”So, who is it you’re going to do this trip with?”
“It’s a Dutch couple that we know”.
“Alright,
“How well do you know these guys? Because it seems like a long journey!”
“Well – Coen and I are good friends from Australia, and Femke seems like a really easy-going person, from the times I visited Coen in The Netherlands. But Trine and Femke actually never met”
“Eeeeh alright – well good luck then!”
This was a typical conversation for me after Coen and Femke asked Trine and I if we wanted to join them on a sailing trip around the world two years ago.
A lot of my friends find it a bit weird, that Trine and I are going sailing with a Dutch couple that we haven’t known for a long time, and even though Trine and Fem have meet each other a few times by now – it might still seem like a big chance to take. But with some people you just feel like there’s a good connection from the start, you might have common values, the same dreams, or just the same tempo. That’s how Trine and I felt with Coen and Femke at least, and the decision to go sailing around the world with them didn’t seem like a strange thing to do at all, in fact it was very much the opposite feeling we had – that it was an obvious choice. Nevertheless, the four of us, though it might be a good idea to spend more than just a few days together here and there before embarking on a big journey together. And also, it might also not be the worst idea to go sailing together all four of us for some time, to make sure that we could live together on little space, without killing each other. To this end, we arranged to go sailing for a week together in September, to test the team, the boat and the dream.
Meeting up
An early Monday morning in the start of September, we met all four of us, in perhaps the highlight of Amsterdam – Sloterdijk Buscentral. Wow what a place! From there we drove to Harlingen, where beautiful Eva was rocking gently in the harbour. This was the first time Trine and I saw Eva, and we were very positively surprised. Personally, sailing an aluminium boat has always been a dream of mine – A real expedition ship! With the same sturdiness as steel boats, but without having to fear the rust. Furthermore, Eva was geared for long-distance sailing! With XXX L water tank, XXX L diesel tank, a Schenker Watermaker, Yanmar JH4 engine, solar panels etc. Wow, the only downside was that Eva was almost too overpowered, since much of the free space was taken up by batteries, diesel/water tanks etc. – so we’ll be packing light 😉
Leaving Harlingen
The plan was to sail around the Dutch Wadden Sea. fter unpacking and readying Eva for the journey, we departed from the Harbour of Harlingen, setting our course toward Terschelling – the nearest of the Wadden Sea Islands.
The weather was great! The sun was shining, 20+ degrees and we were super hyped to get going. Being in the Netherlands, navigating through a sluice is almost inevitable, and Harlingen was no exception. Our journey to the sea required us to pass a bridge and navigate through a sluice. Alongside a few other vessels, we entered the sluice, waited for it to close, fill, and reopen, then proceeded, the sun glaring in our eyes, feeling ready for the adventure ahead. Or so we thought. Just as we were following the boat ahead out of the sluice, engaged in conversation, a momentary lapse in attention nearly led to disaster. The boat ahead suddenly stopped, and we only realized it at the last moment. Coen swiftly shifted the engine into reverse, narrowly avoiding a collision. What a way to begin our voyage! Lesson one was clear: constant vigilance is essential, especially near other vessels. On the water, situations can change in the blink of an eye!
Aside from the initial shock, the remainder of our trip to Terschellingen was remarkably smooth. The Wadden Sea, acting much like a lagoon shielded by the Frisian Islands, provides a calm sanctuary from the rough North Sea. Additionally, we were graced with gentle winds that afternoon, allowing us to relish a serene late summer afternoon on the water. Truly, that’s the essence of life!
The Route
Sailing around the Wadden Sea
The next couple of days we also visited Vlieland and Texel and got to sail a lot around the Wadden Sea area. The sailing conditions for our first trip were, in fact, quite ideal. The gentle sea and mild winds allowed us to play a lot around, and practising various manoeuvres – we especially enjoyed playing around with the gennaker, which is a very light sail that really adds value in light winds, but which is also a bit more difficult to trim than the genoa.
What the Wadden Sea lacks in waves, it compensates with its complex bathymetry, featuring a complicated tidal pattern and intricate channels, some of which are navigable only at high tide. Many a ship have run aground in these treacherous waters, making the study of charts and discussion of routes and tidal timings an a fun part of the sailing these waters. Going from Vlieland to Texel, we took a short cut which was only passable during high tide, adding some excitement to the trip!
