One of the real issues we have maintaining a blog on this site and simultaneously posting videos to our YouTube channel is the time lapse between the moment itself and the moment of publishing, and then additionally the time difference between vlogs and blogs! Yes we are time travellers in real time and we are now in Makkum on the point of departing on our well earned summer holidays. Our last blog we posted was in Medemblik watching Maarten van der Weijden go out on a training swim to Stavoren and back.
In this blog we are going to look back at some of the fantastic things we have done in the past few months and specifically the fantastic places we have visited. And then we will take a massive leap forward to real time! Of course Roland will continue his painstaking but very enjoyable task of editing the YouTube videos of all the places we visit (these can be viewed on our YouTube channel, the most recent videos are also always available on our own website under “films”).
The month of May was concluded with a trip to Enkhuizen. We were full of high expectations for this specific weekend as the Compagnie Haven was celebrating its 50th anniversary. Our weekend there was great fun whilst the celebrations themselves were fairly low key, but since Enkhuizen is such a beautiful historic town in fact, it does not require festivities to cheer it up!
As Roland has very limited leave we took full advantage of the Ascension day (Thursday) and add on the Friday to create a four day break to the island of Vlieland - probably the most popular of the Dutch Wadden Islands for sailers. Once on the island we treat ourselves to a brilliant trip on the Vliehorst Express - a truck ride over the long beach to the southern most tip of the island. We were literally sandblasted during the ride, but god it was fun! The following day we went up to the top of the dunes to the light house and enjoyed a guided tour of the local cheese maker “De Vlielander Kaasbunker” - really a must for anyone visiting Vlieland.
Fulfilled we sailed back to Makkum in the knowledge that another long weekend (Pentecost) is just around the corner. So off we go again, this time to the Island of Terschelling. The trip is blessed with good winds and we arrive safely in the harbour just after four in the afternoon. We double up all the mooring lines as we know that there is an imminent storm with winds of at least 35 knots and gusting higher. After a good nights sleep we went to the washing facilities with the rain blowing horizontally into our faces. Good to report is that all the boats in the harbour were well secured and no damage was reported. Our return to Makkum was via Harlingen where we spent a night moored in the Noorderhaven.
Since then we have spent as many weekends as possible sailing on the northern IJsselmeer visiting:
Stavoren - in the hope to see Maarten van der Weijden during his 11 city swim, for which unfortunately we arrived approximately half an our too late.
Den-Oever - which boasts a very nice fish centre called ’t Wad’ but otherwise apart from its location next to the Stevinsluizen it does not have much going for it.
Andijk - a little gem between Medemblik and Enkhuizen, whilst the town itself is a very dull elongated ribbon of houses stretching out several kilometers along the dike, the people themselves in Andijk are probably the friendliest people in the world.
Franeker - although this is a sailing blog we include Franeker as a gorgeous the place to go when weather conditions keep you on land. Franeker boasts a working planetarium in the center of town built by hand over a period of seven years by Eise Eisinga from 1774 to 1781 in his living room ceiling.
So we are sorry to gloss over so many details of what we have seen the past few months (the details will be included in the videos still to be posten on YouTube). But now we will pick up the blog again in real time on our trip to the north east with Helgoland as our destination visiting Vlieland and Ameland on the Dutch Wad, followed by Borkum and Norderney on the German Wad.
As mentioned in a previous blog this season is all about sailing destinations on and around the IJsselmeer and the Waddenzee, and of course simultaneously promoting our Mijlen zeilen voor KiKa campaign raising money for children’s cancer research. Please look <here> for more information on our KiKa campaign or <here> to sponsor us.
Hello! Very nice photos from your trip. It seems to me that you have a lot more similar photos, could you show them all?
Since they can't all load into your article, you could show them on your computer, for example Screen Capture will allow you to record your screen where you show your best photos!