A life on the enclosed sea

Until yesterday, the last time I set foot in a sailing boat was ten years ago when I was an eleven year-old participant on my school's Year 6 activities camp. There was a very good reason for this decade long hiatus; the fact that it left me petrified of sailing. It's impossible to convey how much I hated the experience, but it meant that I restricted myself to rather larger vessels of the ferry variety, which I still find bad enough. But after yesterday I have to say that I'm wondering what I've been missing out on.

This ESN activity proved a little more popular than the last, and Sophie, Chloe and I, plus 28 others boarded the bus to the Loosdrechtse Plassen, a collection of lakes and waterways halfway between Amsterdam and Utrecht to spend the day sailing around the area. Ironically it turned out that this place was the same place where I took the wrong turn on my cycle to Amsterdam, leading to an odd sense of deja-vu until it clicked. We started off the day in little motorised boats which were pretty fun and quite nippy considering their size.




Luckily we had someone who knew where they were going, and we motored through the waterways for a couple of hours, through a couple of locks and had a few games of cat and mouse with some rather larger yachts. Despite a few minor collisions here and there (both with other boats and the riverbank) we found the island that had been set aside for our picnic lunch and recuperated before swapping over to a sailing boat.

I had considered offering to stay in the motorboat as there were a few too many of us, but I'm oh-so glad that I didn't, for the sailing boat was just fantastic. It was larger than the one that scarred me when I was eleven, and it was just so relaxing to be on it out in the lake.




Obviously it helped having someone who knew what they were doing on board, but everyone took part in steering and rope puling etc and yes, I was a little disappointed not to have been able to spend longer out there (although on returning home and seeing my delightful sunburn, it's probably a good job it ended when it did!). For €9 for the day, I don't think I could have asked for more.

The Loosdrechtse Plassen is a lovely area, and it was a beautiful day for it. There were hundreds of people out and about, sailing, rowing, fishing, sunbathing etc and everything just felt so peaceful.



It's safe to say that I've well and truly put the last ten years behind me!