Aarle-Rixtel to Panheel - Sunshine and hail

We discovered from news reports that the wind yesterday was 40 knots, gusting 52 knots.  So much for the weather forecast of 45 km/hr, roughly 23 knots.  No wonder it was so horrible.

Seeing we had lost our faith in the weather forecast  (yeah, ok, I know it is silly to rely on a weather forecast but there is no other option) we decided to just look out the window.  At 7.30 it was raining and a bit windy but not too bad.  By 9.00 the rain had stopped, the wind had dropped, and there was some blue sky too.  Things were looking up, so, at 10.00 we pulled up the stakes and headed into the Zuidwillemsvaart  Canal.  This is a huge, wide canal and we expected to see a lot of traffic but we seemed to be the only people in the whole wide canal world.

At the first lock in Helmond I called on the VHF to ask for passage through.  The lock keeper was very friendly and spoke good English (even though I always try to speak to them in Dutch, some continue in Dutch, but with ATIS they can tell that we are a British boat). The lock keeper even came out to meet us and give us a map of the canal.  

 It took over half an hour to get through the lock because it is high at about 5m and they had to empty it first so that we could enter, then fill it again so could exit 5m higher up.  Seeing there were another four to negotiate before our stopping place today we thought it would be a long day to do just 28 km.  However, all the rest of the locks were prepared for us when we arrived and we could just drive straight in and tie up.  All these locks are well equipped for smaller boats with easy to reach bollards and my rope-around-bollard thingy worked a treat. 

All this time there was very little wind, occasional showers and bursts of sunshine.  It was really rather pleasant, if a little chilly.  The temperature is quite a few degrees lower than it has been since we entered the canal system a few days ago.  Ian has been steering from the interior steering wheel in the saloon except when going through locks.  It made life so much more comfortable, and warmer.

Someone asked why we have not put up the bimini - wind!  This boat is high out of the water for a 9m boat (which is why Ian can stand inside it) and has a lot of windage (as we found out yesterday!) and a bimini would just make it worse.  Once Ian got used to steering from inside, that was the best solution.

We reached our intended stopping place before 2pm and decided to keep going another 14 km, on the Wessel-Nederweert Canal, and stop at a free mooring just before the last lock before Maasbracht, the Panheel lock.  It is a huge lock with an 8m fall, 150m long and 12m wide.  We reckon this might take some time to traverse so we didn't take it on today.

At last we saw some water traffic!  We were not alone in the canal world.

Not long afterwards we saw the first pleasure cruiser of our trip.

For the last hour or so the weather deteriorated.  In between the sunshine we got periods of hail and sleet. 

Wow, cold, cold, cold!  And of course Murphy decrees that you will get the worst conditions when you have to be outside manoeuvring (like yesterday at the lock that broke down) and so it was when we arrived at our mooring.  Down came the hail and there we were messing with fenders, ropes and stakes with bare hands - I discovered many years ago that ropes and gloves don't mix.

We have made contact with Lynn and Shaun, Ian's sister and brother-in-law, who arrived from South Africa today and we expect to see them later.

Can't afford to celebrate too much with the awesome (in the old fashioned sense of the word)  lock tomorrow.