The Frisian Islands
The three Islands that we visited: Terschelling, Vlieland, and Texel are all very nice islands, that feel very slow-paced, with old houses and cozy streets. Especially, Vlieland which is a car free island really gets your heart rate down. The islands, with their expansive beaches framed by undulating dunes, stands of Scots pine, and seals lounging on the sands, truly encapsulate the essence of a northern European island oasis. We enjoyed our days on the islands with good food and nice sunsets. That’s what love about islands! The sun is not hidden behind blocks and walls, as it often is in the city – this allows you follow the sun’s movement across the sky on sunny days – as those that we had during our time there.
Sailing The Ijsselmeer
After exploring the Frisian Islands we set sails towards the southeast and the Ijsselmeer. About a hundred years after loosing Belgium, the dutchmen wanted to make The Netherlands great again. But they quickly realized that they would have a hard time fighting other nations, and they therefore followed the Danish saying “What is lost outwardly must be won inwardly”. In other words, they did what they always do – built a dyke, and this time it was called Afsluitdijk, which closed off a big part of the Zuiderzee. Much of the area behind the dyke was drained, creating polders (land below sea level), and the rest is now the Ijsselmeer.
We sailed to the city of Enkheuzen on the western side of the lake. And here we ran into the first problem on the boat. When reaching the harbour, the girls went shopping for dinner while Coen and I started cleaning the boat. During the cleaning we realized that there was quite a lot of water in the bilge. The bilge is the lowest part of the boat (below the floor), and in most boats a bit of water collects in this area for numerous reasons: big waves splashing in, condense etc. But this was too much, and we were worried that we had a serious issue going here. After pumping out the water and drying it up the bilge, we started investigating the problem. By following the wet tracks of water, we found out that water was dripping down from above the engine room, right below the lockers in the cockpit. We realized that these had possibly not been closed properly, and that water could have leaked through while we were washing the outside of the boat. We tested the thesis and found out that we were right – peeew! What a relief. We ended the day with a beer celebration and delicious dinner that Femke and Trine had made 😊
The next morning, we crossed the Ijsselmeer from east to west through green algae-filled water to Stavoren. A small town with canals running through it. It’s located in Friesland and is probably a town that most Dutch people would think of as a boring city on the countryside where people speak very strange, but I really enjoyed it! I think it’s incredible how cozy many towns in the outskirts of The Netherlands are. In Denmark these kinds of towns would be deserted, with all the young people leaving for the bigger cities and old houses and farms left to deteriorate. But this town was incredibly cozy with all the small canals. We stumbled upon an intimately looking bar/restaurant for some dinner and a beer. What looked snug from the outside, proved to be a true gem when we got inside. The bar dated back to the 16th century and was decorated with all kinds of old ship-artifacts. It was easy to imagine sailors stepping ashore for a well-earned beer after long months at sea or a day’s toil with the nets. In an atmosphere of sea salt and adventure we enjoyed the rest of the evening and night here with bitterballen (a Dutch speciality), many games of billiard, and sharing dreams of the coming trip, before we found our way back to Eva through the dark.
Upon our return to Harlingen the following day, I think we all looked back on a good week of sailing, only feeling more excited for the upcoming adventure. Trine and I headed back to Copenhagen, while Coen and Femke made their way to Haarlem, all of us with the full of eager to intensify our preparations for the adventure that lay ahead.
Sailing around the waddensea:
Great post. Rasmus what a poetic writing style you have, it’s really a joy to read . Hope you’ll keep this up next year !
( btw, I’m Coen’s aunt, San, we met at the wedding)
Hi guys! Found you through your Insta reels, really keen on following your trip, best of luck!
Hey Jan! Thanks a lot for your message, glad to hear you are keen on following our trip 🙂
Ah the Waddenzee, such a nice place to start your journey, I’m looking forward to follow your journey along the way <3
Yess we love the Waddenzee! And glad to hear you like to follow our journey, we will add more to the website soon! And in the meantime you can also follow us on sailing.adventurers on Instagram if you like 🙂