Panheel Lock to Maasbracht

A very short journey today.  After pulling up the stakes at 9.15 we were at the lock in just a few minutes.  I called to ask for passage through and we were told to take the left hand lock.  We could see the lock gates were open at the far end and nothing seemed to be happening for ages. It turned out they were waiting for a barge to enter from the lower side. 

This is the first time in a week that we have not had to have a lock or bridge operated just for us.  How many resources, and how much money, has it cost just to get little Njord all the way from Rotterdam to Maasbracht!  So we quite relieved that we were sharing the costs of this lock with another big commercial boat.

Slowly the water rose in the lock, the barge exited and we could enter.  The bollards were badly spaced for a small boat and we only had a stern line on but I could see there was a bollard for the bow line just beneath the water level.  When we reached it I passed a line around it but there was no bollard lower down for the stern line so Ian took his line off and I moved to the mid-ships cleat on our boat and we held there.  

Every lock is different!  It is a very impressive lock .

I believe the next one up stream in Maabracht  is even bigger.  Once out of the lock, and just before we headed up the Maas river, we passed this barge being unloaded. 

There was a strong current against us as all the rain we have had in the last days makes its way to the sea.  We are now at Van Der Laan Yacht Marina in Maasbracht where we picked up the 1/2 cubic metre box of stuff we sent from home.  It was like Christmas!

Now we just have to find somewhere to put it all!

We will spend a couple of days here doing some chores that never got done - and redoing some that have been done before, such as cleaning the fenders of all the dirt they have accrued from the slime off the lock walls and dirt from river banks!