On 22 April 2023, the holiday ship the Prince Willem-Alexander set sail again for RLG trips for the first time after the corona years. Janneke Otten-Verhaar made a trip report.
Saturday embarkation
Forty-six guests are embarking this afternoon. More than forty volunteers are going to do everything they can to give those guests a great week. And one of those volunteers is me. I have been to the Nieuw Hydepark in Doorn several times with RLG holidaymakers and this will be my very first week on 'the boat'. I am surprised to see a whole bunch of young people there too. Our weekend fireguard, for example, is a 19-year-old Urker.
Our leader Bert Bax delivers his intro story, the captain sharpens us on safety and house rules, and doctor Olga Zwarts generously hands out tubes of hand sanitiser. To our surprise, our cooks have already managed to prepare a delicious nasi and noodle meal. That bodes well for this week. All the volunteers then look for their cabin and decide who gets to have the top bunk bed. We will unpack our bags and make the beds.
Meanwhile, the first guests are already arriving. That they are so nice and early is probably because they have been looking forward to it. Some of the guests are going on an RLG cruise for the first time; for them it is quite an exciting day in which they meet many unfamiliar people, some of whom they depend on. But there are also some who have had previous experience; they already know that in no time at all all, all those individuals turn out to form a group by themselves. The CGK is a bit like a big family, as evidenced by exclamations like "oh, that's a brother of..." or "that pastor used to be in...".
After the bread meal in the evening, brothers from Emmeloord will come and tell us about the history and development of their congregation.
Night shift on the Prince Willem-Alexander
My buddy on the night shift, Els, has done night shifts at the PWA before. She knows her way around and she expertly works me in for a night. One night is a bit short to let all that information sink in, but still: next year, dv in my person, there will be another volunteer with night-shift experience available.
We only have to help a few more guests to bed. It immediately becomes clear that I have a lot of experience with nursing care, but little with electric wheelchairs. Putting a guest to bed is no problem for me. But manoeuvring an electric wheelchair out of the room is really difficult. I'm going to practice that this week.
We make a safety tour of the ship every hour. This way, you also get somewhere, for instance in the engine room. In case of emergencies, we are allowed to call the captain out of bed, but fortunately we don't have to use that right. We tidy up in the saloon, help some guests to the toilet, give change, write this blog and, all in all, find that we have a very quiet night.
Sunday, rest day on board
Not all our guests sleep well. The beds need getting used to, the sounds are different, everything is different and somewhat exciting. All in all, I fear there will be a few people dozing in church today.
Sunday morning begins with fire alarms. Don't panic though. We volunteers had been warned not to open the shower room door immediately after showering, as the steam could activate the fire alarm. That instruction from the captain apparently did not sink in sufficiently with everyone. Apparently, our fire guards were already expecting something like that. They ran with appropriate speed for an alarm at 7.05am.
My night shift is over. I still join the occasional choir singing the guests awake to the inspiring accompaniment of our musical volunteer Erik Jan on his melodica.
Breakfast, lunch, morning church, I let it all pass me by sleepily. At four in the afternoon, we leave for the afternoon service in a monumental church in Lemmer. Getting all those wheelchairs off the gangplank is quite an undertaking, but with help from a whole bunch of ad hoc volunteers from the church in Emmeloord, we all make it safely onto the quay and into the church. We celebrate Holy Communion together and in it we know ourselves connected to Christ, each other and the church of all times and places. However austere our Protestant worship services are, we experience the Lord's Supper as a feast with deep meaning.
In the evening, we have a sing in. We are accompanied by Emmeloord singing leaders, including our tour guide Erik. What a voice that man has!
Monday in Sneek
Our musician Erik Jan is at home on several musical markets. He accompanies the singing at the evening closing services with the piano. During the afternoon church service the Lemmeer church organ cheered and in the morning he accompanies the morning singing on the melodica, a mouth organ.
Very soon after waking up, we feel a vibration going through the boat. We sail in the direction of Sneek. On the spot, a city walk is scheduled, with enthusiastic city guides telling us all about characteristic houses and other peculiarities of Sneek. The Brenninkmeier family from C&A, for example, has its roots in Sneek. And prime minister Gerbrandy was from Sneek. He is honoured there with a good-looking statue: you can immediately recognise His Excellency by his moustache and coat. Unfortunately, it is a bit colder than we expected. The fleece blankets we have wrapped around the legs of our guests in wheelchairs do good service, but are still insufficient for some. Afterwards, we all need to warm up a bit.
Bert Bax arrives in the evening with a disappointing announcement: the captain, in his professional wisdom, has decided that tomorrow's weather forecast is not good enough to sail across the Frisian waters towards Leeuwarden. It is a tricky route with narrow channels and a lot of bridges. The captain does not dare, given the expected wind force. So we will sail an alternative route, to Enkhuizen. We have a lot of guests and volunteers on board who were looking forward to visiting (what they think is) the most beautiful city in the Netherlands, so a wave of disappointment goes through the saloon.
In the evening, a lady from Sneek came to tell us about the poop tank system, the way our faeces were processed in the past. It was fascinating, fun, odourless and, for some, still recognisable here and there. In fact, good sewerage has not been around for very long.
Afterwards, guests and volunteers enjoy snacks and drinks and then our bed invites us.
