The first thing you learn when you start sailing is to make sure that sand doesn’t get in the Vaseline, and the second thing is never to leave lines unattended in a lock!
Perhaps I was so busy contemplating the first rule that I completely forgot the second.
As nothing seemed to be happening I went below for a moment to check the chart. Next minute Lynn is telling me the fenders have gone squashy .. and indeed they had!
The water was going down but the stern was staying up, held by a bar-tight stern line!
Because the line was now being pulled from above it was completely jammed on the cleat and no amount of pulling would move it. The situation was getting worse by the second!!
A quick dive below produced the ships knife and after a couple of slashes we suddenly dropped a couple of feet.
Despite the moment of panic I thought to cut the line at the splice so lost less than a foot.
Here it is re-spliced as if nothing had happened
Up until that point it had been a relaxed uneventful sail down the canal with the main excitement being a bacon sandwich
I think I’d get bored on a narrow boat!
Next was the Veerse Meer. Lovely! It’s so great to sail on flat water. As the breeze kicks in you can feel the boat accelerate in a way that’s lost when you’re smashing into waves.
We moored on a very small island and walked all round it in 10 minutes
It was time for the outdoor Scrabble tournament round three… which I lost .. how can someone who gets two 7 letter words in one game say it’s not down to letter luck 🤯
A couple of people came over with advice and the donation of local guides.
It sounds like the original plan of getting to Amsterdam will be too much of a rush. There is so much to see on the way it would mean missing out loads so I think Amsterdam will be for another trip!
They told us about a bigger island 15 minutes away that is full of deer, so we headed off, ran aground, got free and moored up.
They were right! I’d expected one or two but there are more than you can shake a stick at!
Should you want to.
Mooring on these islands is free but of course there’s no power or water, just a festival style chemical toilet!
Yet to be explored!
I’ll tell you about that tomorrow so long as it’s not too traumatic.
This Sailing Life 
Scrabble letter luck my ****! Of course it’s entirely possible that my opponent has had 7 letter words that have gone unnoticed…..😉
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Did a post for this blog yesterday but it did not go 😞. Had a friend on a narrow boat who got us caught on the Coll with similar results. 😂😂
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