Weekend sailing: Hoorn, Checkpoint Charlie, Urk

Weekend sailing: Hoorn, Checkpoint Charlie, Urk

Once again we did a weekend sailing trip.

The route

This time we planned to do a circle from Enkhuizen Saturday morning, thru the lock to Markermeer (Marker Lake) and towards Volendam Saturday afternoon. But the wind was not helping us, so we made a turn to Hoorn, the city I enjoy most; continued to Lelystaad, went thru the lock and into a small marina for the night.

Next day, we sailed to a restaurant in a middle of nowhere.

Hoorn

Map on 52.64077184677778,5.062294006347656

A beautiful small city. It reminds me of Bruges a bit. It has a nice city center with old, cute houses.

City centre

City centre

And a bunch of churches.

Big church in Hoorn

One of which had a kid’s store inside :)

Kid's shop in a church

Kid's shop in a church

Kid's shop in a church

A nice walking street with cozy restaurants and cafes:

Hoorn

Caffe

Lelystad

Map on 52.53026879229302,5.439605712890625

Due to the optimal wind direction it was fast sailing from Hoorn, but as soon as we passed the lock in Lelystad, it suddenly became dark. So we went into the nearest small marina and parked just in front of restaurant. Small marina in Lelystaad

After having an awesome dinner, the crew played cards:

Crew relaxing after long day

Checkpoint Charlie

Map on 52.63528977252829,5.415894985198975

A tiny restaurant / marina in a middle of nowhere. To be exact - in a middle of a dike that cuts the IJsselmeer and Markemeer. After having cacao and some rest, the sun came out, so the crew made some photos on the boat :)

Helmsman

Urk

I’ve mentioned Urk in my previous article Weekend sailing: Enkhuizen, Mademblik, Stavoren and Urk. This time we visited it again to check the church organ music and just to hang around.

Lighthouse in Urk

Back to Enkhuizen

It was already night as we sailed to Enkhuizen and the wind direction was not helping at all. The one thing that helped me was a nice Transas map on my iPhone used to plan the right tacks to avoid shallow water.

Navigating around shallow area near Enkhuizen

All in all, it was a pleasant 2-day trip, and I hope to sail with a crew more.

Crew