COMING FROM the UK or France via the Belgian coast, the most direct way to reach the beguiling sailing area of inland seas in the south of Holland is via the Roompot Sluis. On a calm day with a decent rise of tide you can head straight from the seaward end of the massive breakwaters enclosing the commercial harbour of Zeebrugge for the tip of the Walcheren peninsula on a course of about 045 degrees over the ground. Don’t forget that you will tend to be carried into or out of the mouth of the Westerschelde according to whether the tide is flowing or ebbing (check times for Vlissingen). When you reach the buoyed channel about a mile and a half off the coast turn up it to the north until you reach the red and white fairway buoy OG. From there you can pick up the channel into the Roompot from the starboard hand buoy DR1 a mile and a half further on.

If the weather is at all rough and/or you are crossing around low water then it is safer to head further out from Zeebrugge on a course of 030 degrees until you reach the Deurloo channel when you can head in east until you find the east cardinal DL-GR to port and can turn up north as described in the previous paragraph. In either case, be aware of the shipping channel into and out of the Westerschelde which lies across your path 2 miles beyond Zeebrugge.

Once into the Roompot channel it is fairly plain sailing. The channel will guide you in, apparently straight at the massive dyke bearing its stream of traffic, but at the last minute it curves round to the left and takes you into the approach channel to the lock. Just tie up at the waiting pontoon until the lights show green, there’s no need to radio. You seldom have to wait long.

Many of the locks you will come across in Holland will be bigger than anything you are used to in the UK, but otherwise the procedures are much the same. Proceed down to the forward end of the lock as far as you can go and throw a line over one of the little bollards which are set into the wall of the lock. A boat hook can come in handy. Having secured fore and aft, switch off the engine and just hang on to your lines. Don’t tie on to the bollards, because they are fixed while you will be floating up or down, and be prepared to move your line on to a higher or lower bollard as the water level in the lock changes. Generally speaking, exit the lock in the order in which you arrived.

© 2008 Yachtpilot.