festival - Thursday/Friday/Saturday had been the annual Zierikzee Mussel Festival.
After a walk around the old town, which is very pretty, we returned to the boat to find a new arrival rafted up to us so we were now sandwiched in - all very cosy!
In the evening we headed off to a likely looking resaurant so Wendy could get her mussels and chips. After having a drink first, we get to ordering and HORROR OF HORRORS - the resaurant has sold out of mussels. Seems the good people of Zierikzee scoffed the lot during the festival. Rather than go looking for an alternative, we made the best of it (the food was excellent).
Monday morning we awoke to virtually no wind. The people rafted outboard of us were away quite early and although the people inboard of us were staying put, we were still away by 8.30 BST. Motored back towards the Veerse Meer, the Oosterschelde was like a sheet of glass and being an ordinary Monday in Holland it was very quiet.
We were back in the marina by 11.00BST and given our ferry out of Calais wasn't until 21.45BST, we had a leisurely lunch and took our time cleaning the boat inside and out. Ready to do it all again in a fortnight's time with Julie & Trevor.
All in all, we had a fantastic four days, almost on a par with our Greek bareboat holidays! We pushed the boundaries and dealt with loads of new things, mostly without any problems at all, and where things didn't go quite right first time, we coped and got it right second time around. The weather was really very good - plenty of sun and wind and great sailing.
The only down side was that the marina had still not fixed the TV aerial! We did get a missed call on the mobile, Friday morning, and when we went over to the service centre it turned out the were going to do it Friday and were checking to see if we were going to be on the boat. Since we were already there, we arrange for it to be done Tuesday - which is today. So, hopefully, by the time we go back in a fortnight it will all be fixed. We shall see!
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