Crossing the Ijsselmeer

The Ijsselmeer is an inland sea, separated from the sea by a 33 kilometre long dike. It is approximately 70 kilometres long, and 33 kilometres wide in most parts. It is very shallow, being only a few metres deep which can give rise to nasty waves. We chose to cross it at its narrowest spot from Stavoren to Medemblik, a distance of 21 kilometres. At that point in a Northerly wind, the route has very little protection: only an island 50 kilometres away and the dike provide any protection from the North Sea. It was therefore necessary to take account of the wind strength and direction before we ventured out from Stavoren. The day we chose had a forecast of a Northeasterly wind of less than 15 knots in the morning. the wind was correctly forecast to get stronger in the afternoon and throughout the following days.

The Ijsselmeer sea (it gets rougher away from land!)

We left at 7AM to leave with the first lock opening of the day and headed out to sea for the first time. We were quite nervous: we have sailed extensively on the open sea in our yacht Pastime but then we had sails and a keel as well as an engine. In fact we have even managed with a broken mast and jury rigged sails. Now he had no alternative to our engine if something went wrong. At least the Ijsselmeer, unlike the Coral Sea, is shallow enough to allow us to anchor if we had an emergency.

Farewell from FrieslandWe had realised it would be quite choppy but were not fully mentally prepared for the rolling motion of a flat- bottomed boat without a keel or lee boards. For the first time we needed to secure glasses, crockery, pictures and our wine collection. We soon became used to the rolling movement and were very pleased we had chosen a day with moderate winds from a direction protected by a good land mass. We did lose one vase which rolled off its high stand. But we had never liked it much so that is okay. A number of wine bottles also came loose and rolled along the floor, but none broke.

Our journey across was uneventful on this bright day. For most of our trip we were in sight of land though not able to clearly identify our intended landfall. We relied on the GPS to keep us on our exact bearing. Our ship's compass is a beautiful antique but is useless for its intended purpose because it has been installed where it is affected by the metal around it.

During our crossing I reflected on how reassuring it is for me to travel with David with his  knowledge and skill. He steered us in exactly the right direction directly to our chosen port; the engine coughed, just once, but I was confident that, even if it stopped completely, he would probably be able to get it going again or at least could diagnose the problem. Thankfully there was no repeat. Without David to keep our 111 year old boat in good working order, inside and out, our European cruising would not be possible.

Best Regards,

Penny

Quite choppy and we only saw 1 yacht, 1 fishing trawler and a boat like us

Approaching Medemblik