The municipality of Amsterdam has a population of  just under 800,000 people.  Amsterdam’s population almost doubled this weekend as  SAIL 2010 attracted roughly 1.5 million visitors.   Some final thoughts on the festival, which ended this morning, by Marijke Peters of Radio Netherlands Worldwide:

Bon voyage Sail 2010

SAIL 2010 ended today with the tall ships leaving the Dutch capital Amsterdam to head back to their home ports, but it was hardly the send-off the crews had hoped for.

After 4 days of sunny weather, sailors, naval officers and ship’s captains woke up on Monday to a battering of rain and gusty winds. Then, having donned my waterproofs in anticipation of a watery farewell, the skies cleared long enough for me to see the crew of the Russian four-master, the Kruzenshtern, leave dry land, well, reasonably dry.

The eighth edition of SAIL 2010 attracted more than 1.5 million visitors, most of them on Saturday afternoon. All weekend crowds of people flocked to the capital to saunter past the magnificent historical fleet moored in the eastern docks of the capital’s IJhaven. Not to mention the thousands of boating enthusiasts who took to the water in vessels of all shapes and sizes to get a better ‘sea’ view.

I had expected to be the only person brave (or foolish) enough to turn up to this morning’s SAIL-out parade, as the tall ships head towards IJmuiden through the North Sea Canal, but perhaps I underestimated this country’s passion for all things nautical.