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Circumnavigation of "De Kreupel" at 9 march.
The Dutch have a reputation where it concerns the creating of new land. Normally they create land for human use. This time however they created a forbidden area.
When the shippinglane "Lemmer - Amsterdam" needed some maintenance to make it suitable for bigger ships with less bottom-clearance, they started thinking about what to do with the 3 milj. m3 of sand which would be the result of this operation.
Happily they discovered a shoal in the neighbourhood, named "Kreupel". According to a map from 1568-1573, made by Cristiaan Grootens, this area used to be once an island where fisherman could find some shelter in bad weather. Years later the island disappeared under the waterlevel and was a shoal since.
Click on the map to enlarge
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Een rondje Kreupel
Nederland heeft een reputatie als het gaat om het creëren van nieuw land. Meestal gaat het dan om land dat door mensen in gebruik wordt genomen. Nu is er echter iets gecreëerd dat voor mensen verboden is. Toen de vaargeul Amsterdam-Lemmer moest worden uitgediept heeft men creatief nagedacht over wat er nu met de 3 miljoen m3 zand moest gebeuren welke daarbij vrijkomt Nu wil het geval dat er daar in de buurt een plaatselijke ondiepte, genaamd de Kreupel, is of liever gezegd was. Op een kaart uit 1568- 1573, van Christiaan Grootens, komt de Kreupel al voor als een eiland dat permanent boven water lag. Het bood de vissers bescherming bij slecht weer. Later is de Kreupel onder water verdwenen, maar is altijd een ondiepte gebleven.
Dat vonden de beleidsmakers een schitterende plek om het zand op te spuiten. Het resultaat van die inspanning zijn 2 zandplaten van 70ha. groot. Dit eilandenrijk is ongeveer 1500 meter lang en 500 meter breed en heeft ook de naam De Kreupel gekregen. De Kreupel bestaat uit twee kale zandplaten waar vogels kunnen broeden, rusten en ruien. Hier omheen ligt een gordel van ondiep water en klei-eilandjes. Om het geheel te beschermen tegen wind en water is er een stortstenen kade omheen gelegd die op enkele plekken onderbroken is voor een goede doorstroming. Aan de buitenzijde van de kade zijn plaatselijk ondieptes gemaakt die dienen als extra golfbreker en voedselbron. Staatsbosbeheer houdt de zandplaten kaal voor vogels en telt de verschillende soorten die er broeden en rusten. Het verdwijnen van de ondiepte zal misschien consequenties hebben voor de IJsselmeervissers die daar hun fuiken plachten uit te zetten. Voor vogels echter is er een waar paradijs ontstaan: sinds het opspuiten in 2002 en 2004 blijkt het een perfecte rust- en broedplaats, dicht bij voedselrijk water, te zijn voor grondbroeders, zoals visdief, dwergstern, kleine plevier en meeuwen. Men zegt al 112 verschillende vogelsoorten te hebben geteld!
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Underneath a report by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency who had been searching for 2 seakayakers. Everything turned out OK in the end. But had the kayakers communicated their plans of camping on the Isle of May (near Edinburgh in Scotland) before leaving, the whole search would not have been necessary.
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Today it felt about time for paddling some big water again. Apart from Hans (You can click this link for his report about our trip) and me, nobody else was available or was in the mood. As the weatherforecast did not say anything about a summersday, we went to the IJsselmeer, a relatively sheltered place, and planned Muiden-Marken vv., paddling both our AnasAcuta´s.
Early in the morning the black skies predicted heavy weather, but when we shove our kayaks into the water, the wind died and the skies lifted.
Apart from the cold wind this was a good day for paddling; a real "weather window" in between days of storm and expected rain. I enjoyed the skies and the sight of Hans' AnasAcuta dancing the waves.
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Did you ever have the feeling that seakaying is fine but that carrying the kayaks afterwards is a torment?
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Last week Hans made a complete set of pictures in the swimmingpool from an action in which I tried to stand up on the aft deck.
He sent me the whole set, knowing I like to animate these kind of actions. Thx Hans.
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Photo by Hans Heupink. THX!
As Hans already wrote in his blog the four of us (Hans, Axel, Patrick and myself) were pool-playing on saterday-evening.
Always very good to practice the known techniques: just to keep in shape. And also to try and practice other techniques like the balance brace. Techniques to improve yourself.
Club members are asking me sometimes: Why the balance brace? What´s the purpose when out at sea?
Well, In a way they are right asking this themselves, because when there are waves I guess your head will be more under than above the water level in this brace.
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A site-counter is an interesting tool from which you can learn a lot. It can also keep you motivated seeing the number of visitors.
So what can I learn from 2007 (minus week 52) ?
Well, first a continuing stream of almost 12.000 visitors bringing 480 pageviews each week (you should note that only about 10% of my pages has a counter, so probably the number of pageviews by these 12.000 visitors is much more)
It is not surprizing that most of the visitors come from the Netherlands, but since I write in English the other countries are increases.
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Anoushka took the initiative organizing to go kayaking in surf this sunday: There were 3 of us.
As it was blowing quite a bit yesterday, there were enough waves. AND 
the weather was just perfect : with sunshine such a winterly exercise is not so grim. Starting around 12.00h the low tide just past away leaving fairly steep waves at the sandridge along the coast. The waves, some of them being 1,5 meter, just dumped on top of you. But as the tide rose again the waves became longer allowing some exiting rides.
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BBC-news and the MCA reported last saterday about a competition on Strangford Lough (Ireland).
On saterday a kayakrace-event with 120 kayakers was planned.
As the weather was predicted to turn to bad conditions, it did make sens that a number of rescue boats were planned. However as most boats were broken down there remained only one to guide the 120 kayakers.
In the discussion following on the forum "UK rivers guidebook-sea&surf" some voices were saying that, with the predicted bad weather and with only one rescueboat at hand, the race should have been cancelled on forehand . Wich was done in the end anyway.
I think that makes sense and it´s clear that an organisation and/or leader can also make mistakes or a wrong judgement of the situation.
So best is to be alert, watch the leader or organisation and: also make your own judgement, based on your own skills. Never trust anyone completely where it concerns your own safety.
Anyway, underneath you find the report of the coastguard (MCA).