Our Blog
What a week! And what kind of hospitality one shows at the marina's of lake Grevelingen.
We hope that people on Kauaii are just as hospitable as in Zeeland. Friday, August 11, we will launch our boat from the ramp at the marina of Bruinisse. We are getting more and more handy at it and in no time we are ready to go! Quickly row to the harbor, because there is a film crew ready, Omroep Zeeland. A nice shot is taken of our arrival and soon we have a microphone under our noses. We are so happy with the (regional) publicity. Earlier this month we also gave a radio interview for the national radio. Also super cool! After rowing with the film crew, we quickly go to shore to speak with interested parties. At 17:00 we will see our report at Omroep Zeeland. It's cool that they are so fast. Many stories, nice encounters and a number of donations later, and a nightcap in the yacht club we look for our cabins. A nice start to this week. Saturday, August 12, the day starts with rain. The route for today will bring us to Port Zelande, the other side of the lake, which seems doable in terms of distance in about 5 hours of rowing. It turns out differently. Because it is so busy at the lake we can't sail with the autopilot, but it would have been nice because the wind is picking up. A big Beaufort 5 blows over the Grevelingenmeer and forces us to be humble. At 7 pm, after eight hours of constantly headwinds, we can dock and we have the best neighbors you could wish for as a tired rower. The neighbors just sat down at the table and had too much food. Gratefully we receive the meal! Sleep early because on Sunday we have an open day in Port Zelande from 11 am. Fortunately, Luuk, harbor master of Port Zelande, comes to pick us up, so we can sleep for a few good hours. What a service!! We can lay our heads down, but they are still spinning of the struggle we had with wind and waves. When we arrive at Port Zelande, thanks to the harbourmaster Luuk, a place has already been made for us at the harbour. The rental boats are moored at another jetty so the Mare Fortuna can be beautifully moored in front of the harbor office, the best place of the Marina. A perfect spot for us. Once again we are warmly welcomed. We are therefore very grateful to the ports of the Seven Sisters for their help. There is a lot of interest in our boat and our stories. In moments when it’s quit, we make sure everything is well prepared for the days to come. we want to train in the dark for a few more hours and look at the water map. We look for a nice route to row on Monday. Lake Grevelingen is beautiful and there is enough space to do our recommended drills. Monday afternoon we practice the drill with the normal anchor, having a refreshing plunge and eat our fried dried meal. We get the hang of it, and are happy with our routine. When we actually start at our route for our nightly row, at dusk we are confronted with the lack of lighting on the buoys on the lake. There are too many shallows to risk rowing without knowing where you are, so we change the plan and practice anchoring in the dark. Good night! Herkingen marina is the next harbour to call at a port. It is even possible to stay there with a camper, so family sets by. No dried fried food this night, but sushi for dinner! People are curious about our boat and all random questions are asked: “How many days do you think you have to row before you can set foot on Hawaii? Don’t you have any arguments on board? Where is the toilet?” We are willing to answer them all, no problem! In the afternoon we have Marcelle on board, she booked herself a full experience ocean rowing clinic! With her experience of (wild water) canoeing, she really was fast picking up the technique. We ask everyone who books a rowing clinic, to give us a personal quote which can help us during our crossing. The quote will get a prominent space so we can look at it to give us when we need motivation and inspiration! Which one Marcelle gave us, you will see it soon on our boat! Thursday morning, Sabine passes by. She is figuring out for herself if ocean rowing is something she wants. We are willing to help her in that quest. We met her at Boot Dusseldorf this year and since then she wonders how it would be to row an ocean. We know it feels how to be swept away by a dream, so invited Sabine for a morning row. Probably we left her with more questions when she came, so she could use her drive home to think about a good plan. For us, we know what we want and really had to do some other drills, to have a well spend week. Parachute anchoring is a very important drill we have to know. When we have bad weather during our crossing, or there are too strong headwinds, we will use the para-anchor. So these drills we have to know by heart. And so we practiced on a quit spot of the lake different kind of anchoring and some good nightly rowing. And in a blink of an eye it was Friday, our time at Lake Grevelingen was done. How great it was to spend all those days at Mare Fortuna.
Is there a better way to get a good idea of the start of the Pacific Challenge by being right there? Renate took her chance!
Early June, the boats were still on the trailer in the reserved part of the parking lot @Fishermans Wharf, a week later all boats were in the water. There was a lot of fiddling and tinkering with the boats, doing the last bits & bops, fixing some logos on the hull. The energetic buzz was overwhelming! Drinking coffee with Hannah and Hunter from Horizon Racing USA, regular conversations with the organization and the always cheerful photographer, taking another look at the layout of the boats and discuss some details with the teams, the days filled up automatically.
