After a pleasant long weekend in Amsterdam, we sailed through the Orange locks onto the Markermeer. We have been here twice before (May vacation 2009 and return from Sweden in Nov 2020) but only to sail the bit from Lelystad to Amsterdam near the fairway. Now we sail up the lake itself (where it is 3.5-4m deep everywhere). It is a wonderful sailing trip, 2 hours with bft 3 almost high on the wind with our first destination being the Markerwadden. This is a very beautiful piece of new nature; the islands have only been there since 2019. They were raised to breathe new life into the closed Markermeer. This has been very successful because many migratory birds come here and also the fish stock has greatly improved according to the two volunteers who are on the island this week on behalf of Natuurmomenten. We are the only sailing boat and next to us there are a few off-grid houses inhabited. After a night's sleep we take a nice 7 km walk there (with many geese flying away in front of us each time) and then have tea/coffee with the volunteers and the residents of the cottages. Very pensionada 😎.

The next destination is Hoorn. We have never been there either. What a beautiful old Dutch town with lots of history. A former colleague of Toine's lives nearby and when Toine gets in touch we are immediately invited to come and eat delicious salmon pasta in their converted house. It is a very pleasant evening 👌😊.
We spend a day in Hoorn, take a city walk and Mira goes to the hairdresser (nice back to my old length ✂️☺️).

We delve into the history of the Zuiderzee by watching the 4-part series "Eens ging de zee tekeer" with Huub Stapel. This gives us a better picture of the history of this Dutch piece of land and sea. We learn that Cape Horn (southernmost point of South America) was named after Hoorn because the explorer who discovered that piece of land came from Hoorn 😃.

Our next destination is the Houtrib marina in Lelystad. It is again a wonderful sailing trip of over 2 hours with bft 2-3 high on the wind. The sun is shining nicely but the wind is still bitterly cold ❄️❄️. So we can get used to sailing in the cold 🇳🇴 and test our warm gloves 😅.

In the Houtrib marina we meet the crew of the Sea of Time. We get to ride with them to the annual Sailing North Day in Putten 👍😃. We have dinner together on Friday night at the Soos and it clicks right away. It is great fun to hear each other's stories and plans. They too are "leaving" indefinitely this year and we have similar plans.

The SailNorth Day is a lot of fun. We meet many other sailors there, lead table discussions ourselves about several nights of sailing and attend Adelheid Greven's very interesting lecture on their journey from Iceland to Greenland and Canada (the so-called Vikking Route). That is therefore written for us in 2026 a little thicker in pencil in our plans ☺️.

After the weekend, we moved up a bit to Flevo Marina on the north side of Lelystad to meet the Mariste. They have lived here on their boat since the beginning of March. We go out to dinner together at the restaurant here in the marina and have a nice chat 😊.

I take a nice walk on Monday and Tuesday in the amazingly beautiful nature reserve the 'Zuigerplasbos', here near the harbor. Lovely in the sunshine and I even see a fox walking 🦊😃.

Since we are in Lelystad for a few days, it is convenient to have three more packages delivered here of parts we had forgotten to buy before we left. A thick diving suit for Toine (to be able to do something under the boat in colder water if necessary), a stainless steel holder for the fishing rod on the railing and boracol (for maintenance of the teak deck). The first two have already arrived and have been picked up by Toine on his bike. The last one is expected to arrive tomorrow.

Once again we are lucky with the weather this week. The nights are still very cold, but the sun is shining a lot. Over the next few days it will get warmer and perhaps next night will be the last cold night for now with temperatures around freezing. Next week we will explore the west side of the IJsselmeer. We are already getting into the "departures" rhythm ⛵️😊.