Today begins the first love for Luv and Lee
The anticipation comes with the harbor music. bang, bang, bang, bang. The cordage hits the masts everywhere. A bright yellow boat rocks to the beat on the jetty. “Welcome to the ‘Biene’,” says skipper Jan from the Blauer Peter sailing school. First of all everyone has to put on a life jacket. Then Jan casts off, explains something every few minutes and distributes the first tasks: “Hold the sheet to port here, no, tighter.” The four participants of the trip “Under full sail – beginner’s course in Grömitz” are immediately fascinated by this airy one – light sport. For a week you can let the bow rustle through the water as a helmswoman or haul in the sheets to operate the headsail as a “jib monkey” – and later proudly show the calluses on your hands. After a few days, the sailor’s tale shoots through our heads, even on land, as soon as the wind ruffles our hairdo: The side to which the hair blows is called Lee. The direction from which the breeze is blowing, windward. And when the water gurgles against the ship’s side in harmony with the wind, it now sounds to us like this,
Table of Contents
For professionals
For professionals
“I can do everything” – and even more after this trip
“Buoy overboard!” calls the skipper suddenly. The helmsman reacts at lightning speed: “Bring out rescue equipment! go lookout! Save navigation position!” Everyone rushes above and below deck to follow the announcements. A little later, the helmswoman shoots her bow into the wind and comes to an elegant halt next to the float. A fellow sailor gets him on board with the boat hook. “We would have saved the guy!” praises the skipper and laughs. “Very confident.” The “Skipper training for women in the Elba Yacht School” is ideal for advanced female sailors who want to expand their knowledge and skills on vacation – without a man taking the rudder out of their hands. Here, in a relaxed atmosphere, it’s all about sensitivity: safety, trimming the sails, reefing and anchoring. “Before the sun goes down,” announces the skipper, “Let’s use the land wind.” It comes as the day draws to a close. On Mediterranean islands like Elba, you can almost set the clock after the typical evening thermals. It refreshes, the maneuvering fun starts all over again. The anchor only drops at dusk. “Is the chain stiff?” – “Yeah, it holds! Of course with Ankerbier!” And then toast to this day.
For pirates
For pirates
Action on the windjammer: the felt journey through time
sailing
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From the captain to the deckhand: only women on board. Nevertheless, at some point the traditional “All hands to the braces!” echoes across the deck. It’s okay, on the “Seawoman’s trip on the Baltic Sea with the brig Roald Amundsen” you don’t feel like you did in 2011 anyway, but rather transported back to the era of conquerors and discoverers. Especially when the sails have to be hoisted and lowered on the 50-meter-long two-master. Because that’s why you have to go up into the rigging. If you don’t want to, you don’t have to, but if you overcome your fear and climb into the yards above the swaying ship – you’ll get weak knees at first. The mast is at least 34 meters high. Have courage, you can do it, the sea women say to each other. Then the first ones put on the climbing harness, grab the carabiners and climb up the shaky shroud ladder, well secured, step by step. Her courage is rewarded: every newborn female pirate who casually stands on the black tarred “foot horse” – that’s the name of the loosely stretched support rope under the yards – in order to gather the huge canvas with both arms, sees the wonderfully undulating expanse lying at her feet . And in the quiet, clear hours of night watch on deck, you can understand why the constellations were once, and still are, so important to navigation.
For idlers
For idlers
Sailing without lifting a finger
Three deep tones from the typhon, a kind of giga horn, sound across the port of Las Palmas and herald our dream that has come true, the “transatlantic trip” on a luxury sailing ship from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean. That means: Nose in the sun, feet up, enjoy the headwind! All passengers first look for a good lookout to watch the crew board the rig. A little later, a roof of giant white blossoms arches over us. The sails will not change for two weeks, because the trade winds – endless tailwind – are simply pushing us ahead of them. Dreaming, reading, swimming in the pool – and always looking and amazed. Dolphins and turtles accompany us abeam. What other beauties does nature reveal to us? One evening it happens: Millions of tiny organisms caress the hull with green glitter. The sea glow! The silhouette, a souvenir made of light, burns itself into our memory.
For singles
For singles
With or without a child: the double advantage on vacation
The clouds are piling up in the sky above the “Noorderlicht”. The children call out to sea the names of the characters they discover: A dragon! A rabbit! A face! Skipper Johan stands at the helm, keeps course for Terschelling and smiles. He also seems to enjoy the “single trip with a child on the Dutch Wadden Sea”. Its tall passengers look after the little ones, but with increasing enthusiasm they help the regular crew under Johan’s direction with the sailing manoeuvres. Despite the seafaring romance, flirting is left to chance, unlike with pure single trips. For most adults, it’s more about peer-to-peer conversations than finding that new “dad” or “mother” onboard. Delicate approaches succeed all the more easily. Below deck, in the 20 double cabins, the small families stay together. During the day the children often “stick” to Johan. “Why is the ship’s speed called knots?” asks a girl. Johan explains that sailors once used a knot-tied thread to measure speed – the “hand log”. Shortly thereafter, all the children only know one thing: the starboard seal bank. In the afternoon everyone is romping over the dunes of Terschelling. Here, just like on Texel and Vlieland, you go on a treasure hunt, on a bike tour or barefoot through the mud flats. Sometimes even directly from the boat via the boat ladder. To do this, the skipper intentionally lets the flat-bottomed ship fall dry. How big the “Noorderlicht” looks when we stand on the seabed! The evening question “Really? Do I have to go to bed already?” parents hear this more often on board than at home. Children’s latest persuasion strategy: “I still have to practice the reef knot that Johan taught me. Otherwise the ship cannot continue tomorrow!”
Cast off here
Alternatives: Single trips “Sail and Bike” in Holland for flirt lovers without children, one week from 30.7. (29 to 49 years), 6.8. (25 to 45 years) or August 13, 2011 (35 to 55 years), via Sunwave, 599 euros. Single trips “Blind Date Sailing” on the Baltic Sea, four days each from June 1st, July 1st, July 5th, July 9th, July 13th, July 23rd. and 27.7. (for different age groups), 477 euros, Sunwave.
