Searching and Finding With Friends

My October birthday had past. It would have been ideal to have spent it with our good  friends from Canada. Alas, that was not to be! I had fallen and given my back a good jarring. I spent my birthday on ice trying to bring back some semblance of normality (without pain) to my life. My friends were in northern Netherlands, Sneek area, and we were in the south, Delft area. We had to get together to celebrate somehow. On October 23, my precious Sister’s birthday who lives in Saskatchewan, we drove up to Sneek and Big Ann to enlist the guidance of our good friends Alix and Andrew. We mostly were in the province of Friesland for this day’s boat search. We started looking in shipyards in the morning and continued through until close to dinner time. We knew some of the shipyards well enough to remember where the facilities were located. It was a cold, windy day so I was happy our friends continued in earnest to assist us.

Andrew knew so much about the boats when he would look at them and could tell us pluses and minuses. Alix also had such sage knowledge which was so helpful, too.Their point of view and knowledge assisted a great deal. We learned so much that day. Only thing, was we weren’t finding anything suitable. I was getting discouraged and worried about ever finding a boat. The weather had turned much colder, too. Nothing stood out at all until near the end of the day...

We found the Van Der Werff Cruiser, second last boat of the day. We really liked the layout and were excited that something finally clicked when we found this boat. It had some flaws but there was something about it. It was getting late and all of us were cold and tired. After seeing a glimmer of hope we moved on to our last boat of the day in Drachten at Smelne Yacht Centre.

Smelne Marina was huge. The sales person, Henk, was friendly and encouraged us to go out and look at the boat Ken had picked for us to view. Once inside Alix and I swooned over the interior. Fist of all it was laid out in a similar manner to the last boat we saw, having two self-contained sleeping cabins. The guys were looking outside, us girls had it with the cold. The mahogany walls and doors were immaculate as was the nicely appointed upholstery and curtains. I remember Alix sitting on the bed and being amazed by the aft cabin’s spaciousness, storage areas and sink. I was also. I had that sort of butterfly type feeling in my stomach - excitement, maybe we’ve found a winner. The guys liked it, too. This was the last boat of the day but we lingered. Ken even hauled Henk in out in the cold to answer our questions. The guys looked at the engine, too. Then I realized I didn’t know the price, that all important figure making it a “go” or a “no”. Henk said the owner had lowered the price since putting it on the market in April. The price, however, was much higher then we wanted to pay for a boat. The boat was almost ideal for us. I know I was so excited about finding this wonderful boat at Smelne. Oh, what to do? ....so we took Alix and Andrew back to Big Anne and we went for beer and burgers at a pub near to their boat.

Alix and Andrew on Big Ann. When they offered to assist us in finding that boat of our dreams
they were readying their boat for winter storage. Off to Germany for them. 

The pub near Big Ann was called Eetcafé de Buorren and was in Uitwellingerga, Netherlands. You might wonder what a pub in the Netherlands was like? Well, here are a couple pictures taken of the pub off of their Google Maps page.

The food was exquisite, must return! The waiter was friendly and obviously knew our friends that had been regular customers. During our delicious meal we talked about the boats we had seen but mostly about the boat at Smelne. Ken and I loved it but were way hesitant because of the price. We certainly needed to sleep on the thought of that boat before making any decisions. Once finished supper we said thanked our buddies And said so long. Now back to Delft, about an hour and fifty minute drive.