Rusty the Junk - IJmuiden

Travelling directly East from Southwold or Lowestoft, brings you almost perfectly to the busy port of IJmuiden. We have done the trip three times, once on Duet, once with Penny and Stuart on Pollyanne and once on Rusty. The theory is that you can see the loom of the steelworks from a long way out, and this acts as a beacon. It doesn't work that way for us.

The first time in Duet it was quite murky and we didn't get to see the loom at all. The second time on Pollyanne, the fog was so thick you could barely see the bow of the boat. The third time on Rusty we did at least see the loom prior to arriving, but not exactly a long way out.

As well as the steel works, IJmuiden is a major port. It is at the seaward end of The North Sea Canal, which runs up to Amsterdam. The locks are one of the main attractions of IJmuiden. There are now 4 of them, 2 small ones, a medium one and a big one. The small ones take anything from small yachts and motorboats up to good sized sand barges.

The middle one takes small freighters etc. The big one takes anything up to passenger liners and aircraft carriers. Yes we have seen "The QE2" and "The Ark Royal" in the big lock (not together though).

In addition to the commercial shipping there is an active fishing fleet with a very modern fish market. The fish docks are always busy both with local boats and visitors. A subtle difference to what we have seen of the UK fishing industry.

When we have the boat at IJmuiden we normally stay on Jak's Jetty. This is a steiger (stage) alongside the North Sea Canal, about half a kilometre inland from the lock.

There is space for approximately 10 large boats, 8 in the deep water on the outside, and 2 shallow ones on the inside. When we first came, with Duet, the stage was nearly empty, and Duet fitted comfortably on the inside. When we returned with Rusty in 2006 the stage was nearly full.

Our friends Jan and Rina live there permanently on their boat Alderia. In addition we made new friends, with Kees and Marika (Crista), Willem and Simone (Hoop op Zegen), Jan and Ali (Freya), Inge and Mireille (a woonbootOne of the classic Dutch houseboats. ), Arjan and Heidi (??). Most of whom live on their boats full time.

The only down side of living on the stage is the steel works. When we first came it was the Dutch Company Hoogovens, then it became the Anglo-Dutch company Corus and now it is the Indian company Tata. But it doesn't matter who owns it, the pollution from it is completely out of order. After a few days there the boat has turned black, no matter what colour it started. We found that it hugely aggravated Pip's asthma, and Nick started every morning with a good cough.

Jak and Winnie, who own the stage, have been friends of ours for a very long time. We first met Jak, when he brought his charter yacht Balder into Southwold on a regular basis. He had to retire from working as a charter skipper because of arthritis.
They live in a wonderful position for anyone obsessed with boats. Their house is one of the old lock keepers cottages on the island between the small lock and the middle sized lock, with a wonderful view from the sitting room of the boats in the middle lock, and from upstairs looking the other way towards the stage.

An interesting feature of IJmuiden is the island in the middle of the harbour. It is known as Fort Island and was developed as a fort in the 19th century. It is part of a ring of forts around Amsterdam. It has major gun emplacements and is riddled with tunnels for accomodation and storage. During the second world war it was occupied by the German army and used as a barracks.

It has now been re-opened as a venue for family outings, venture holidays etc. Jak worked there for a while during the initial refitting.
During 2007 Jak celebrated his 60th birthday and a large party was organised on the island. A large group of friends were invited and we all got on one of the harbour tour boats in IJmuiden and were taken out to the island. Nick couldn't walk at the time, so the organisers found a wheelchair and and arranged a goods lift to get him to the party. Various activities had been organised with the assistance of the outward bound group who use the island. These included archery, abseiling, rifle shooting and riding a seriously big seesaw. We were provided with a traditional Dutch repast prepared by one of the local catering colleges, and a great time was had by all.

A passenger ferry from Newcastle docks in the fishing harbour, so there are often North of England voices to be heard. Although IJmuiden is not a tourist centre in its own right it has good access to Amsterdam (hi-speed ferry) and Haarlem (local buses). The ferry arriving and departing is always an impressive sight as it manouevres in quite a confined space to get in and out, and it is lit up like a small liner if it is in the evening.

Jan and Rina occasionally have a long weekend. They take the ferry on Thursday evening, have a few nights in England and return on Sunday morning. They find it really enjoyable, although the on board pricing is getting out of hand.

The North Sea Canal is the main waterway to the port of Amsterdam. It takes about 3 hours in Rusty to get from Ijmuiden to Amsterdam. The canal is used by all sorts of boats, a lot of barges mostly carrying sand from the dredgers in the North Sea and IJmuiden harbour, quite a few container ships and tankers going to unload or reload and then returning to sea and of course the tugs manoeuvring them. Pleasure craft range all the way from tiny motorboats with fishermen, floating in the middle of the canal, through rowing boats and sculls up to tall ships and serious motorboats. Then of course there are the cruise liners on there way to a stop in Amsterdam and navy boats from around the world on courtesy visits.

A high speed ferry (actually a hydrofoil) runs from Velsen to Amsterdam, which adds a certain something to pottering along in a yacht, its a bit like driving a pedal car down a motorway! Mostly the ferry doesn't hit anything, although it was hit itself in 2007 by the Customs and Excise boat of all things. Fortunately nobody killed, but several nasty injuries and a big hole in the side of the ferry.

All along the canal are side canals going to interesting places, like South to Haarlem or North towards Alkmaar. Interspersed with these are harbours for big ships. You have to be on the alert all the time for boats entering or leaving them. They aren't usually going quickly, but definitely inexorably. They all announce their intentions on the VHF radio, which you must have on, but unsurprisingly it is all in Dutch. We are getting better at working out what might be happening but we are not proficient yet.