Markermeer Sailing

After doing a lot of online research about Dutch waters we decided to do some sailing on Markermeer. Since this was our first time for family only sailing, without other crew members we decided to go for the smallest yacht so far. Oceanis 281 named Easy. The minute we saw her we fell in love.

The day was beautiful. And the lake was very crowded. This was a new experience for us. I don’t remember seeing this many sailboats in one place, and it was just an ordinary day.

I used the opportunity to teach my son about passing by with another wessel. We had just enough wind to move slowly with Genoa out only. Later came the main sail.
The lake had a nice blue color that resembles the sea. Maya took a steering wheel and became the most beautiful helmsman, well helmswoman to be exact.

Close to our overnight destination we were left with almost no wind, so we had to turn our motor on.
Easy anchoring at Hoorn made us feel very satisfied. Night under the stars was so refreshing after all the time at home and in the office. We enjoyed it the most we could.

We had 18 Knots of wind, just enough to make this beauty go very fast. Since we were expecting stronger winds our eyes were all the time at sails, clouds and weather forecast. Max expected was around 22 to 25 knots of wind gusts, but it turns out we had 30 kts quickly. Smiling faces were soon replaced. After sailing in very strange directions and having some crazy moments we didn’t catch on camera we safely docked back in Volendam port.

We gave Easy a nice handle and promised to be back soon.