Just a 13 leisurely miles today to the attractive heart of Dordrecht, the oldest city in The Netherlands, founded in 1220. Only 2 challenges today, getting to the railway bridge on time, else a 2 hour wait, and mooring in a box mooring where the starboard rubbing strake did its job well. So what is a box mooring? It's basically a mooring between 2 poles and a stern to, or bows to mooring to a pontoon. So the trick is to lasso the windward pole as you pass it and use the line to control your position as you motor slowly towards the pontoon. Fortunately this box mooring was a bit of a hybrid, with a finger pontoon which made life much easier.
With the afternoon free, we ventured to the Grote Kerk (Grand Church) and climbed the 275 steps up the significantly leaning tower, paid for a boat trip (yes paid!) round the very picturesque canals of the city and finally later in the evening took a long walk to what was probably the only bar open in the city!
One final comment, the harbour master was the spitting image of Norman Bates…..
