How wonderful it is to roam the IJsselmeer in the preseason with this beautiful weather. With few other boats yet and no flies ☺️. In the summer it must be very busy here if you see the many marinas in the towns. We don't suffer from that yet because in all the towns we can easily get a place at the transient jetty. Sometimes even for free because of the pre-season.

We verdiepen ons nog wat meer in de geschiedenis van de voormalige Zuiderzee en de inpoldering door het kijken van de vierdelige serie ‘Het Nieuwe Land’ met Huub Stapel en een grote inbreng van auteur Eva Vriend. Ook bezoeken we het Zuiderzee museum in Enkhuizen met een speciale tentoonstelling over het vroegere eiland Schokland. Het is leuk om wat meer achtergrond te kennen en we proberen ons regelmatig voor te stellen hoe het leven hier vroeger moet zijn geweest.

From Lelystad we first sail to the west side of the IJsselmeer, to an anchorage near Andijk. There we lie very quietly for two nights in beautiful sunny weather. A good opportunity to clean, polish and wax the top of the boat (stainless steel and white polyester). We spend more than 4 hours together, each with our own polisher 💪🧽🫧. Our bodies are tired but the boat looks spick and span again 👌😄. Because of the nice weather, we even use the Kamado Joe BBQ for the first time. But we eat the delicious duck breast inside because it is still too cold outside once the sun is gone 😋☺️.

The next stop is Enkhuizen. Another beautiful town. We stay there only one night because we are a bit restless next to some kind of disco. Fortunately, it doesn't bother us at night. Mira takes a nice walk and Toine messes around on the boat.

From Enkhuizen we sail to Medemblik with ample wind (bft 5) on the genoa. The first part we notice how restless the short waves on the IJsselmeer can be 😅 and that only at bft 5. And that was only at bft 5. After a jibe we were a lot calmer on the other bow with the waves. We see small racing boats from the Medemblik Regatta Center training on the water. We are in the city harbor in a very nice and quiet place. It immediately feels good so here we stay for two nights.

Medemblik is a very attractive town with about 8,000 residents and many marinas. There are probably more boats here than people live 😉 . We take a nice walk together, sit outside on the boat in the sunshine reading out of the wind a lot and go out for a delicious dinner on Sunday evening. Here we also do a lot of shopping together (walking with backpacks and bags) because this is the last AH we pass. Strange idea. Medemblik is our most favorite town on the IJsselmeer 👌😊.

On Monday we sail in sunny weather high on the wind (bft 3-4) to Stavoren on the east side of the IJsselmeer. We go like the fire department ⛵️😃. Stavoren itself is not much to see. It is quiet and dead; the atmosphere that Toine can remember from sailing in falcons during his teenage years and had hoped to find here is no longer there 🥲. The sun has disappeared and it looks a bit gray outside as well. Oh well, no point, we entertain ourselves inside including making trip planning for Norway 🇳🇴😃.

The next day we sailed for an hour on just the genoa to Hindeloopen. What a cute little town (it's more like a village but it has city rights)! Again, it is a bit quiet because of the pre-season and a weekday, but atmospheric. We get on our little bikes and ride about 20 km back and forth to Workum. A nice work-out, especially on the way back against the wind 🌬️🚲👍.

Our time in the IJsselmeer is over! After a night in Hindeloopen, in the afternoon we motored to the Lorentz lock in calm weather. This lock and bridge are the last "physical obstacle" to leave the Netherlands. Yessssss, we are on the Wadden Sea. On salt water again; that feels good! Now first a night in beautiful Harlingen and tomorrow on to Vlieland in still beautiful sunny spring weather ⛵️☀️😊.