Last weekend we went with friends up to a large polder in North Holland to do a little boat touring. We rented a fluister boat, which is a small boat with an electric motor. The idea behind this type of boat is that it does not go too fast and it makes virtually no noise. These are both important because the area that we toured in is a large nature reserve with a few small old villages in it.
The day started out beautiful, with sunny skies and a cool westerly breeze. When we first got into the boat the owner of the rental business was not there and some young kid showed us how to work the controls. It seemed simple enough – Forward (slow and fast) and Backward (slow and fast). I started out using the Forward-slow switch, but then quickly moved up to the Forward-fast setting…which was still pretty damned slow. We had 25 kilometers to cover, but the scenery was beautiful and we had all day in front of us so we didn’t worry about it too much.
About an hour into the trip we hadn’t covered too much ground and we found that we had taken a wrong turn on one of the many hundreds of canals. As we were turning around we got hung up on a small sandbar and had to push ourselves off with a large pole. That’s when Kelly looked up and saw the blacking sky behind us.
The day started out beautiful, with sunny skies and a cool westerly breeze. When we first got into the boat the owner of the rental business was not there and some young kid showed us how to work the controls. It seemed simple enough – Forward (slow and fast) and Backward (slow and fast). I started out using the Forward-slow switch, but then quickly moved up to the Forward-fast setting…which was still pretty damned slow. We had 25 kilometers to cover, but the scenery was beautiful and we had all day in front of us so we didn’t worry about it too much.
About an hour into the trip we hadn’t covered too much ground and we found that we had taken a wrong turn on one of the many hundreds of canals. As we were turning around we got hung up on a small sandbar and had to push ourselves off with a large pole. That’s when Kelly looked up and saw the blacking sky behind us.
There was a monster storm approaching, with towering thunderheads s cutting sharply against the blue sky. We started back in the direction that we had come from, looking for the directional sign that we must have missed. We knew that there was a village up ahead where we could sit out the storm in a small café.
I cranked up the motor on the fluisterboat to Forward Fast. The boat barely moved. We literally could have walked faster. I was sure that the battery for the motor was not fully charged and what little power there had been was burned up on the sandbar. We saw a road bridge up ahead that we thought we could make…if the damned motor would just work. Lightning started flashing and we could hear the rumble of approaching thunder.
Jan and I started pushing the boat with the pole (aka the makkoro’s in Africa). Marjolein called up the rental business to get a tow. But this time she got the experienced owner on the line and he had us shut down the motor and check the propeller for obstructions. Sure enough, there was a large wad of weeds wrapped in the blade. I cleared them out and fired back up the motor. The boat took off – even causing a bit of a wake. We raced for the bridge just as the first torrent of rain started ripping across the polder toward us. We just made it and had to spend the next hour under the bridge. Luckily we had lunch with us so it turned into an enjoyable diversion. After the storm passed, the sky cleared up and we were able to continue our journey - complete with a stop at the village ice cream parlor.
Here are some pictures from the day.
There were some great little villages on the polder. Even though the water was drained only 150 years ago, some of these villages are much older because they were on islands in the middle ages.
We enjoyed looking into everyone's backyard from the small canals.
These goats were out playing after the storm passed.
Picnicking under the bridge...waiting out the rain.
A bit different from our last boat (the makkoro's), but those reeds in the background still look like they could hold a large croc!
