Colijnsplaat

It was not quite so windy today but still a brisk S - SW wind mostly force 6 with gusts up to force 8. We left Willamstadt this morning and progressed south through two sets of huge locks.Mostly we were motor- sailing with jib, staysail and mizzen, though we were able to rest the engine for a bit. We  had planned to meet up with Transcur and Clytie in Zierikzee, but this is approached by a long canal running SW, ending in a congested harbour. I was anxious about Bonitas manoeverability is a strong following wind, so instead we came to Colijnstaat, on the other (south) side of the waterway. I have not been here before: it is a fishing port but also has plenty of yachts. There is an active yachtclub- they had races planned for this afternoon which were cancelled due to the bad weather.

There is also some history here: unusually for Dutch towns this is known to have been a Roman settlement. Ships traded from here along the coast and also across the North Sea to Britain. We can only admire the skills of those who sailed primitive boats along this featureless coast with few if any navigational aids.

There is a model of a Roman trading ship in the village known as Caudicaria Navis. The original would apparantly have been about 25m long. It is supposed to be an accurate model, though  we werent clear how good the evidence for this was. I was surprised to see that the model has two steering oars, one each side. I has read that Roman ships only had one steerboard, always of course mounted on the starboard side.