North Netherlands cruise Part 9 – Urk to Kampen

Old time sail trainer on the Ketelmeer

To see part 8 click here
To go to part 1 of the trip click here

The next stage took us from Urk, out onto the Ijsselmeer for a short while, under Ketelbrug and into the Ketelmeer, along Keteldiep and the Ijssel
River and into Kampen.

We have been to Kampen before, in 2011 when we chartered a Dutch Steel Motor Cruiser.
(See this post)

Route from Urk across Ijsselmeer into Ketelmeer

Karen had been wanting to experience the Ijsselmeer for a while now.

I wanted to get going early, as the weather forecast was okay for the morning, but would deteriorate later.

We did get going just after 10 am, and made good time across the SE corner and passed under the Ketelbrug and into the Ketelmeer shortly after 11 am. The wind was only Beaufort 3 with a 2 ft sea running, but enough to make Shangri La roll and pitch a little.

Approaching Ketelbrug

Karen walked, or maybe I should say lurched her way around the deck with her camera and took a video as she went! Click on the video below:

Route from Ketelmeer to Kampen

My fears about the weather were justified.

That evening in Kampen, we heard that about 30 boats on the Ijsselmeer or Markermeer had got into difficulty and had to be assisted, later in the day, when the wind had increased to Beaufort 7.

Anyway, our trip to Kampen was okay. It is quite a busy route, and we saw a number of barges as well as old timer sail trainers.

Shangri La in Kampen

I have generally found the charts pretty accurate, but the full buoyed channel across the Ketelmeer, in the first chart photo, was not there any more, although the strategic buoys at the beginning and end of the channel were.

We arrived at Kampen about 13.00 hrs. There were already a lot of boats in Buitenhaven.

We tied up in the last vacant large space. Within a couple of hours, the marina was full.

It is the one thing we have learned – one needs to find one’s mooring for the night by early afternoon, otherwise you are likely to have a problem.

One of the considerations when buying a boat had been – how big a boat should one have?
I think Shangri La, at 12.6 metres is about as big as one should go. Any bigger, and finding a mooring is difficult at any time.

People in traditional costume – with canon

We liked this marina in Kampen. The facilities and wifi were good.

As mentioned above, we had been here before on a boat, and had explored Kampen, so we did not particularly need to stay here very long.

And it was Sunday and the weather wasn’t exactly great.

This time, there was a group of Dutch people dressed up in traditional clothing, doing ancient traditional things, including firing off a small but very loud canon every now and then, which added a little excitement.

The marina had a little pub where we had a couple of beers at really reasonable prices – 1 Euro each!

Next up will be the last stage of our trip – Kampen back to Zwartsluis. The only time we had mechanical problems!

In the meantime – bon voyage and happy boating.