April 3rd 2019
Not much time today for boat chores. Going away for a long time also means saying goodbye to a lot of people. So today is all about saying goodbye.
We went to the ship yard where we built our last paper boat as part of an art project in which we made boats from paper. In the beginning the idea was to make paper boats and make movies in which we try to sail in them, but fail abysmally because our boat would obviously sink. As everyone knows you can’t float in a paper boat. But the third boat wouldn’t sink anymore, so the project evolved from tragic soggy failures to paper boats made with biodegradable glue that were actually sea worthy, but would disintegrate after a few weeks. The first boats we built in our living room, but then we were asked to built one that could serve as a ferry during an art festival, the I’M Binckfestival in The Hague. We couldn’t build this one in our living room anymore, because it had to be a lot bigger and carry more people than just the two of us. That’s how we met Jos and Roel de Haas. They run shipyard ‘de Haas’ and kindly let us build our boat there. Binckie, as our boat was called was 5 meters long, 2,5 meters wide and could carry up to six adults. Thanks to the care and devotion of Jos and Roel, Binckie didn’t survive a few weeks but a few years and all the time he found shelter at the ship yard until he was eventually sold to a event bureau.
The shipyard was founded by Jan de Haas senior in 1921 and almost a century later it is run by Roel de Haas, the fourth generation in line. Roel and Jos (his father and former owner, officially retired but nevertheless still every day at work at the yard) are wonderful people. During our paper boat project we’ve gotten to know them as warm, resourceful and helpful people. And we still come there often, not only for repairs now we have a ‘real’ boat, but also for a chat and a cup of coffee. Today we brought them home made loempias, an Indonesian snack to which Roel’s stepdaughter is particularly partial, as a saying goodbye gesture.
Some of the regulars who have been coming there for decades had been to the Baltic Sea before and provided a lot of last minute advise. That’s what makes this place so special, the comradery of the people that come here.
The last exchange of email addresses, the last goodbyes and back to Stellendam. Busy day again tomorrow.