Well, I forced Roelof to tell something about his history. So i need to do that as well.
Together with my mom, dad and big sister I lived in a tiny house in Den Oever. For Dutch sailors a known place, because it is one of the two places where you can cross the Afsluitdijk from the Ijsselmeer to the Waddenzee, or the other way around of course. Den Oever is a small village on the former island Wieringen. Between 1927 and 1932 the afsluitdijk and the Wieringenmeer polder was created. This was the end of the Zuiderzee and the end of the island Wieringen.
There is a reason I don’t say, I grew up in Den Oever. Because I grew up on Wieringen. Why is that? Well actually I had two homes. The best friends of my parents owned and lived on a marina in Westerland, at the other side of Wieringen. Summer and Winter almost every weekend we went there, or they came to us. My father helped his friend with all kinds of things.
When I was 2 years old my parents bought a little (7 meter) sailboat. Our home marina was in Westerland, of course. During holidays and summer weekends we lived on the boat. My father went to work from the boat, while my mother watched me falling into the water. Sometimes that happened multiple times a day. So as a kid I was used to waring a life jacket all the time 😊. During the time we (my sister, and the daughters from my parents friends) learned : rowing, swimming, sailing, ice skating, surfing, exploring etc.
When I was at home (the real house) I liked to check the Waddenzee. For me it was a 2 minute walk to the dyke where I was able to see the Afsluitdijk and a bit of the Ijsselmeer and the Waddenzee of course. When it was bright weather I could also see Den Helder and Texel. I loved the view, but I loved it more to check on the mud from the Wadden. On bare feet, or some old shoes, I walked through the mud. And yeah, every time my mother grumbled when I got home with that bad smell.
I dare to say: I had the most beautiful childhood you can wish. Not only because I partly grew up on a marina and had water everywhere around me, but also because I had great parents. The best you can have. Unfortunately they both passed at young age. Somehow I feel the need to tell you how great they where. They gave us all the love they had, learned us to make our own decisions and they were always supportive. And of course, we had our fights and disagreements, but no big things.
When I was 16 my parents allowed me to go to school in Apeldoorn. So I needed to move out of the house and lived some 200 kilometers apart from my safe home… a difficult but also beautiful time. I lived in a boarding family, they took good care of me.
Unfortunately my father had a heart disease and couldn’t put that much of an afford in the boat. So when I was 20 years old, they sold it. Meanwhile I met Roelof, so I was already on the water again. Only now on a powerboat…. Mmm a new experience.
Do you want to know more about Roelof? Read more Roelof. And or do you want to read more about how we met and how we lived together? Read About Us.
To sum up, my life in short: Wieringen, Den Oever, competitive swimming, flute/piccolo, Lower – Secondairy – Higher Technical School automotive engineering, Bodyshop manager, Software for Body repair shops, Damage expert Automotive.
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?
On a very young age these two met. It was certainly no love at first sight. But the love grew. Now they are big buddies with the necessary disagreements from time to time.
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