We had to wait about a half-hour at the lock as a collection of smaller boats gradually accumulated, but by 12:30 we were through the lock and headed out into the Ijsselmeer.

The Dutch and German edges of the North Sea are thick with wind towers, and as we went along the eastern edge of the Ijsselmeer we saw through the haze another long line of towers being assembled, sometimes the tower alone, sometimes a tower and nacelle.

Quite a lot like Yankees, in fact, except that the Urkers are also very pious, spending all Sunday in church and wearing deliberately "simple" clothes. Because we were not there on a Sunday, we missed seeing the women in their traditional costumes, but we did see some of these costumes drying on the clotheslines.

Years ago Jack had put in to Urk with a disabled engine in his saiboat and had found the people very helpful. As he waited for parts to fix his engine, he was not charged for dockage, and once he was known around, he could not buy a drink in a pub.

We walked together around the town for a while, then had lunch on the boat. Jack and Linda are always good company, and we were very glad to see them.

We also found the people friendly and easy to get on with. Of course, in a sea-going community the boat speaks for us, and the Urkers certainly had eyes to see.

Shortly after we arrived, three large sailing ships arrived, full of young people. They looked a little like school-ships. The largest of these had a little trouble getting turned around in the tight harbor and almost backed into us as we lay alongside the wharf. Her dinghy, in davits astern, made a good fender.

I am not sure about the history, but the Ijsselmeer is actually two bodies of water, separated by a long dike running approximately east-west. As we approached it, we were amused to see trucks and cars apparently driving over the water. We were reminded of the Lake Pontchartrain causeway north of New Orleans, except that it is a little shorter, only about 15 miles long instead of 35.

The lock is just outside the entirely new city of Lelystad, built on polder-land reclaimed from the former Zuider Zee and named for Cornelis Lely, the engineer who made the plans for shutting off the Zuider Zee.

There is a set of locks that closes the harbor off from the Ijsselmeer, the Oranjesluizen, and we had to wait a while in the approach to the smaller northern basin for a group of small boats to assemble.

The biggest problem in approaching the marina was dodging the fast ferries that run back and forth across the Ij, the normal means of transport between Amsterdam, south of the river, and its northern suburbs.

The Money-Wasted Canal led us to another, the Ringvaart van de Harlemmermeer Polder, the "Ring-Canal Around the Lake Haarlem Polder," that took us along the edge of Schiphol Airport and through Aalsmeer, the site of a very famous cut flower auction.

We do know that flowers are whisked from the auction to nearby Schiphol and flown to the US in time to be on sale when the florists open, even if some of them are now grown in North Africa, as a disenchanted Dutch friend insists.

It was a very pleasant situation, with cows in a field across the narrow canal, a supermarket in easy walking distance, and good friends living nearby, but it was also a little expensive (Warmond is something like the Marblehead of Dutch yachting), so we only stayed three nights.

A bicycle is truly the best way to get around in the Netherlands. About every major street has a bicycle path on the side, usually separated by grass or a divider from the auto traffic. And there are paths through the countryside that often make a shorter trip than going by road. Only about a third of the trip from Warmond to Leiden (which is maybe 3-4 miles altogether) is along streets or roads. Our folding bicycles have really come into their own here.

Our stay in Warmond was quite social: we had visits from our friends Henk and Marijke, and from Aad and Nicoline. Nicoline noticed that her painting that hangs above our engine-room door was getting dry and needed a coat of varnish, and Aad readily agreed to help with our radar mount.

On Tuesday morning, in a light drizzle, we cast off and backed carefully out of the narrow canal. We retraced our steps across the Kaag and into the Rijn-Schiekanaal, and this time went through the Spaniards' Bridge without incident, turned right, and continued through the Sumatra Bridge and the Clerk's Bridge into the Leiden Municipal Harbor. This harbor has three piers with fingers along them, but two of them were being repaired and the third T-head was occupied, so we parked on the canal-side for the first night.

Like most marinas in the Netherlands, this harbor has AC power, but the amperage available is not enough to run the boat on. Our incinerating head takes quite a bit of juice, and the harbor's toilets and showers close for the off season. Our solution was to get a 24-volt battery charger that runs on 230 volts and an adapter cable that allowed a connection between our shore-power inlet and the power connectors here, and this rig let us keep the

In Leiden, we filled out a form registering us for an over-winter berth, and Barbara set about getting organized at the University. There too, there were forms to fill out and documents to submit. It turned out to be a good thing we had brought a scanner, since they mostly had to be submitted electronically.

We discovered the local supermarket, and where to buy extension cords and other hardware. Barbara began to find her way around the university and reveled in its richness, going to one conference or lecture after another. We discovered the Arslan Brothers bakery, a tiny nearby store, and every morning I would join the stream of bicycles coming into the city from the vast residential precincts to the east, ride the long block to their corner, and buy three crusty little Pistolet, rolls that would make my breakfast and lunch.

We also went sometimes to the market on Wednesdays and Saturdays, where excellent fresh vegetables could be bought from the farmers themselves.

We expect to stay in Leiden until the end of March, when our winter rate runs out, and then we will resume cruising, though we do not yet know exactly where. In the meantime, we are very much enjoying being here.