An Invasion by Pirates...

As the lead hare for the weekend, Jimmy came up with a plan for Saturday that was definitely a first for any hash that we’d ever been to. Luckily he was able to convince the captains to go along with his plan and to recruit Lisa as his co-hare. Unfortunately for the other ships, they didn’t get the show that went along with the pre-run brief on our ship when Jimmy and Lisa surprised everyone by transforming into pirates.

The idea was that we’d sail near the island of Marken for the start of the Ballbreaker, the longest trail. On our ship, there were only two Ballbreakers: the guy waving and the guy next to him. They’re still smiling as they hadn’t heard the pirates’ wicked plan yet.

Ashlynn helped Jimmy braid his long hair.

As you can see, Jimmy enjoyed scrambling all over the ship...

...and Lisa scrambled along with him. 

Love these two shots that Alan caught from one of the other ships.

Let’s Sail...

Saturday morning, a bunch of us got up at 6 a.m. to help load fresh bread and more beer onto the ships. Ironically, my fastest sprint of the entire weekend was when I found out that our ship was about to pull out without us. 

It was a beautiful morning as we motored out of the harbor. The theory behind this hash weekend was that we would hash in three different locations by sailing between the cities.

Our ship proudly flew under the Dutch and FILTH flags.

Our captain had a fairly good sense of humor about our antics.

We all were recruited to help raise the sails...

...including the girls. Ironic, as they really were Sailing Kids.

Love this shot of the first mate, who was a young German guy who grew up sailing.

Friday Night Pub Crawl...

Since there was only one bar near the harbor, Inga planned the pub crawl to have multiple beer stops at various vehicles. Neptunus manned his stop with his pet stork. The pack was split up into groups of 20 with staggered starts. 

I was recruited to lead one of the groups. Lelystad was built on reclaimed land in the 1970s and, frankly, isn’t a very interesting city, but Inga managed to put together an interesting trail.

Our final vehicle stop included pizza, which was excellent timing as most of us were starving. Afterwards, we headed to the only bar in the vicinity and then made our way back to our ships. Definitely a fun beginning to the weekend.

Dutch Nash Hash Officially Starts...

While planning the weekend of sailing and hashing, we were concerned that Mother Nature might let us down, but the weather was fantastic!

Neptunus, who had generously offered to drive the beer van for the entire weekend, helped us with the opening ceremony.

We had everyone gather at one boat so we could welcome them all and give instructions for that evening’s pub crawl.

Strangely enough, I ended up helping the first mate pull the ropes to raise the captain so he could place a FILTH Hash flag up the mast...

...while his adorable security guard watched.

Getting Ready for Dutch Nash Hash...

That Friday morning, Melissa and Pieter came along with me to Reinhardt’s so we could help load the van with beer and food. Then we hitched rides to Lelystad to set up the boat where we’d be manning the registration table. 

Set up included stuffing the goodie bags, which were cool waterproof bags—another one of Reinhardt’s excellent ideas. Most importantly, each bag contained a roll of toilet paper. Everyone also got an awesome purple running shirt designed by Inga.

Thought it was pretty funny that a bridal couple asked if they could borrow the boat for a few minutes for a photo shoot.

Of the four ships chartered for the weekend to house and transport the 120 hashers, our ship, the Vrijheid (Freedom), was the last to arrive at Lelystad Harbor.

As you can see, the room that Jimmy and I shared with the girls wasn’t exactly spacious, but it was comfortable. Luckily, the limited number of toilets and showers that we shared with the other 30 hashers on board, proved not to be a problem.

Red Dress Highlights...

Celine captured this photo of Jimmy...

...taking this photo of a group of us with Vincent van Gogh.

Perfect timing that Vogue was hosting a fashion event en route. I took the camera to catch Jimmy posing with these models.

Here’s Veronica, Skye and Celine posing with two ladies attending the event. Of course, we tried recruiting the lady in red next to Veronica, but she wasn’t wearing appropriate footwear.

The brand new Chanel store was the perfect backdrop for a few photos.

The trail ended back in Vondelpark, where we participated in a Masai Olympics organized by Reinhardt as part of a fundraiser for educating girls in Kenya. Afterwards, we posed for this group photo to send to the charity.

On Trail...

Jimmy ran with my camera, making him the official Red Dress Photographer. Leave it to him to lay down on the job...

...and to stop to climb trees.

At least he managed to catch a photo of me and Ola on trail...

...as well as this crazy action shot of Reinhardt.