Enkhuizen

After the clog race we had a rest day in Hoorn. This is an interesting town with many buildings from the seventeenth century. It used to be a major shipbuilding centre until the surrounding waters began to silt up. For supper we were all allocated visitors or hosts at random from among the other boats. We had Paul and Justin from Starlight (British) and Annaliesa (Dutch) from Julia of Cornwall. All seven of us had supper prepared mostly by D and Sian sitting in Bonitas cockpit. We had a very jolly and interesting evening in good company.

Yesterday we had a sort of competitive sail in company ( but not a race) around a course from Hoorn to a point in the Markermere just south of Enkhuizen. We had a reasonable S breeze for this, so it was nice to be sailing properly again. The procedings were complicated by the requirement that we should pass a capsule between the English (and Dutch) boats while under way to collect signatures. This provided a test of seamanship and it was useful to have several crew available to fend off. Paul from Starlight took this nice picture of Bonita that afternoon.

In the evening we locked into the Ijsselmere and tied up in the centre of the historic town of Enkhuizen.

Today we visited the Zuiderzee museum here. I had previously been recommended to see this but when we last came here a few years ago it was closed. It is certainly a very good museum with many exhibits both under cover and in the open. It records the social changes resulting from the buulding of the dam to close off the Zuiderzee from the North Sea in the early 1930s, and some of the disasterous floods that occurred before then.

There is a fine collection of traditional Dutch boats stored under cover, and also outside in a dock there are some boats afloat maintained in sailing condition, a rarity among nautical museums. Certainly an excellent museum and well worth a visit.

In the evening we had supper ( in a restaurant) with Barbara from Moon River, who has gained the admiration of all by negotiating the canals, locks and bridges singlehanded.