Admiralty Day(s) In Dokkum

Admiraliteitsdagen 2018

It is now a very well-organised festival in the City of Dokkum, but it presumably derives it's name from the fact that one of five Dutch Republic Admiralties was based here for almost 200 years (1596 until 1795).

If interested, a Wikipedia article can be found here...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty_of_Friesland

Admiralty Wharf is still there...

as is Admiralty House (now a museum).

We arranged to leave work behind us on Wednesday and left Heerenveen at about 1830hrs - but in my haste, I had forgotten to check the water level (I had taken the filter off, but Sander had put it back together - so I just didn't think of it) - the end result being that we began to overheat after about 45 minutes. I dropped anchor and soon realised what I had (not) done! I added the coolant, but by that time it was nearly dark, so we tied up behind a few farm buildings...

I always sleep better on board for some reason, so up early and underway by 0700hrs. Our planned route had NO bridges that we had to wait for; even so, it took us another 7 hours to get to Dokkum.

0700 hrs about an hour from Heerenveen...

We were worried that all the moorings would be taken and it was in fact almost full - we saw an opening and went for it - one of those perfect "landings" that usually nobody sees - but this time we had a few onlookers!

Only to find in "the fine print" on the low side of the mooring a small sign that said, "only for sailboats with keels deeper than 1.5 metres". Damn! We waited for a while and then the money man came and said we would have to shift! - 100 metres closer to the city centre and on a mooring usually reserved for the handicapped! So, we didn't complain and very much enjoyed only having a 2-minute walk to the very new and good shower/toilet facilities! Three nights for €33,00 including water and electricity!

Shower facilities...

On Thursday, things were still being set up. It was plain to see that the whole city was participating in this open-air festival.

As Friday came around we had few gate-crashers (aka family) arrange to come and sleep on board - after enjoying the festivities! So, we ended up all going out together, enjoying the food, music, and atmosphere! 

As is the custom these days, I was first to bed at about 2230hrs - only to be roused by the rest at about 0230hrs - hard to imagine me sitting there in my undies enjoying myself with the party-goers. I would, of course, get my revenge with an early start in the morning!

Sleeping 6...

As is the custom in the Netherlands, it rained! Luckily, we had shelter under a tent where we could eat and drink. A radio station was one of the sponsors and we were asked to do an interview - Janny was ushered to the front and did the speaking. We saw the interviewer the next day. Apparently, her bosses were very happy that it had gone over so well - it was her first time out as a "live" interviewer.

Don't see many boats with a Japanese flag... this one had a lone sailor from Japan to America and back to England... and then with a few extra crew members over to the Netherlands.

We decided to break the return trip into two... leaving the boat in Drachten and being picked up by a brother-in-law.

So, back on Monday with Anneke as crew... we decided to try the new (for us) Polder Route through Nij Beets. This had recently been made navigable by raising all the bridges and installing a new lock at the Veenhoop end.

Very nice and peaceful... we only came across one other boat in the new part, as we near the end of the season.

It is definitely on our to-do list to spend a few nights at Nij Beets. They have also built new facilities, presumably with EU funding.

In Other News...

Famous last words on my part... I finished last week saying how much Ben liked Vietnam... his iPhone was stolen when two women rode up on a scooter - one of them grabbed Ben by the goolies and then they were gone... about 15 seconds later Ben realised that his phone was also gone!!

Janny had a phone call from the thieves the next day - I don't know iPhones, but apparently, they could get "in" far enough to find an "if found, ring this number" setting. So, they were asking for the login codes "and if we know for sure that you are the owner, we will return it". Yeah, right!

This continued for a few days until Ben had to return to Shanghai. He had done a complaint at the Vietnamese Police - just to make sure of his insurance. They weren't terribly interested. Nor was the Hostel - "happens all the time" - Ben was mightily pissed off that they hadn't said anything beforehand.

Janny sent a "hope you enjoy being locked out of the phone" message to end the matter as far as we are concerned.

Ben gets about a third of the value back on insurance.

... and lastly, the diesel tank is still leaking - so we'll have another go at fixing it. We have so much on our plates ATM that we have decided to take the boat out of the water for the winter - and do some more work on it when the pressure is off!!