From 19th until 23th of August, I was at work during the largest public event in The Netherlands and the largest free nautical event in the world. Sail Amsterdam takes place every 5 years in Holland’s capital Amsterdam. Sail Amsterdam 2015 has been visited by 2.3 million visitors and 5000 ships.
The Westerschelde (Western Scheldt) in the province of Zeeland in the southwestern Netherlands, is the estuary of the Scheldt river. This river once had several estuaries, but the others are disconnected from the Scheldt, leaving the Westerschelde as its only direct way to the sea. It is an important shipping route to the Port of Antwerp, Flushing, Ghent and Terneuzen With its many bends and meanders, the Western Scheldt is one of the most difficult to navigate rivers in the world. About 20,000 seagoing ships per year are using the main fairway. In addittion, 50,000 inland ships per year use this waterway on their way to France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and further into Europe.
After my visit to Vlissingen (town) I had a boattrip to the Port of Vlissingen. The Port of Vlissingen consists of two separate harbour areas: Vlissingen-Oost (Flushing East) and Vlissingen (the original harbour in the town of Vlissingen). Vlissingen-Oost is both an industrial area and a commercial harbour covering a total of 2,400 hectares with 200 companies. The harbour is located at the mouth of the River Scheldt, only a few kilometres from the North Sea and is accessible to all seagoing vessels. Some 4300 sea-going vessels carry over 16 million tons of cargo to Vlissingen each year. I was surprised that the port of Vlissingen was so big. It was an very interesting visit.
In the picture you can see the general cargo vessel ‘Quetzal Arrow’ length 200 meters and width 30 meters at the Van Cittershaven.
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