First time 2023 (part 2) Frysian Lakes

Sunday I take a car with 4 girls to the boat. On the boat I explain again what is and is not the intention. Cooking food, yes, playing games, yes, boys on the boat, NO! After we have seriously discussed the most important things for a while, I leave them confidently. The boat is in the harbor, they are not going to sail and the harbor master is informed. Tuesday night Carla will pick them up again. In the end they had a great time. They went into Lemmer, got fries, had ice cream, did some shopping, heated up sausages. This is worth repeating!

Thursday, King's Day. We go early in the car to Linde with the family and Sammie the cat. We have arranged to meet with friends in Lemmer to enjoy Kings Day. But before they are welcome, we have to restock the boat with the necessary food and drink. Before the winter all out so now we will really have to do some shopping. At about 9 o'clock we are in Lemmer and Carla goes shopping at the Lidl. It is so much that she gets help from the store manager to load at the cash register.... But then again, at least the boat has all the basic necessities.

Once everything in the boat has found its place, our friends are there and we go into Lemmer. Sitting on the terrace, drinking cocktails, having drinks ... "how bad we have it". After we are back on the boat together in the evening, we go back to sleep in the boat. This winter we replaced the old thin mattresses with thick mattresses we still had at home. How wonderful it sleeps in the berth.

The next morning Carla goes early from the boat to Alkmaar for work. I stay on the boat with the girls and do some small chores. We also need some fresh bread so Froukje and I walk into Lemmer. This is so wonderful together. When Carla returns at the end of the day our vacation really begins. We have a week off.

When we still had Casper the motorboat, we often met up with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law in the spring. They have an LM sailboat moored in Heeg. Last year we did not have a boat in the spring, but now that we have Linde, it is nice to meet up again. Because we deliberately looked for a sailboat that is max 1.65m deep, we can fortunately still go into Friesland. Casper however was 1.10m deep so we do measure out where we can meet from now on. The LM is about 80cm deep, so it can go "anywhere".

VHF embarrassment

We agree to find a spot in Jansleat near Langweer. We leave the harbor early on Saturday in the direction of the Margrietsluis near Lemmer. It takes some getting used to sailing again. When we arrive at the lock, I get over my VHF shame and call the lock on the VHF radio. VHF shame is the feeling of making a call publicly over the VHF radio. You don't want to make a mistake, everyone can listen in. VHF embarrassment has many people and only goes away if you use the VHF radio often.

  • "Margriet lock here sailboat Linde"
  • "Linde here Margriet lock, just say the word"
  • "We would like to be locked from the IJsselmeer towards the Brekken"
  • "A lock is taking place now, please take your place on port side, it will be your turn in about 20 minutes"
  • "We will do that, thank you very much"

So I did that again in 2023, that shame disappeared like snow in the sun. After we had waited 20 minutes, the lock opened and many boats headed for the IJsselmeer. We were the only sailboat to enter Friesland. Nice and relaxed, no other boats, just us. Until we hear over the VHF radio that another freighter is approaching and the lock is going to wait for it. Once we're at the front of the lock, we lie there in the sun and wait for the freighter to slowly enter the lock. On the AIS, we see that it is 110 meters long and 11 meters wide.... It is almost as wide as our boat is long.... Impressive when that comes at you from behind you between the lock walls. But I can't say other than that the skipper did everything very calmly and we didn't feel unsafe for a moment. After the doors close, we go down 30 cm and the lock doors open and the bridge goes up. We can enter Friesland. On the other side it is a lot busier. While slaloming, we passed the waiting ships and sailed up the Brekken. At Spannenburg I called the bridge keeper on the VHF and indeed, the VHF embarrassment was over. After this bridge we sail onto the Koefordermeer and at the end we turn starboard towards Jansleat. The chart says it is deep enough, but I reduce speed anyway to make sure we don't run aground. Sailing slowly, we approach a nice jetty in the flat land of Friesland and moor. Along the way I noticed that the wind there varied in direction. Now we are lying still, I look at the flag and see that it points tightly in 1 direction. However, the wind gauge shows all kinds of different directions. That's not right.

Carla grabs the binoculars and looks at the top of the mast, this is 18 meters above the water, so with the naked eye there is little point in looking up. There must be a wind vane somewhere there, measuring speed and indicating direction. Yes, we see it, but it looks like it's broken, something is missing... OK, well... now what? I remember seeing a spare wind vane somewhere in the boat. After opening and closing some hatches, I find what I was looking for. Ok, we have a spare wind vane, but yes it is not on top of the mast at the moment. There is no other option than to climb the mast tomorrow. There are too many boats passing by and Linde often has to go back and forth. Going 18 meters into the air is not something I want to do. Tomorrow morning, before the bridges, it will be quiet and we can do the job.

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