To the Old Zuiderzee Coast

I continued down the River Vecht under clear skies and near still airs, passing more fine estates along the banks.

Because the forecast was for increasing winds, I paused for the night on a wilderness mooring two kilometres from the mouth of the river and the beginning of the open waters of the IJmeer.

Two days later, the weather app on my iPhone showed decreasing winds, but still a bit high to venture across the IJmeer and Markermeer, so I decided to follow the Randmeeren route. I passed down through the lock at Muiden and motored past the line of well-maintained historic sailing barges.

Muiden Castle, or Muiderslot in Dutch, was originally built in the early 1280s by Count Floris V to impose tolls on river traffic. Floris was murdered in 1296 by Gerard van Velsen in retribution for raping his wife. The Bishop of Utrecht ordered the castle destroyed in 1298. Between 1370 and 1386, the castle was rebuilt in the same location and to the original plans by Albert I, Duke of Bavaria and Count of Holland and Zeeland.

Out past the castle, I turned and headed east past the shorelines of the ancient Zuiderzee, following a shallow buoyed channel. After three kilometres, this led me to the main shipping channel which headed under the bridge and into the Gooimeer. I headed in the buoyed channel and ducked under the lift bridge to follow an arm weaving its way through a residential suburb of Huizen.

Sixteen hundred metres along, the narrow canal reached a blind end, fortunately with a basin sufficiently large to wind Zonder Zorg around. I moored at the edge of a shopping mall with two supermarkets and many dozens of other shops and services.

Here's a trace of Zonder Zorg's track so far this year. Though it's less than fifty kilometres from Gouda, we've come a little over a hundred kilometres to get here.