Sailing in Friesland

This past weekend I went on a sailing trip to Friesland with my photography club.   It was organized by one of our members who is from there and used to work at a sailing club teaching lessons when he was younger.   It was SO much fun!

On Friday night we arrived in the village of Heeg, where we would be staying for the next two evenings at the Stayokay Heeg.  It wasn’t what I’d call luxury accommodations, but with the bunk beds and young people milling all around, it reminded me a little of summer camp.   I loved camp when I was younger so it made me a little nostalgic as I curled up in my bunk with a book and a headlamp attached to the ladder.   On Friday afternoon, the few of us who had arrived early sat at the picnic tables and got to know each other a bit better, gabbing away.   Then we headed into the village for some dinner where we sat out on a lovely terrace talking and drinking until the sun started going down.  Then it was time to head back to the Stayokay to sort out our rooms and rest up for our busy day ahead.

On Saturday morning we set sail in a boat somewhat like the one above, only slightly smaller.  There were about 15 of us in all and everyone seemed to be having a really good time.  I was a bit worried in the beginning as the weather wasn’t exactly stellar but as the day went on it got much nicer.

We had a lot of photo opportunities as we sailed through the lakes and canals visiting some of the local villages.  I didn’t end up with as many photos as I thought I would, because I rather enjoyed just sitting there taking it all in.

I particularly liked taking photographs of the people on other boats passing by, and none of them really seemed to mind.  I think it’s because everyone was having such a good time and were all in great moods from being out on the water in the fresh air.   It was another good opportunity for me to practice photographing people, but I was still a little nervous about it.   Thankfully, I blended in with the other people on the boat who were doing the same thing, so I figured they wouldn’t single me out to yell at if they were upset!

The first village we visited was Woudsend.  A small village which seemed very popular with sailors. Everywhere you looked there were boats, but when we got off the boat and took a walk through the village, it was surprisingly quiet.   It had a lot of charm though, and it was nice to get off the boat and stretch our legs a little.

Next we visited Sloten, which is the smallest city in the country.  It was very busy there as there was some sort of festival going on.  I assumed it was taking place over the entire weekend as there were tents set up everywhere you looked.   I took this photo from a bridge a little away from the action.  As usual, I was avoiding the crowds like the plague.  By this time we’d sailed for hours and visited two different villages, I was getting tired.

I wasn’t the only one!  On the ride home, the gentle rocking of the boat managed to put a few of the club members to sleep, but even though I was tired too, I was too excited to sleep.  I loved sailing and didn’t want to miss a minute of it.   I think if I could move to Friesland and sail every day, I would!

On Saturday evening we had a BBQ, which was delicious!  We each got to grab our own meat and put it on the grill.  This was sort of exciting for me!  At home I don’t get near the BBQ, that’s Xander’s domain, so I felt kind of cool standing there flipping my own meat.   I must say, I did a fantastic job!

As we were finishing up with our food, the rain we’d been dreading all day finally caught up with us.  The forecast had been calling for rain and thunder showers all day Saturday and we had gotten lucky with beautiful weather all day, so I guess we couldn’t complain when it started raining in the evening.   It didn’t last long though and after retiring to our room to play some Skip-Bo (love this game, btw!) and wait out the rain, Heather and I headed back outside for some late night laughs with the gang at the picnic tables.

Well, that was our day out on the water, it was fantastic!  On Sunday we drove around to a few other villages by car, which was also quite nice.  More on that later!