About Us

what about them?

Carla and Roelof starting their life together a long time ago...

Since 1919 in Den Oever, the small but beautiful fishing village on Wieringen, the edge of the Ijsselmeer and the Waddenzee, there is the orchestra “Apollo”. In the mid 90’s Cees van Leeuwen(father of Roelof) was conductor of that orchestra. He didn’t live in Den Oever but in the North of Friesland(a province in the north of The Netherlands). Every Friday evening he drove over the Afsluitdijk between North Holland and Friesland to conduct Apollo. From the first beginning at 12 years old, Roelof joined his father. Roelof played percussion and in that time he “helped” his dad on variety of orchestras. In Den Oever however he was a full member of Apollo.

As a little girl, Carla learned to play a wooden whistle on that same orchestra. At the moment she played flute, she joined the “big” orchestra conducted by Cees. Roelof and Carla didn’t looked at each other, which is normal with 2 years difference in age at that time.

But when Roelof was 17 years old and Carla 15, there was something between them. However, it took a couple month before they went to the cinema together.
The moment Carla joined Roelof and his parents on the 10 meter powerboat, they both dreamed about a small cabin sailboat. As young persons, they only had eye for problems: where need the boat to stay, how much money is buying a boat, how much costs a boat per year. So no sailboat at that time.

When Carla and Roelof moved in an apartment in Zutphen(in the middle of the Netherlands) boat life was gone completely. In summers, they went to the mountains of Switzerland and later on they camped with a tent in Germany.

Meanwhile, Roelof owned a software company and Carla worked as a location manager in a car repair/bodyshop. And when the second daughter was born, they decided to buy a caravan. Offcourse, in their hart they wanted a boat but that was not an option, from financial perspective.

After a couple of summers on camp spots they wanted more water in their holidays. On a small camping in Friesland everything came back. The desire to be on a boat. So besides the caravan they bought a dinghy with 8 hp engine.

Because of the law, Carla and Roelof needed to get their sailing license for small boats. Together they studied and at the moment of truth, Carla wdon with 2 points from Roelof. Nevertheless, both have their license so they are allowed to sail the dinghy. Together with their two daughters and the dog, they madde a couple of trips on the waters of Friesland.

In 2014 suddenly there was the opportunity to sell the company of Roelof. Carla was in that time also an employee of that software company. After the selling process was completed, they knew for sure. The caravan was sold and they start looking for a boat. This sounds very simple but it isn’t. Roelof was raised on a powerboat while Carla was raised on a sailboat. At the end, Roelof got his way on arguments. A powerboat of 12 by 4 meter gives enough space to be on with a young family. Besides the family, there is also enough room for friends to visit.

In the beginning of 2020 they decided to update the boat. Roelof replaced all the 230V wires and installed wifi. They also decided to replace the separated charger and inverter with an all-in-one. While searching on the internet and YouTube, a lot of information was seen about DIY projects on boats. It started with Sailing Zatara but soon Sailing Uma was found. And after those two, much more different kind of channels were found about sea sailing.

Roelof started to become interested in what sea sailing entails. A big contrast with the powerboat on the lakes of Friesland.

End then in the summer of 2020 because of Covid-19, they decided to be as much as possible self-sufficient on the boat. This means, a large stock of food on board, baking bread by themselves. As less as possible visiting Marinas and trying to visit a supermarket once a week to buy only fresh food. Besides this, they also decided to sail more hours a day away from the crowdy Friesland that summer. At the end, this summer is one of their most beautiful and relaxed holidays ever. And when they were on the IJsselmeer, almost alone in the early morning, it was incredible quit and calm.

This experience combined with all the beautiful (also less beautiful) experience of sailors al around the world, created spaces in the heads of Carla and Roelof to think about the next step after Casper. Those thoughts were extra stimulated by the death of both parents of Carla and the sickness of Carla her sister. “Shouldn’t we place a dot on the horizon about what we want in life, should we?” Yes let’s dream and take small baby steps that can bring us closer to our dream, while we are enjoying our life right now!

Roelof

A quit normal, cute boy, born in the North of the Netherlands. As a kid he started sailing with his parents. Do you want to know how he grew up and met his wife?

Carla

Very special girl born on a former island in the Zuiderzee. Grew up in a safe and warm family, with a little sailboat for te summer. Of course you want to read more.