Destination: Netherlands : Able to Sail : They Went for the Adventure and Found Special Pride in Moments of Independence and Discovery

Sailing out to the Waddenzee in the north of Holland and having our vessel fall dry on the sand as the tide went out had not been my idea of how to spend a vacation. But the morning I slid down the ramp from our 1890s clipper ship and walked on the bottom of the sea was one of the highlights of my voyage on the Lutgerdina.

The fact that several of the passengers were in wheelchairs, one was legally blind and some of the rest of us had other physical impairments was no obstacle to the crew of this sailing ship owned by Holland’s Aquatic Sports Foundation for People With Disabilities. The wheelchairs were tied with ropes to be gently let down the steep incline. Strolling the sea floor, I looked with curiosity at the anchor that had held our flat-bottomed boat in place that night, studied the wormlike squiggles in the sand and marveled as the tide rolled in. Before the water rose too high on the wheelchairs, the crew got us all safely back on deck. I re-boarded the ship with a pocketful of shells and a memory I will not forget.

It had been my brother’s idea to book this 13-day sailing and sightseeing tour of Holland. A wheelchair user due to muscular dystrophy, Richard was looking for an active vacation. In the early stages of MD myself, I had been asked to accompany him and my niece, Diana, a lively 11-year-old who served as her father’s attendant on the trip.

So last June we three joined 11 Canadians and became the first U.S. citizens to sail the Lutgerdina since a Dutchman named Jan Olijve had dreamed of marketing the accessible cruises in North America four years earlier. Working with the Ontario March of Dimes, Olijve, the owner of JOS Sailing, had organized the first group of 20 Canadians in September, 1992.

Sailing holidays for the disabled are not new to the Dutch. The Lutgerdina, a 110-foot, double-masted clipper ship built in 1897, was refitted in 1979 as an accessible teaching sailboat with adapted toilets, roll-in showers and a lift between decks. A hydraulic device allows passengers with limited hand or arm functions to steer the ship, and an electronic gadget instructs blind helmsmen on setting course. Navigation charts also are available in Braille.

Our trip to Holland’s waterways started aboard KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. The seven-hour flight from New York’s Kennedy International Airport to Amsterdam’s Central Airport of Schiphol went smoothly enough except for a wait while the flight crew obtained a narrow-aisle wheelchair to transport my brother off the plane. After we encountered the same delay on our return, a KLM employee in New York explained that the airlines have codes to signify which wheelchair passengers can walk short distances by themselves and which cannot, and that it’s a good idea to check and make sure passenger status is correctly understood.

Met at the airport by a guide from JOS Sailing, we were transported by van to the Lutgerdina, docked near Amsterdam’s Centraal Station. Although our tour included all transportation, wheelchair users can ride the frequent trains between the airport and this rail-service hub. Except for trips to and from the airport, people with disabilities need to call a day in advance to obtain the special assistance offered by the national railways. Train timetables in Braille are available for the visually impaired.

The first passengers to arrive, we got our choice of the ship’s tiny sleeping cabins, which were outfitted with bunkbeds, a sink and wall cabinet. Two bathrooms with adapted toilets and roll-in showers were located at one end of the bunk-room area. (Since our trip, all of the Lutgerdina’s cabins have been renovated, and all but one converted to two-person accommodations.) But even being squeezed three or four to a room somehow did not matter very much.

“Who would even think you wouldn’t mind living with four people in a little tiny cabin,’ said Dorothy, a 76-year-old widow from Toronto. “Everybody on a boat talks their own life. The group dynamic is a good thing for me.”

Young and old, able-bodied and disabled, sailing enthusiasts and inexperienced landlubber, seasoned travelers and first-time visitors to Europe, we would all take away our own memorable moments from the trip. Independent in her electric-powered scooter, Dorothy came for the sailing and found special pride in boarding one of Amsterdam’s accessible streetcars by herself.

Not all public transportation in Amsterdam is accessible, and one of the best ways to see this compact city of canals, bicycles and outdoor cafes is by walking. But since many of the narrow streets are cobblestone and the sidewalks often brick, it’s a good idea for wheelchair users to have someone to push them and to stick to the bike paths that frequently are separated from traffic. On a guided walking tour the morning after our arrival, we passed the palace of Queen Beatrix, snapped pictures of the houseboats lining the canals and lingered at the colorful, floating flower market near the 17th-Century Munttoren (Mint Tower). Not far away, people were buying and selling at Amsterdam’s well-known flea market.

Our tour took us to the Rijksmuseum, home of Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” and other 17th-Century Dutch masterpieces. Some of the group spent the entire day there and at the nearby Van Gogh Museum. Both museums are wheelchair accessible, as is the nearby Stedelijk Museum, specializing in late 19th- and 20th-Century art.

