The 900-hp Volvo Penta hummed in lockstep with the solo piano accompaniment of Keith Jarrett. I felt like I was listening to a jazz duo in the pocket of a spirited groove as we made our way north on the Maas River in the Netherlands. I sat comfortably in the navigator’s seat at the helm, chatting with the captain about what to expect as we left the rural environs in our wake. The bow was pointed directly at the belly of the beast.
The goliath in waiting was the Port of Rotterdam, Europe’s largest seaport. We would be contending with a massive uptick in traffic, a sea change from where our crew began the morning, moored at a small marina where our 65-foot boat was the largest in the harbor.
Now bound for The Hague, we had at least a half a day on the water ahead of us, so we settled into a 14-knot cruise. We easily motored around slow-moving cargo ships, as well as the mom-and-pop operators who had curtains in the windows and an automobile stowed on deck. We waved to the skippers aboard the recreational vessels.
I knew there was no going back when we began to encounter the megayachts. First, we passed the world headquarters of Oceanco, where a pair of 300-foot-plus vessels sat side by side on the water, undergoing final commissioning. Then, after entering the main branch of the Rhine River, we saw an axe-bowed, inbound superyacht. We could easily read the name emblazoned in gleaming gunmetal letters on her superstructure, and a quick online search told us the 196-foot boat was packing 22,000 hp with a reported top speed of 37 knots. We also learned that she was returning from sea trials on the North Sea.
Then, within minutes, we were amid 1,000-foot-long oceangoing craft with drafts almost as deep as our length overall. When it was my turn at the helm, I kept a wary eye on the fast ferries that cut across our bow, and I nearly firewalled the throttles to blast by a cluster of workboats conducting a dredging operation. It was an exhilarating and stress-inducing experience. almost as impressive as when we passed the Maeslantkering, the massive storm-surge barrier gates that, when closed, cut off the North Sea from the Nieuwe Waterweg “New Waterway” that was dug more than a century ago.
Finally, two hours after encountering the world’s busiest commercial harbor outside of Asia, we were back to being the lone vessel along a ship canal, headed out to the sea. The day was a reminder that boats come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, and that half the fun of any journey is seeing all of them that we can find.
This article was originally published in the October 2023 issue.
