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Those who follow me on Twitter know that Summer 2007 wasn't a very good one. It's August and we had rain, rain and more rain. The weather resembles Fall more than Summer. 
But this weekend things would turn for the better: the Weather Service predicted sunny weather, 25-28C / 77-82F and moderate winds from the East (3 Bft.). 
My brother saw the weather forecast and rented a sailing boat. He owns a small sailing vessel already, but since it was leaking he decided to restore it and wasn't finished yet. We own a 'Flintstone Boat' now. The bottom is cut away and when we lift it while standing in it, we can sail with it by running over the bottom of the lake. Since we weren't in that mood we had a polyester boat instead. 
I had to get up very early because my brother would pick me up at nine. At half past nine we arrived in the marina and our boat was ready to sail. We got a map of the lake and some rules, so we took off. First we sailed up and down the lake, after that we had lunch. Sailing down the lake was easy: we had the wind in our back. After that we had to tack in order to get back which is much, much slower. The boat didn't had an engine and also no oars, so we could only use the sails to get where we wanted. The lake is also a very shallow one. It's basically a small river with both banks flooded. Therefore it's deep in the middle part of the lake, but there's only a feet of water near the reed banks. That was where the map came in handy.
There are several marinas and recreational areas surrounding the lake so there was a waterway to each one. We went to the one called 'Plankensloot' (it's the name of a mill where they sawed timber), which consists of a large grassy field with some benches designed for people to sunbathe. Because the water is only knee deep at the shore, there's a long wooden landing stage with metal rings attached to it where you can put your boat. After some relaxing we set sail to the opposite shore and tacked back.
There are several reed isles in the lake and many shallow areas, so you have to navigate around it which keeps you kind of busy. At 4pm we called it a day and went back to the marina.
At the marina we saw some of the crew on the landing stage looking at our efforts to tack into the marina. They said it looked kind of cool how we tacked at full speed. The boat is sailing almost at it's side then, looks more interesting than it is in reality. After the administrative duties (filling the form that nothing was missing etc.) we got our bail back and went home. We made sure we visited the supermarket first to get yummy things like French bread, cheese and bbq-stuff in order to barbecue that evening. It was very relaxing and we had a really good time. I'm we go along so well.
Links:
- Wikipedia entry of 'Zuidlaardermeer'
- The province's tourism site on the lake
- Old postcard of the two mills at 'Plankensloot'.
Posted under Daily Life
This post was written by Inge on August 5, 2007
