Third day morning, after discussing on the different possibilities, we decided to create a ambitious trip, starting on the narrow channels from Heek, then crossing the beautiful meadows and entering the village of IJlst through an unusual route, between the houses in an extremely narrow path of channels. We would then row until the Sneek for a break, before continuing our way on larger paths sailing and finishing in a large lake to enjoy our boats sailing at full speed!
We started the day with a quick breakfast, all triggered to get in the boats. The day looked promising, and the moral was high! First part through the channel until the suburbs of IJlst was a great moment, with the sun we were waiting for since the beginning. We were all sailing, and decided to put down the sails and masts a bit before entering the village, as we knew the path would be extremely narrow. We were right!
We sneaked into IJlst through a tiny channel, less than two boats wide, that was not even large enough to use the oars! Some decided to use their oars standing like on a Stand Up Paddle board, some as a Venetian gondola. We were really feeling like the the backyards of the beautiful and typical Dutch brick houses. We passed some extremely low bridges, and finally join a larger channel that would lead us to Sneek.
After a two kilometers row (as we were all too lazy to put the sail for this short distance), we reached the center of Sneek and the famous Tower bridge, the Waterpoort, our anchoring point for lunch break, quite unique! After a beer (or two), we all left Sneek between rain and sun, passing some more low bridges with mast down, before sailing out of the city. Our way to Sneekermeer, the lake where the InDubio was waiting fo us, was beautiful, with enough wind to go full speed on the channel, being careful of the other motorboats that are numerous in these places. We finished our day with a playful navigation on this very large lake, with the wind building up, before getting back to the motherboat and attaching all of our XP boats around it.