Tuesday in Enkhuizen
It's a long cruise to Enkhuizen. Nice that the weather is better than yesterday and sunny. The wind is cold, but you can dress for that. We venture onto the upper deck and blow across the IJsselmeer in the open air. We sway happily and arrive in Enkhuizen, some with somewhat pale faces.
Our pastor Oppenhuizen is from Sneek and is therefore treating us to Sneker orange cake this day. He also gives us daily spiritual nourishment, but about that later. In any case, we are happy to have him sailing with us this week. He is also good at pushing wheelchairs.
Several guests did fancy an hour of shopping and there was opportunity for that in Enkhuizen in the afternoon. We were all given a map of Enkhuizen. The centre or shopping street is five minutes from the quay, yet almost all of us manage to get there only after a diversion. Fortunately, most did take the diversions through the beautifully landscaped city park.
Rev Bart Visser, pastor of Leeuwarden, would provide an evening programme for us there. But if Moses cannot come to the mountain, the mountain will come to Moses. This is how Rev Visser put it; I think this saying was always about Mohammed. In his introduction, Rev Visser tells us that his wife once gave him a hand puppet, which he named Grandpa Johnny. Grandpa Johnny became his assistant during holiday Bible weeks and in corona time also in church children's work. In 2022, Grandpa Johnny was asked to help with a Christmas celebration at a primary school. So you see, our God can use special resources for distributing the gospel.
What a wonderful causation the pastor and Grandpa Johnny hold for us. We are people on a journey. We want to go somewhere (Leeuwarden) but end up somewhere else (Enkhuizen). There is someone who knows what is right better than us (the captain.) Fortunately, we are not alone, we travel together with the captain. Together we travel on and the captain knows what is good for us. The application we can all make ourselves.
We end the evening with a drink. On the boat, eggnog with whipped cream is a favourite.
Wednesday to Terschelling
On to Terschelling. As the Prince Willem Alexander sails across the IJsselmeer and later the Wadden Sea, Rev Oppenhuizen gives Bible study on children of God as strangers on earth, from 1 Peter 2. There is a lot of interest.
Some of the guests are busy in the crea room. The finishing touches are put on a bag for our most musical volunteer. Other guests are putting together a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle - they can get on with it for a while.
The boat docks at Terschelling after lunch and thus our island visit begins with the rest hour. We never skip that. Most of us love that rest hour, with such a busy programme and lots of human interaction throughout the day.
In three groups, we take a tour of Terschelling this afternoon, admiring nature and listening to entertaining explanations of island life. Our driver is superbly informed, a true islander apparently. Afterwards, we even know that Jort Kelder has a five-million-euro house on Terschelling. We wish him well. A few of us have trouble keeping our eyes open during the long bus ride, despite the afternoon's rest. I myself do not suffer from drowsiness. Our bus has one more passenger than there are seats, and I am among the trio who alternate standing. By the way, every bus has a number of wheelchair spaces, which we also need.
Tonight we eat string beans with rice and chicken disc fillet. We have a particularly good kitchen crew on board; the cooks cook superbly. In the evening, we play games and I teach some guests my favourite camping game, yatzee. A quick snack/drink and then to bed. For the guests, by the way, these are excellent high-low beds.
Thursday, King's Day at the PWA
Not only are the king and queen busy today, so are we. But busy or not, we start breakfast with prayers for the royal family. This afternoon we will have a surprise activity in Medemblik. The captain turns his stern in that direction. As we sail, things in the main saloon turn more and more orange and red-white-blue. Hats, scarves, rosettes and especially nails. A volunteer brought a bottle of orange nail polish and painted a lot of nails orange, both women's and men's. Only for enthusiasts of course, nothing compulsory.
The cooks are doing their best with preparations for tonight's festive dinner. Our tour guides Erik and Bert have enlisted their family members to make menus. We expect a lot from them, partly because we expect nice contributions from a number of guests during dinner.
The weather is nice today. There has been some shifting of night shifts, which means I get to serve another night with Christa tonight. I should be pre-sleeping tonight, but I don't want to miss dinner and so I try to catch an hour of afternoon sleep in the sun on the upper deck. A blanket is still nice, although the sun is providing quite a bit of warmth today.
We make our way to the Bonifacius Church in Medemblik. On the way, we can just about catch a piece of the free market, but our curiosity urges us quickly to the church. And there we find Erik Jan on the organ. We can sing along to psalms and patriotic songs and enjoy the organ. Unfortunately, for reasons of time, the programme has to be cut short, which costs us the Silver Fleet.
Our dinner's orange menu includes creaBea, a Maxima soup, King William Alexander main course and Princess trifle. We conclude the meal with coffee and bonbon.
I could fill pages with a story about our guests' various contributions at the dinner. I won't, but they were all great, from poem to French chanson.
Friday back to Lemmer
It was a busy shift last night, but while everyone did their utmost Friday morning to get everything clean, ready and packed on time, I slept like a baby. The bingo that morning must have been fun, as we had nice prizes ready to go.
Rev Oppenhuizen holds his final meditation of this week at lunch. All week the theme has been 'being Christians...'. Today we are friends, following John 15 verse 15. Earlier we were given a cardboard cross with the word 'loved' written on it as the ultimate fulfillment of those dots .... from the theme. We are loved by God.
We are ready to be picked up. The first family members are already waiting on the Lemmer quay. Touching to sing blessings to each other: 'Go with God and he will be with you, until we meet again, greeting each other in his name. Go with God and he will be with you.'
