We aren’t in Amsterdam anymore

We’re a few miles away at Muiden. This town on the Markermeer is three bridge openings, one lock, and about eight nautical miles from our berth at Marina Westerdok. Our lock and docking techniques weren’t perfect, but we didn’t embarrass ourselves or hit anything, so it’s all good, as John says.

Sjoerd and Julia were on deck to wave us off as we left just after noon today. We’ll see them again sometime, I think, especially since we’ve borrowed charts and almanacs from Sjoerd. He said he would meet us in Friesland to pick them up. The weather was a little on the cool side on the water, but the sun was out and the wind was calm. It was a good first day out after seven plus months at the dock.

Muiden is a pretty town. Its main attractions are water sports facilities and an old castle, Muiderslot. The castle is closed on Mondays, so we won’t see the inside of it until Tuesday. We have a nice view of the exterior from our cockpit across the river Vecht. We’ll leave here Tuesday afternoon after our castle tour and spend Tuesday night at Volendam.