The Volkerak locks

We left Willemstad under cloudy and rainy skies. The temp. was only 10 deg. C but not to worry, our pilothouse is cozy and warm thanks to our Kabola heating system that Jacob installed for us.

Right after departing Willemstad we hade to pass through the "volkerak" lock. This lock was the fifth project in the "Delta works" and mainly serves to separate the fresh and salt water. Some areas of the "zeeland delta" became to salty that before the deltaworks would have been fresh. In other areas the opposite is true where otherwise salt water would become fresh. This would upset the natural ecological setting in the delta.
No other lock in Holland is as busy as this lock with over 200.000 vessels passing through annually.

The lock is very large. 3 chambers make up the commercial lock. Each chamber is 326m long x 24m wide, and one separate chamber for the pleasure craft's which is quite a piece removed from the commercial chamber.

When we arrived at the pleasure craft side of the lock we noticed lots of pleasure crafts docked, waiting to pass through. After waiting for quite some time we noticed everyone leaving the docks, and moving to the commercial lock. Some one told us there was a problem with the pleasure craft chamber, and we would have to use the commercial chamber. So we followed the fleet of boats heading there. We were one of the last boats to enter the already crammed chamber. two commercial freighters were in the chamber one container ship, and one cargo ship. Almost 40 pleasure craft's locked through with the 2 freighters. It was quite an experience, and again we marveled at the busy waterway of this part of the country.

above pictures show:
a/ all the boats that were waiting to go through the pleasure craft lock moving to the commercial lock.
b/ Le reve entering the lock.
c/ Le reve tied up to a old freight boat that was converted to a permanent live aboard vessel.