The yearly reoccurring cabin boat weekend to open the sailing season took place first weekend of April. Friday evening all sailors dripped into the cabin boats and were welcomed with a hot mug of tomato soup. Since we were the first renters of the season, we received two lovely bottles of silersbitter (sailors”bitter”), which everyone passed on the first night but warmed the second night.  

After a cold night, with a temperature of -3 in the harbor of Grou, we were awoken by Rodin’s struggle with connecting the box and some lovely techno afterwards (the harbor was empty anyways). We had breakfast after finding everything in two different boats. The lovely service of the Frysian supermarket Poiesz to lose the peanut butter (how to survive a weekend without peanut butter??) made us search even longer. We set sail to the lovely Snitermar (Sneekermeer) with some motorboating over the Prinses Margrietkanaal. With one reef and 4 Bft with windgusts of 5 Bft Northeast, a happy sun and still low temperatures. We even had the surprise of sailing in the snow and hail for a little bit, as well as flying toilet paper through the cabin. 

Lunch was held on the island of Eva, placed right next to Adam of course. We had a nice and warm cup of tea on this island that would otherwise be occupied by geese, as the amount of faeces explained. The boats were not equipped with a “boom”, but the first boat got stuck right after lunch. The second boat came to the rescue! Luckily we were freed from the Frysian mud on engine power and the endurance of Thijs. Around five we docked the boats in Terherne, ate some delicious wraps and explored kameleondorp under a bright sky full of stars. We saw Orion both in the sky and in the water, the big dipper was also spotted. After the skippers went to bed, the rest of the crew played some gory bloody black stories and emptied the bottle of silersbitter. Around bed time the ship was covered in a beautiful slippery layer of ice.  

Next morning, we set sail again on the Snitsermar, the morning started peaceful with a little bit of wind, which became a 3 bft later in the morning. We were sailing together with the Skûtsjes of Heerenveen, Drachten and Sneek, who were also training on the lake. After practicing different techniques like doing a “sliplijn”, making a “pannenkoek” and other, we lowered the sails, turned on the motor and went back to Grou.  

It was an amazing weekend! Thank you zeilcie, especially Aletta for arranging all this, and thank you Merel and Thijs for being our skippers! See you all in summer sailing week again. We of course also encountered problems with the NS trains not going, interested in our journey back? Then just continue reading. 

In Grou we discovered that all public transport was down… which led to the very serious discussion on how to get home, if at all. Our only option was to walk to the station and hope for a savior. And as luck would have it, once arrived at the station we heard the train alarm and a train was coming! We sprinted to the train, but unfortunately, it went even further up north. So hitchhiking was the only way to go. We made a cardboard sign and were picked up by a very friendly high school French teacher, who brought us all the way to Zwolle. If you happen to know her, please thank her from us! Arrived in Zwolle at 7:20 pm, it was time for dinner.  

After forty minutes and with our smoothies and sandwiches in hand, we hurried to the bus to Apeldoorn. We were warned not to eat or drink anything... (...but by then we had eaten most already ;) ). And took a bus from Apeldoorn to Arnhem. Tired, and playing games on the bus windows, we found ourselves in dark Arnhem and took our last busses to Ede, Wageningen, and Driel.