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Entre Terre Et Der 2024

DCA members: Anton wrote a very nice report for the DCA forum (look under 'Dinghy Cruising in France').

Friday 31 May

One car, two boats, three people: Koos, Klarie and I started at 0730 from our house in Dokkum and passed Zwolle, Venlo and Maastricht towards Liege. The road took us straight through the city center of Liege so we may have missed one or two road signs. After Liege we briefly rejoined the motorway before going off-grid through the 'campagne' where it was raining heavily and driving became a bit stressful.
While I drove past lush green hills scattered with farms and cottages Koos was sitting relaxed in the back of the car dreaming of buying one of the cottages and taking up white water kayaking.
We passed Bar le Duc and Verdun and then reached Troyes in the Champagne-Ardennes, where we took the road through the woods to the south side of the Lac du Der. When we got to the marina at Giffaumont the sun was shining again. We launched our boats, joined our French friends at the apero and met fellow Dutchman Anton from Frankfurt with the Skerry Raid that he had built during the Covid pandemic.

Saturday 1 June

After the briefing we hoisted sail and joined the fleet towards the lake. The destination was Sainte Marie du Lac Nuisement at the north side of the lake. The water level was easily 8m higher than in the autumn, so the lake was much bigger than we had ever seen.
It was our first sail in the season and I wanted to know the daggerboard would fit after the changes. I found that it was still quite tight so I made a mental note to make the slot a bit wider after the event. I was also curious how the mast with its new inner sleeve would perform in windy conditions. As it was, the wind soon moderated and many French boats were adding jibs, code zeros, gennakers for extra speed. Koos was sailing for the first time with his new EM2 rudder. He was soon out in front with the fastest boats. On Hatseflats we were a bit undercanvassed, but it was nice to be sailing for the first time of the season.
We reached the marina at the other side, beached our boats and collected our lunch bags packed with salad, baguette cheese and other goodness. Meanwhile the 'Males de Mer' were singing shanties on the beach helped by organizer Christophe and Jean-Louis.
After returning to the marina at Giffaumont we joined the apero in the assembly hall. Here we were treated to more shanties by the 'Males du Mer' (which is a pun on 'mal de mer' or seasickness). This time I could understand the lyrics a bit better and found that they were quite 'risquee'. Singing naughty songs had left the 'males' quite thirsty and I was glad to have brought a supply of Hertog Jan beer. The beer was soon gone because the 'males' had to be on form for their next gig in a few hours' time.
Dinner was an enjoyable affair as always but drinking and talking Dutch, English and French were taking their toll.

Sunday 2 June

Many participants would leave in the afternoon, so Christophe suggested a short trip to le Vieux Der and back followed by lunch at the marina. It was windy so I reefed our sail. It rained as well so Klarie and I got into our sailing trousers. As we left the marina and were heading off the lee shorewe got into choppy waves. When we were short-tacking towards the lake we saw Pierre's Skerry being towed back to shore. Some sailors had stopped to collect oars and other stuff which had floated away when Pierre had capsized. We didn't want to be in the way and continued to short-tack out of the marina. Once we were on the lake we bore away on an easy reach towards the old church and waited for the rest of the fleet. After sailing back and forth a couple of times Klarie and I decided to sail towards the Vieux Der, the oldest part of he lake. We had good speed reaching with one reef and Hatseflats was sailing near the front of the fleet. The sailing was very different from our last time in the autumn. Then the water was very low and we had sailed between the tree trunks. This time the water was very high and we were surprised to be sailing over the treetops!
On the way back I shook out the reef and enjoyed the acceleration. We returned to the marina for a nice lunch in good company and took our time to get the boats back on the trailer. Early in the evening we walked to the Pirogue Blueue at the lakeside and had dinner with Koos, Anton and our French friends.

Monday 3 June

After breakfast we decided to drive through the countryside towards Liege. Maybe a rather slow route, but we didn't fancy the traffic around Brussels and Antwerp and the weather was nice so what was not too like? We stopped for provisions and lunch. This time the road took us through tunnels and we did not have to slow down for traffic lights. After Liege it was easy driving past Maastricht and the remaining 350km to Dokkum where we arrived around 2000 hours.