Summer Gayling Week was a Blast! ⛵

In the last week of the summer holidays the ZeilCie organised the yearly summer sailing week! this year the theme was Summer Gayling week, which brought a lot of jokes and good music with it! all in all it was a blast, with good winds and a fun group of people.

We had a small group this year, but nevertheless it was a lot of fun. We started in Langweer where we had rented the boats and spend our first night. It was quite a travel from Wageningen to Langweer, especially for me (Olaf) and Stefan, since we had to find a new bottle of gas somewhere on the way. Also because we went to the Decathlon for about half an hour, but that is a different story.

Anyway, when we woke up on the first day, we looked at the weather forecast which told us we would have perfect wind conditions to sail to the Tjeukemeer, where we would be able to enjoy some relatively high waves and had a lovely sail. When we went out of port, one of the boats discovered that their headsail furling system was not working, so unfortunately they had to move all of the stuff to another boat. Off course our second boat, which was sailing fine, waited for the others before leaving the Langweerder Diep to travel to the Tjeukemeer. However, when the new boat was acquired and both boats set sail, the first boat seemed to sail much faster than the other and a big gap between us occurred. This was a learning moment for us, since we had no idea what the other boat was doing. Upon arrival at the Tjeukemeer we reunited and in the middle of this lake we found an island to set up our camp for the second night and enjoyed a good night of sleep to wake up early on Sunday.

On this day we sailed to Sloten, where we switched Maaike for Annika & Ambroz and ate some fries for lunch at the local snack bar (the first of many to come that week). We also enjoyed an ice cream, since Maaike told us they had delicious ice cream, but at the first lick already we felt betrayed by Maaike, because the ice cream tasted a bit like butter. However, when our bellies were full, our stuff was rearranged in the boats and the rain had passed, we set sail again on the Slotermeer and sailed to Woudsend to set up camp for the third night already.

Around 8 o’clock we wake up again and sailed to Balk to do groceries. On the way there was not a lot of wind and so we decided to use our tarp (a lightweight sail like thing we use to create shade and shelter for rain) as Spinnaker, which worked surprisingly well, especially when we attached the ‘sail’ to both boats.

Then when we arrived in Balk we did groceries and went to the local snack bar (off course) to eat lunch (second day in a row baby!). Then we spend the rest of the day going through the Luts without using our engine, but by using an old technique called ‘bomen’. Here Stefan was very much enjoying himself and at some point decided he wanted to get chips from the other boat. However, when we refused to let him on to our boat, he went on the shore to walk along for a bit and at some point was led on to the other boat. Now the fun part: the chips were on the first boat he was on... sad Stefan and still no chips, but to make our crying baby silent he eventually got his chips. Then, around 18 o’clock we arrived on a very cute lake where we raised our mast and sailed for a bit before we set up our camp and went to bed.

The next day we started with some skippers training for Annika and Jette on the small lake where we slept, after which we motored through a canal and onto the Fleuzen lake where the wind was blowing hard and we decided a double reef was needed to keep us sailing safely. Also a sanitary stop was needed so we stopped in a big harbour to search for a toilet. We managed to find the toilet and guess where it was! Next to the local snack bar! Off course we could not just walk by this lovely place around lunchtime without fulfilling our desires and so a bucket of fries and delicious snacks were bought and consumed. (Third day with eating fries in a row; let's go!) After lunch we conquered the Fluezen and sailed to Heeg where we slept next to a festival terrain. Luckily the festival was not yet going on, but unfortunately the (not so lovely) music was already playing… luckily when we went to bed, the music was turned off and we could sleep in peace.

When we woke up after a good night of sleep, we did our last groceries in Heeg and set off on a tough journey to the Sneekermeer. This journey was tough, because we went straight in to the wind though a canal (Jeltesleat) until we reached the Prinses Margriet Kanaal after 3 hours of tacking (every 5 boat lengths). Here some did not understand the signs along the canal until the police told them, but when reaching the Slotermeer, we had a small break on Start island to catch up on a lovely bit of experimental education. After this we did some afternoon sailing and set up camp on a beautiful dock where we would spend the second to last night on the boats.

On our second to last day, we sailed back to Langweer, which we started with a tough stress test for our potential new skippers. then we sailed to the Langweerder Diep again and had lunch in Langweer. Have you guessed where in Langweer we had lunch? At the Local Snack bar of course! This was last fourth and last time we would visit a local snack bar however, so we enjoyed it as much as we could. Then we went sailing again to practice some manoeuvres and enjoy the good winds. Then in the evening we set up camp in the harbour of Langweer and waited until the expected thunder would start while drinking the last bits of alcohol. In the end there was no thunder though, just a bit of rain was all that we got. 

Anyhow, when we woke up our last day had started... (sip) Elena had to leave early, so Stefan brought her to the most convenient bus stop after we made our best group photo ever and we prepared to go sailing for the last time. The nice thing was that we could put all of our stuff in the cars already, so we would not have to worry about it ever getting wet anymore. In the afternoon we returned in the harbour for the last time, where a lot of people and beautiful boats had gathered for (probably) a sailing competition the on Saturday. In this business of people, we took our last stuff of the boat, cleaned the boats and handed then over to the rental company again. Than we drove to the McDonalds to traditionally end this Summer Sailing Week with some fast food (and fries again of course!)

In the end we came back with a new skipper, a new (pretend to be) gay couple and a lot of happy (while tired of course) faces.

~ Olaf Nijssen