Renate not only loves rowing, a brisk mountain walk at its time makes her very happy too. While this year's teams got their briefings and final preparations, Renate strapped on her hiking boots and backpack. And what joy it was to see the huge sequoia's, enormous waterfalls in Yosemite and experience the hospitality of lots of Americans.
June 11, back in Monterey. Ian Couch, head safety team gave an inspiring but realistic presentation about ocean rowing. After half an hour you almost start thinking: what am I getting into... But luckily I already knew that. And it tastes like more, that's why I'm going again. But the attendees who hadn't rowed before had these vague looks. I get that.
June 12, 7am. I hardly slept. If I am thát nervous, how would it have been for the rowers themselves? I was so jumpy, I ran back and forth between the jetty and the start at the entrance of Fishermans Wharf. All this excitement! The horn. And then it is just you and the Ocean. Oh how I love it. And oh, what work we still have to do.
But; Kauai; here we come!
We work, we care for our families, cook dinners,, we work some more, meet friends trying to have some social life and; we ROW. Yes, we still have time to row in our beloved Mare Fortuna. Not just because we have to do our training hours, mainly because we love it! Some things just feel so natural to do, as if our bodies are made to row. It feels so easy, so self-evident.
In April we rowed two weekends on the Veerse Meer, our home-base. But; it's is not just about rowing. We check our gear, what to wear, we unpack the para-anchor, try our feetsteering device (does need some more practicing...), cook our meals - and try various brands, sleep, prepare breakfast in the morning after a cold night, feel every movement of the boat to get familiar once again with life on an ocean rowing boat. And yes it feels good! Sometimes we go smooth (tailwind) sometimes not (headwind) but we are outdoors doing the sport we love doing the most. So always happy faces on those rowing weekends, even if all the outdoors-hours lead to a hint of bags under the eyes...
Beside the training hours, admin that comes with preparing an Ocean Challenge there's also time to do presentations. On an irregular basis we get the chance to talk about our experience on the Atlantic, explain the why, the how, and the what on earth makes you go again? Indoor and outdoor people get inspired, just what we love and hope to achieve.
Our circle of support grows and grows, and yes, do join us in our campaign!
Boot Düsseldorf is the worlds' most important boat fair and we were there! From 21-29th of January our working life didn't take place in the Netherlands, but on the Very Impressive Messe in Düsseldorf.
It was an adventure in itself. Driving our boat ánd a campervan through the only snowstorm (so far) we've had in the Netherlands, miles of traffic jams, delays and finally we reached turn 29 for the Messe. 9 days later we drove back home again with a heart and mind full of impressions. 11 presentations, a zillion questions answered, and a sour throat of all the talking we did.
But we enjoyed it. Throughly! Our main sponsor helped us out together with a friend from our shore-team. We met great people, crazy people, adventurous people, some rowers-to-be, all kinds of peddlers, producers of foldable canoes, sailers from all over the world, very interested people, hundreds of them.
Lots of folks were so kind to sponsor plenty of days' rations, quite some companies were interested in helping us out in some way. We hope to redeem these commitments so we can move on with our campaign in even fuller speed! In spring we will pick up the oars again. We love talking oceans, but rowing an ocean still suits us a lot better :-)
A big thank you for Messe Düsseldorf and all the people there that helped us out!
2 steps forward, one step back.
It's been quiet for a while. We can’t always do what we love most. There’s jobs, workshops, travel all across the Netherlands for student visits and workshops. A family, a well-deserved holiday, rowing competition. Never a dull moment, but that means we are not able to focus 24/7 on our Pacific Campaign.
Running a campaign takes time and energy, it will allows us to row again, for thousands of miles. And that we can show what we are capable of as women. It is for a reason that we row for the Womens’ Heart.
In August we were able to train together again. On a turbulent Oosterschelde with current and wind we tested the autopilot, rowed with daggerboard and especially made many meters. We felt so familiar with the Mare Fortuna and are able to pick up a routine in everything we do on the boat.
Our desire to participate in the Pacific Challenge in June 2023 is no less. Being on the water together, on the oars, helps a lot! But despite our efforts and the sponsors we have on board so far, there are factors that mean that we have to postpone our challenge for a year. We are very sorry for this as we wanted dearly to participate in the first Pacific Challenge that Atlantic Campaigns organizes.
We don't linger, we keep looking for companies that want to support us in this adventure for the Women's Heart and are happy when we get a stage somewhere. We were present at the Hiswa, the biggest boat fair in the Netherlands for chats and a presentation. How good it feels to get so much attention.
We will rock in 2024, you bet we will!