But with an 11-year-old restless with centuries-old paintings, we left the Rijksmuseum to visit one of Amsterdam’s famed diamond factories across the street. Admission was free, and the visit well worth our time. A diamond cutter interrupted his work to explain to us the painstaking craft he had learned from his father about 40 years before. Like most of the Dutch we met even in small village shops, he spoke English.

Late afternoon found us in front of the Amsterdams Historisch Museum. Paintings, models and artifacts trace the history of this city founded as a hamlet on the River Amstel to its emergence as a major European capital. Although parts of the museum were not accessible, our only regret was that we did not have more time to spend there.

We ended the evening with an hourlong canal cruise that took us through Amsterdam’s illuminated bridges and gave us an overview of the city by night. Of the many tour boats available, ours had a lift for wheelchairs. The guide kept up a steady spiel in Dutch and English, pointing out such landmarks and curiosities as Amsterdam’s narrowest house (barely more than a yard wide) and the ornate facades of an earlier age.

The next day we set sail for the IJsselmeer, Holland’s largest lake, which was closed off from the sea, and is accessible by a series of locks. Our mornings started with a typical Dutch breakfast of assorted breads, cheese, ham or salami, jelly, chocolate strands (sprinkled on bread), fruit and coffee. Lunches were similarly simple fare, but dinners were full home-cooked meals often topped off with yogurt or a kind of pudding for dessert.

Our sailing tour took us to the medieval castle Muiderslot in the small village of Muiden; to Hoorn, a thriving harbor town founded in the 14th Century that is a reminder of its boom trading days as the home of the Dutch East India Company; and through the canals in the flat farmlands of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands.

On our last day at sea we anchored at Enkhuizen in North Holland, the home port of the Lutgerdina and one of the most picturesque of cities, with fortified walls and buildings dating from the 15th to 17th centuries. We spent part of the afternoon touring the Zuiderzee Museum, dedicated to depicting what village life was like on the shores of the Zuiderzee before that body of water was closed off from the sea in 1932 and transformed into the modern IJsselmeer.

The outdoor section of the museum is wheelchair-accessible and fascinating, even though the cobblestone streets and steep inclines do not make it easy to get around. Costumed guides in this meticulously restored town of 135 shops and homes help give an authentic picture of Dutch life at the turn of the century.

On a bus trip the next day, we passed through polders planted with flowers and potatoes and saw some of the windmills the Dutch built to claim this low-lying farmland from surrounding lakes. After a coffee break on the dunes of the North Sea, we entered the stately city of The Hague, the seat of government in the Netherlands. We had time only to see the parliament buildings with the 13th-Century Knights’ Hall, Queen Beatrix’s palace and the International Court of Justice, but The Hague offers a number of other attractions, including Holland’s oldest picture gallery, and the Madurodam, a miniature Dutch village with exact reproductions of many of the Netherlands’ most famous buildings.

We spent the last three days on Robinson Crusoe Island, which is operated by the Aquatic Sports Foundation for People With Disabilities in the Loosdrecht Lakes district south of Amsterdam. Staff instructed us in the use of accessible canoes, kayaks and sailboats, and helped those wanting to swim or water-ski. We paddled through canals filled with water lilies and took a tugboat cruise in the rain past manor houses and castles to Breukelen (Brooklyn).

Transported to the Schiphol the next day with time enough to take advantage of the airport’s large duty-free shopping area, we were ushered through customs and sent off with hugs and kisses. My brother asked me what I had thought of the trip. “It wasn’t what I would have planned, but I’m glad I came,” I said.

GUIDEBOOK: Sailing Holland

Getting there: KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Northwest Airlines (using KLM aircraft) have daily nonstop flights from Los Angeles to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol; advance-purchase, round-trip fare is about $1,200. The Dutch carrier Martinair Holland has twice-weekly, nonstop flights for approximately the same fare.

Cruises: The two remaining 1994 JOS Sailing tours of Holland for people with disabilities are fully booked, as these cruises sell out rapidly in Europe. In 1995, departure dates for 14-day tours are: April 5, June 10 and Sept. 9 and 30, with the latter date already sold out. Cruise prices for 1995 are $1,250 per person, including all transfers, lodging and meals, but excluding air. Prices are based on a minimum of 17 passengers per group. Reservations can be made through Kay Russo, Travel Agents International, 411 Carondelet St., New Orleans, La. 70130; tel. (800) 345-8159 or (504) 561-8922. Or directly through JOS Sailing, Boerenwagen 20, 1625 HA Hoorn, Holland; tel. or fax 011-31-2290-45305.

For more information: For materials on Holland, contact the Netherlands Board of Tourism, Suite 326, 225 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60601, tel. (312) 819-0300. For specific information on accessible facilities, write to Mobility International (a travel organization for the disabled), P.O. Box 165, 6560 AD Groesbeek, Netherlands.