Marina search

Now that we know that Linde will be coming to the Netherlands sometime in the spring, it is important to find a new home. Casper was in a ship’s house, but with a sailboat that’s a bit trickier

Before we started actively searching, we first determined what the new marina should meet. Because we can sail with Linde both on the Frysian lakes and on the IJsselmeer, it is logical to look for something in southwest Frysland. Because we obviously go to the boat by car from the middle of the country, the real west coast of Frysland is not obvious.

Casper was always moored in Heeg and since my sister-in-law and brother-in-law also have the boat moored in Heeg, that would be a preference for us. From Heeg, we can sail on the Heegermeer and the Fluessen. Stavoren is within easy reach, so we can also get to the IJsselmeer reasonably easily.

Linde is 4 meter wide and 11.60 meter long. Stands 1.65 deep. All of this does limit the possibilities somewhat. We have created a map in Google maps of marinas that qualify.

After we complete the collection, I send an email to each marina. From several I never received a response. From a large number I did, but…. No place. Sometimes a waiting list of 2 years!!! OK. Then I went a little further away from Heeg. The same there too

Hmmm, now it might be a bit trickier than we thought. We spoke to my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and they told us that they had spent a night in Lemmer last summer with the boating club from Heeg. It turns out that marina De Punt in Lemmer is a sister marina of De Eendracht in Heeg. They told us that it was an excellent marina and that there is a new manager who wants to renew the marina in the coming years.

We consider the option. It’s further away from Heeg, closer to home. We always “have” to sail a bit of the IJsselmeer, but we can go directly out on to the open water without any obstacles. Through the Margrietsluis lock you can get to the inland waterways of Friesland fairly quickly. Let’s see if a box is free.

We email Arjan, the new harbor master, and ask if there happens to be a place. We quickly get a very friendly email back saying that we are welcome and that we still have a number of places to choose from. That sounds good. We tell him that we will take the car to the harbor on a weekend to look at the various places.

It’s hard to imaginate what a harbor looks like in the summer. We were there on a cold wet December day. Then the boating world looks attractive nowhere. We decide that we do want a box here and choose box 27.

So, that’s another task that can be ticked off the preparation list. When Linde touches the Dutch shore again at Den Oever, we will sail her to Lemmer. We are looking forward to it already!