Sailing
My partner and I both love sailing, always have from the first moment we set foot in a sailing craft. For me, this was at a sailing weekend organised by the Artificial Intelligence Student Association in Friesland. Since then, I have taken sailing courses, first for small, open sailing craft, then for yachts of around 32 ft. I have a "CWO 2 Kajuitjachtzeilen", a diploma of competence for being schipper of a sailing yacht.
Apart from taking courses, my partner and I have gained a lot of practical experience, spending many days, weekends, and vacations on the water in open boats or on yachts. In my student days, I participated twice in the "Zeilelfstedentocht" ("Eleven-cities-tour"), a 40-hour sailing contest in which the goal is to visit as many designated cities in Friesland as possible within the 40 hours, using only wind- or man-power. Sleep-deprivation aside, they were great experiences, especially when there was no wind and we had to cross the Sneekermeer by paddling with the single allowed paddle... Then you feel how heavy such a 7-meter boat can be! In the end, we never won (we did not even try, there were some fanatics in the field of competitors that we could not possibly beat), but we did manage a very satisfying 8 or 9 cities each time.
Another great experience was sailing on the Mediterranean last year, before the coast of Turkey. Beautiful area, but freakishly deep! The mountains dive steeply into the see and continue at the same angle underwater, so that 5 meters from the coast, you already measure a depth of 20 meters or more. This made anchoring a difficult task (with our 10 meter anchor line), but in the end we managed quite well. And of course docks were built in many of the bays, so that the tourists can get onto land and spend their money at the local restaurant :-). Pictures can be viewed at this web album.
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| Turkey | IJsselmeer |
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| Kagerplassen |
Colleagues at the Kagerplassen |