i.am.sailing

yesterday we were on a sailing trip, everything has been arranged in advance except the weather is something that we cannot reserve, we thought the weather is a guarantee in august but it turned out that mr sunshine decided to take a day off....

this is the cruise ship sailboat we chartered for the day, zuiderzee is her name and she is born in 1884 thus making her an old and gracious lady at the age of 126, but she is as strong as in her youth!

on boarding the cruise ship sailboat are a mixed of malaysians, dutch and a few other nationalities... but all have a tie with malaysia

the sailboat leaving the docking area, muidenslot (muiden castle) just right in front of us...

ruth is our master and the commander for the day, she is tough and strict...

the gentlemen have to learn the art of sailing, how to tie a knot, how to rise a mast and lowering at the same time, strong muscles are needed for this job...

engine is off, we are now sailing by the wind from the mother of nature...

the interior of the boat, there is a proper kitchen with gas stove, fridge and a dining area enough to sit 12 to 14 people, a bell to ring when the meal is ready to serve... it also have 12 beds if we are going on a overnight sail trip...

johannes in action, together with other gentlemen, lowering the mast as we approaching uitdam

this is our boat docking at a small village, we stopped for 45 min to rest our feet and have a quick walk of the village

johannes and the goat

a small rolling boat by the water together with some wild flowers - how picturesque could it be... a right representation of the moment

there is a row of nice traditional dutch house a the area where we dock our boat, these are like the holiday home with nice view of ijsselmeer

on our way back to the boat, the village is really too small and empty...

although mr sunshin didn't turn up to our appointment, miss rain didn't come forcefully either, there was no strong presence of mr wind too... we didn't sail too far at all, given the wind speed and only manage to reach uitdam (which is technically 10km or so distance from muiden). although the weather looked groomy all day, but we had a pleasant temperature of above 20c, making sitting on the deck an pleasure to enjoy despite of the absence of mr sunshine...