Antwerp to Merelbeke, near Ghent

We left Antwerp today, heading for Ghent.  It was an early start to catch the rising tide.  Low tide was at 6.30 and, yesterday when we spoke to the knowledgeable man in the office of the Jachthaven he told us 6.30 was too early, it is better to leave a couple of hours after low tide to catch the flood tide as it surges up the river.  High tide in Ghent is some 6 hours later than Antwerp so we have plenty of time.  Plus, the Kattendijk Lock closest to us, and used primarily for pleasure cruisers, only opens at half tide.  He called them for us and they confirmed that 8.30 was a good time.  Also the London Bridge out of Willemdok where the jachthaven is, only opens at specific times,  one of them being 8.30.  We were all more than happy to postpone our departure from 6.30 to 8.30.

It was really cold, bringing back memories of our first couple of weeks on the water.

We left the dock at 8.15 to make sure we were waiting for the bridge.  Before long another 3 boats joined the queue.  I couldn't fit them all into the photo.

Four of us headed straight for the Kattendijk Lock which is enormous.  A huge great big square lock.   It was only a 2 metre drop to river level but it took 45 minutes to drain all that water.  Then the lock gates opened but we had to wait for the bridge across the lock gates to open, about 6 or 8 minutes, and in that time the level in the lock rose by 6 inches because of the in-coming tide.

Finally, at 9.30, we were out onto the river

Our final view of the Antwerp skyline.

We really enjoyed out time in Antwerp, it is a lovely city.

The Scheldt river is very wide, and with wind against fast rising tide (5.5m at Antwerp) it was pretty turbulent. 

There was a lot of river traffic and the weather brought some rain squalls even a little hail.  

As we got further up the river we passed some very peaceful looking villages.

Past the Dende River canal junction the river began to narrow

And we began to see some interesting residences

But with the narrower river the big commercial traffic got quite interesting.  This one came steaming up behind us

 trailing this huge wake behind him

 

Don't ask me what this is all about.  I'd love to know but there was no one to ask.

Then, in a really narrow section at a bridge, one boat was passing us in the opposite direction just as another was passing us going in the same direction as we were - so all three of us had to fit in somehow.  Interesting.

We squeezed as close to the river bank as we could and Welland passed pretty close to us but he gave a polite Thank You wave as he went by.  

Finally, after 80 km we reached Merelbeke Lock.  A huge lock, some 180m long with enormous control towers overlooking the lock.

After this we were out of the tidal stream.  We had averaged about 14km/hour with the tide carrying us all the way.  It was already after 4.00 pm.  We had intended to continue all the way into the centre of Ghent but when we saw this idyllic free spot just after the lock in Merelbeke we decided to stop for the night. 

Admire the wild flowers

 And feed the duck with her tiny brood.