Steile Bank

This is the Steile Bank, the boat and crew that has supported us on our bicycle trip. "Steile" means "steep" and "Bank" has all the meanings in Dutch that it has in English. The boat is owned by Albert and Anina Koers, a couple that has been sailing together for most of their long marriage. They took a break when the kids were young.

Albert

Albert is a man past 60, a grandfather, and an Elvis Presley nut. He played for us an incredible CD of relatively unknown Elvis tunes: gospel and blues from his younger years I had never heard him sing. Even the kids were dancing. Albert expressed pride in a small plot of land he and Anina have, originally a camp of sorts, that recently got an occupancy permit as a permanent structure. He spoke a bit about banks, the power banks have, and the way they distort lives with their rules and their inevitability. He is getting ready to head down to France with Anina: he likes the life down there.

Albert

Steile Bank

Anina does the cooking, and lays down the rules. It is not permitted, for example, to store water bottles purchased elsewhere in the boat refrigerator...She is gracious about it though. Anina made expansive breakfasts and dinners. When my sister Nic expressed a desire for certain peculiarly Dutch vegetables, Anina found them and made them in the traditional style. Recognizing that we had lived in America for a long time, and that some of us had never eaten real Dutch food, she cooked an entire meal of traditional Dutch foods. Anina does the books for the couple, and it's obvious she keeps her eye on that ball. She also told us about her son and daughter, both of whom work on the water, and her son actually came on board to visit when we arrived at the same port one night.

Anina

Soren

Soren is a Danish student, friend of the Koers', studying to be a ship captain at the Maersk school in Copenhagen. He will eventually be given command of the biggest container ships on earth. In the meantime, he reads a lot and goes out to bars when he is in port, and states that he will frankly be lucky to find a wife as a sailor. He expects to be at sea for 3 months at a time, the disruption to family life obviously significant. Soren says that when Maersk experimented with shorter stints however, family disruption was worse. Couples and families didn't have a chance to re-acclimate to each other before the man left again, and so there was constant turmoil. On the Steile Bank, Soren takes shifts sailing the boat, and helps both Albert and Anina with errands and chores.

Steile Bank

Spakenburg, Netherlands