So far this has been a wonderful summer. Blue skies, warm weather, late sunsets, and weekend time for bike rides and friends.
And sailing! The Dutch have a long, long history of sailing and I've been wanting to sail here for a long time. Finally our chance came!
Tyler was visiting from California and it just so happened we arranged had a little sailing trip--lucky!
Elliot's colleague, Anna, and her boyfriend live in Almere, a small town northeast of Amsterdam that sits right on bay of the Ijmeer. They live in a really cool development project right on the water; basically their backyard is a dock and their sailboat is their guest room. Cool.
We planned to set sail at 5pm after work, so we could make it to Hoorn by 8pm for dinner. We motored for about 30 minutes until we arrived at the lock. This was my first time in a lock. It was pretty cool. Once we passed the lock, the high swells made it very apparent we were in for a good sail.
Because of the wind direction, we had to re-route a bit and decided that Edam would be a better destination. With the mainsail and jib up, all 5 of us had to sit on the edge of the deck--to balance us out. We were cooking! It was super exhilarating, too. The water was warm (22ºC/74ºF), super shallow, and we all had fun tacking and jumping to the other side of the boat.
It took about 3 hours to get to Edam. Max called the pizza place right when we sailed into the harbor. They took our order and by the time we unwound, changed our clothes, and walked into town, our pizzas were hot and on the table. Perfect. What an evening!
⥥Aboard the Findus
⥥Waiting at the lock
⥥The lock filling with water, and the boat rising with it!
⥥Sailing at about 7 knots (8mi/hr)
⥥Pulling into the Edam harbor
⥥Wind-blown and relaxed!
⥥The Findus harbored in Edam
⥥Captain Anna
⥥Anna and Max
⥥ Walking through charming Edam, and finishing the evening with pizza and wine!
