You can travel along the canals on a sailboat without taking the mast down via the standing mast route – Staande Mast – from Delfzijl in the north to Vlissingen (Flushing) in the south. However, for our draft – 2 metres – there are a couple of places not deep enough on the northern part of the route. That’s why we chose to sail as far as Den Helder. It’s a big naval base, and the Royal Navy Yachtclub was a convenient spot to come and go. We rested there a couple of nights, then motored across the Waddensee to the locks at Den Oever.

It was quite exciting going through the locks, particularly as we had to go together with many other boats and ships. But we got out of the other end in one piece, and found ourselves in the lake IJsselmeer. Time to say goodbye to the tides for a while!

Enkhuizen, together with many small towns of the area, had its heyday in the 17th century, when it was a major port in the North Sea. This large bay, formerly known as Zuidersee, was dammed in the early 20th century, and since then, a lot of its area has been claimed for agriculture. I don’t believe Enkhuizen has changed much since those old times – quaint, narrow houses lean against each other along the canals, and the bells of Drommedaris, the town gate, play cheerful tunes day and night.

There are countless waterfront restaurants and bars, but we found a fish shop by the first bridge and had cod for dinner at home. The next morning we continued through a lock into Markermeer, another lake. The lakes are very shallow – Markermeer is just over 3 metres deep. At first the depth reading made us hold our breath, but after a while you actually get used to it! Our charts were very accurate, and the lake bottom absolutely flat, so there was really nothing to worry about.