The weather is still a little uncooperative but the forecast offers hope. For Sunday the 19th we, with Rob and Kelly, had planned and paid for the afternoon rental of an 18’, aluminum, electric-powered skiff in which to make a self-guided tour of some of the canals. The weather failed us….just as we arrived at the docks it began to rain. The rental company took pity and allowed us to postpone until Monday.
As a result, Monday found the four of us happily rushing through the canal system at about 3 mph. We had packed cheese, bread, trail mix, tuna salad, wine and beer. The consensus was that we would survive the day.
[NOTE: in case I failed to mention it, you may click on any image to enlarge it. Use your browser’s ‘back’ button to resume reading. -r-]
The rental company had provided us with a map of the canals, recommendations for a couple of routes and warnings about where not to go. (because of commercial shipping in those areas). We motored along, drinking, eating and enjoying a completely different view of Amsterdam. I’d recommend the canal tours for anyone visiting here.
Our tour of the canals, though, wasn’t totally without its moments. For instance: having left the docks we successfully located and maneuvered the first two turns rather smartly…all others were, at least for a while, a matter of sheer chance.
We were warned that on the canals, since we were a rental boat we were at the bottom of the food chain and must give way to everything. How true. In Amsterdam canal tour boats are a big deal. These craft are typically 50 to 70 feet long and have a beam of maybe 12 feet. 
In a lot of sections they take up a huge percentage of navigable space. Further, as they aren’t as nimble as one might hope and since their captains have schedules to maintain it’s wise to give them a wide berth. At one point on our journey we had to duck into what amounts to a ‘turn out’ to yield to a series of tour boats. We zipped under a section of bridge that was out of their path and were required to remain there for several minutes while they passed….and wait requirement turned into the problem.
We were traveling at 3 or 4 mph (just flying, I tell you). I shifted our little motor into reverse in order to kill our momentum and discovered that reverse in these boats does virtually nothing. So, not wishing to re-enter the main channel before the commercial boats had passed I just stood up and grabbed an I-beam on the underside of the bridge. While I tried to hold on to the bridge with my hands and the boat with my feet, my body was stretched out in the middle….did anyone else in our boat make a move to help? No! What they did, as I was struggling to preserve our safety at my own peril, was laugh, point and reach for their cameras. I fully believe that they would have left me hanging from that damned I-beam until they’d gotten lots of photos and You Tube video before they brought the boat back under me. However, they were denied their evil pleasure. Sheer will overcame our little boats momentum and we came to a stop, had a good laugh about the whole thing and poured more wine.
Once the channel was clear we were again on our way. Again I will say that it’s a different city when viewed from the canals. The houseboats all seem to represent a slower, more measured and relaxed pace than the cars, trams and people display only a few meters away. It’s a unique and not unpleasant feeling.
As I mentioned….we made the first couple of turns correctly and after that…not so much. After a considerable amount of wine….I mean time, we realized that we were no longer surrounded by idyllic houseboats and picturesque scenery. 
In fact, things were beginning to look downright industrial. Hmmm, … following a long conference with my navigator it was determined that, (what do you know), we were completely lost! iPod to the rescue. Rob’s GPS told us where we were…(we already knew where we weren’t). Several navigation ‘conferences’ occurred between the four of us (during which Rob began calling me ‘George’….not sure why…perhaps if he reads this he’ll explain in comments), the resultant output of which were four concepts of where we went wrong and one theory of how to get back…..we tossed the dice and sure enough, within a half hour, viola, we were within reasonable proximity to the correct canal…..scenery was again picturesque and we were once again among the idyllic houseboats.
One hazard to small electric boats about which we were warned but I haven’t yet mentioned here is floating plastic bags.. Since the canals are open to the city, they suffer the same issues as the sea in general, but with greater intensity. One of the most troubling (in the ocean) is discarded, non-degradable plastic. We are all too aware of the hazard this represents to sea life and sea-life dependant animals and birds…..the same problem exists in the canals and it seems that small electric boats are also vulnerable.
Our dockside instructions were that should we become tangled in plastic we should shut down, lean overboard and untangle the plastic from the propeller. “Sure…..no problem!”, said we all. After cruising the canals for more than 3 hours I suppose it was inevitable that we snag a piece of this sub-surface garbage. Our little motor suddenly began to groan and struggle….we all immediately realized what had happened. So, we shut it down and with our remaining momentum I steered us to a mid-channel piling. Rob grabbed that and kept us from drifting about while I rolled up my sleeves and leaned over the transom to untangle the plastic from the propeller.
Now, I’m only 5’7”….that propeller was not even with the vertical plane of the transom. No sir…it was set back toward the bow nearly a foot! In order to reach it I was submerged to the shoulder and struggling both to stay in the boat and to blindly unwind what turned out to be a 3 foot long plastic bag from around the propeller and shaft.
Eventually (less than 10 minutes, though it seemed longer to me), it was mission accomplished. BJ said I was just like MacGyver….everybody ran with that one and, given the position I’d had to assume in order to accomplish the task, the name quickly morphed to MacDiver and then to ‘George MacDiver’ (proving that no good deed goes unpunished).
We made it back to the rental dock 30 minutes later with no further incident. However, along the way we did see one more thing that piqued our interest. Moored along the edge of one of the canals were dozens of floating gardens. They were basically a rectangular, 4 x 8 wooden frame with a rabbit-wire bottom and were filled with some sort of growth medium and one heck of a lot of happy looking plants and vegetables (and maybe a little ‘wildwood weed’ as well). I guess in a city with limited land availability one must make use of every square inch…..waste not, want not!
It had really been a great afternoon but we were all hungry. Chinese sounds good!
Just a few doors north of our apartment is a Chinese Restaurant. Great! No need to run about town in search of. The four of us descended upon the unsuspecting staff, were seated immediately and ordered beer, wine and water for the table.
Hmmm…interesting Chinese menu! Hot and Sour soup, Lumpia (Philippine Egg Rolls) and Potat (French Fries), comprised my dinner. Rob had Chicken Satay and the others had equally not-so-Chinese food. The food, though not quite what we expected, was delicious and we were all satisfied (although I never did get my fries). More adventure to come.