Den Helder Stopover

Let’s see, what can I tell you about the Den Helder stopover?? Well lucky for my readers, I did not take ANY notes from the stopover so this blog will be way less detailed than my past ones, but what I do remember is that we came into Den Helder on July 22^nd in 1^st PLACE!!!

We crossed the finish line around 2 in the morning local time. We then circled back for PSP who were going to cross the line in 2^nd behind us to cheer them in. There was lots of singing and dancing onboard as we motored in. We eventually made it into the locks around 6 AM. We got welcomed in with the lovely Dutch tradition of eating a raw herring and taking a strong shot of gin schnapps! What a wakeup call!

We had immigration check our passports on the boat before we were able to depart. I took the opportunity to practice my Dutch with the immigration officer. He just looked at me with a blank stare and said, “the American accent is very different than the Dutch.” Hmm…I think he was telling me that I speak great Dutch!

Huw getting a champagne shower

Once off the boat, the welcome committee had a food truck with local Dutch food and each team got their own keg.  The only catch was that we had to finish the keg before we were allowed any food…luckily they didn’t hold us to that at 6 in the morning! We proceeded to cheer the rest of the boats as they came in. Such a different experience being able to cheer ALL the boats in!

We eventually moved the party to one of the nearby restaurants to get some more food in our bellys. The afternoon gets slightly hazy but I eventually made it back to our B&B, where a good portion of our team were staying. I was supposed to be staying with Karri, but when I arrived at the B&B no one was there, so I told the bartender (there was a bar on the bottom floor of the B&B who held the keys) my situation and she let me into the room I thought I was staying in. I found my bag in the room and took a shower. Then got ready to go to bed and was snugly in bed when Karri texted me asking where I was. I responded that I was in our room. She thought that was weird as she was in our room! Turns out, I wasn’t actually in my room, but in Tino, Posh’s, and Pony’s! So grabbed my stuff and moved in to the right room! We grabbed some pizza and juice and then passed out…it was a LONG day!

The next day was deep clean and sail checking for Karri and I. Luckily, we didn’t rip any other kites in the last race so wasn’t too stressful! After we finished most of our work, we had a late lunch, where we ran into Patsy and Matt and joined them for a bite to eat.

These guys work so hard...

Karri having a go, mind you,
I think that hammock was made
from the old Qingdao sail!

Boyz club

After returning the sails, it was back to freshen up and I image we had dinner somewhere. This may have been the night we went to that Italian restaurant with quite a few of us. Afterwards, as we were walking back to the restaurant/bars near the marina, we walked passed a happening show. So we decided to stay and enjoy the music. Jan and his sisters were there as well. Unfortunately, they only served wine and beer so understandably, Amancio ordered G&T’s from across the street and brought them back over glass included to drink there! It was a fun night dancing away to the music…unfortunately when the time came to leave, my bag that I had left next to the speaker, was no longer there. L  On the bright side, Jan was holding my wallet and I was holding my phone.  On the not bright side, Karri’s phone was in my bag and she was leaving the next day to surprise Mark in London for his birthday! Which would prove interesting with no phone to get around with! I should also mention that my selfie stick was in the bag…such a LOSS!

No idea what I did the next morning, probably a bit of sleeping, blogging, looking for my bag and maybe some sail work? We were in store for the most epic of all prize giving’s that afternoon though! Our team met up before the ceremony and tested out our “Visit Seattle” face tattoos. We had an amazing line up that day, VS in 1^st, PSP in 2^nd, and DaNang in 3^rd…it was sure to be a good show! And we delivered! Standing applause all around (I’m ignoring the fact that there were no seats). And to top off the day, we won the Social Spirit Award! We all put in great effort to get our friends and family to vote for our team as we came into Den Helder as we had Jan on board who had millions of little Dutch school kids following him around the race! He was quite the celebrity there!

  

If you thought the day couldn’t get any better, it did! To top the momentous event, it was Amancio’s birthday! He somehow organized a party at one of the restaurants nearby and we all headed over after the prize giving, but only after a good majority of us got our faces painted! I think most of the teams ended up here and it was quite the evening, with lots of drinks going around and lots and lots of dancing in true Visit 

                        Seattle fashion!

The next morning, I navigated myself home quite poorly. I ended up getting a tour of Den Helder in my hour long trek which should have only taken me 10 minutes! Later I went on a hunt for my wallet which I had of course lost the night before. At some point, I ran into Jan’s sister and her family outside the restaurant we were at the night before. I went in to see if they had my card with no luck, but when I came out, I found out Jan had my wallet again!! I stayed and joined them for a drink. Amancio and Matt joined us at some point and we even got special tattoos from Jules. I was due for a quiet movie night that night as the next day we were headed to Amsterdam for the day!

 Lucy, Leo, and I headed off on the train at some point in the morning the next day to Amsterdam. We walked around for a bit, walked up a bell tower, and went to a museum. Then it was drinks time! We had a nice glass or two while enjoying some more poffertjes! We met up with Emily, Mia, and a friend for dinner that night. It was a lovely dinner with lots of wine and venting on my behalf! Then we had a fun train ride back to Den Helder!

The next day was our last day before we headed out for our last race! No idea what I did, but again I imagine I worked on my blog and packed up…oh I think I did laundry all day! Took forever to wait in line for the machines to free up! I think we had lunch in town with a few of us. Then it was time for crew briefing and team briefing, but only after all the RTW’ers got together for a big group photo! That night Amancio and I had dinner together to discuss our possible Spain trip!

The last race started on the 28^th…and it sure was a nail biting race to the finish!

P.s. Sorry for all the random photo placement...no idea how to get them to line up on here now that I'm back to using a computer!

UPDATE: A month after losing my bag when I was travelling around Switzerland with my friend and her husband, I got a random text, “Ik have found your baggage with I Phone and other things and money. Gif me your adres and I send it to you”. Lins and I over analyzed it and thought it was a bit creepy. So I told Jan about it and he said to just text the person back. I of course couldn’t with my limited phone plan so Jan was nice enough to contact the person. Turns out, it was a nice old man who found my bag in his garage along with his son’s band equipment! The band had accidentally picked up my bag (I actually suspected this) and left it with their other stuff in their parent’s garage! The man found Karri’s phone in my bag, charged it and my number came up to contact if found! I love the Dutch! Such kind people! I have now been reunited with my bag and selfie stick! ;)