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On the first evening we all arrived at the harbour of Anja rental in Grou. We picked where we wanted to sleep on the cabin boats and then enjoyed us some broodje knakworst and soup. When it started raining we went into the cabins and played (drinking)games with the ambiance of far away lightning. This meant of course Weerwolven and telling horror stories accompanied by vibe enhancing music.

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Brrrrr, in the cold last weekend of November 8 brave Aquanauts decided to go sailing because it seemed fun. However, it wasn't just sailing around, it was team sailing! Which is a form of racing where 2 teams, each consisting of 2 boats, compete against each other. As no one wants to be humiliated, we decided that good preparation is key. For this, Jelle and Rodin went to the depths of the internet and far corners of the sailing world, looking for race wisdom. On the way we found the elixir of life and other peculiar curiosities. In the end, not every document turned out to be trustworthy. Thus, a meeting was held to share the acquired knowledge about rules, tactics and strategies with the crew. After discussing left, right and center we concluded that neither one of our boats should finish as last. Later on, Jelle and Rodin asked the match favorite D.S.W.Z. Broach (Delft) to join their training, while actually wanting to spy on their tactics. It was a very valuable training and we won't doubt to repeat it next year. Thank you Broach!

After many warnings of cold, windy and wet weather the race day had arrived. Our team assembled for the palaver (= not so boring and pretty quite important talk by the organisation) at the Braassemermeer. Team Aqua had to start the 2nd race. The fast J22's were used for this. Rigging up our boats was problematic, especially with missing parts. More problems surfaced when Rodin dropped his smartphone in the lake, by accident. Tip for everyone: keep your phone at all times in a waterproof bag in a closed off pocket and wear a water resistant digital watch with timer function. Luckily for this instance, the umpires shouted to us how much time there is left until the start signal.

"TUUUUUUUT!!" and off we go. The course started with a beat on windward, followed by sailing beam reach to the spreader, a downwind leg to a mark, then repeating this round and finishing downwind. One of our boats was in position number 1 and the other was fighting for position number 3. The first boat was constantly looking behind. It turned out, we had position 1 and 4, which is a losing combination. So the first boat turned around to sail back and help their teammate by blocking and pushing the opponent boat (who is in position number 3) into the wind. After this tactical position swap we had position 2 and 3, which is a winning combination. The adrenaline was peaking and the blood rushed through our veins. The opponents fought back and after many starboard-tack against port-tack, windward against leeward and mark-room moments we lost. Over the day we sailed 5 races of which Aqua won 1 against Borionis (combined team of Boreas (Eindhoven) and Orionis (Amsterdam)). The other races were tense too and we were very close to winning 2 more, but just lacked a bit of experience.

To sum up: in the heat of the race, the cold didn't bother us anyway. And the catered lunch was superb! Many more races will definitely follow next season. We all had so much fun! Who are we? Jesse, Kees, Xam, Jelle, Inger, Seppe, Lucas and Rodin. Ask us, and we will tell you more with pleasure. Multiple great memes were made, which can be viewed at wszvaquamemes. Foto: Twirre Bogaard.