A month in Holland. August 2014.

 

Dear Friends,

I have to admit, it took a couple of days to let it all sink in… Once, a distant dream now made real. It was truly wonderful to be able to welcome my parents onto Onda Boa, which they did on Monday afternoon (in order to reach the city of Lelystad, we had to endure torrential rains in Amsterdam, and more rain and winds (against of course) from Amsterdam to Lelystad, but we made it.

The day after their first visit, my sister Janty came over for a visit, and we relocated to another Marina nearby (Flevo Marina), for practical purposes. At this Marina is the official Raymarine, and Volvo Penta dealer, plus they have attached to them a sailmaker. So, we became a service customer as I had them repair the genaker, make a new mainsail lazy jack cover, had the Raymarine GPS repaired, and even had to lift the SV Onda Boa on the dry in order to replace two worn prop shafts…. All in all a well needed but very expensive exercise.

Some highlights of our stay:

· Sailing on the IJsselmeer with my parents on several occasions, priceless

· Celebration of my Dad’s birthday.

· My parents staying on board for a couple of days

· Visiting with some good friends (Sjoerd, Marjolein and Charley in Amsterdam), Alvaro who travelled from Rotterdam to Lelystad, Sandra and her sister all the way from Germany, Hidde and Nicolet, ChrisJan and family.

· The party, rebaptising SV Onda Boa, to SV Lumina by my mother, in the presence of family and good friends, Chris Jan, Loek en Nel, Jan en Annie, Kees and Rina

· Purchase and installation of a cool and compact washing machine on board

· Having my brother Bert over for a couple of days

· Having my other sister Anke over for a couple of days

· The big Island of Vlieland expedition, sailing from Lelystad to the lovely island of Vlieland (my parents dream coming true)

· We even made it into the local media (interview in the local newspaper)

· Some real good family time

· Dutch food including: smoked eel, fried potatoes with mayonese of course, old dutch cheese, real thick plain yoghurt, chocolate, Calve Peanutbutter, Bread, lots of it.. (Dora and I gained some weight)

· Visit to Amsterdam, including the Heineken museum, and the BullDog Café (if i remember well…)

· Visit to Rotterdam, Euromast etc.

Then it was time to go, the hard part, saying goodbye, never easy… But a great warm feeling of mission completed… returning to base…

 

Torrential rains in Amsterdam                                    One of the many locks….

 

The Dutch way….                                                  Flevo Marina Lelystad

 

Obviously Amsterdam                                       Also the dutch way… by bike

 

This is how you make it…..                                This is where you taste it (Heineken museum)

 

                                                                         A great new asset

One of Doras many talents….                           So cool…. Happy parents on board…

 

She still beats me (checkers)                           Good morning all…

Visit to Rotterdam..                                       … and the neighbours came to visit

 

Mom official                                                    Safe journeys Lumina (thanks Mom)

The guest at the party (thanks)                    Article local news paper

It was awesome…Mission completed…

Enjoy

Pieter