Water City

Sail 2005 started yesterday with the ships coming in to Amsterdam's harbor. I had a front row seat on the grating of a pedestrian bridge at 10:45AM waiting for them to come in at 11:00AM, as I had been told. The water was full of little pleasure craft and a few 40 or 50 footers with three masts each, their sails furled. Around 1PM the dock on the opposite side of the harbor shot off a cannon and played a few seconds of what sounded like a patriotic song as three of these 40 footers went by. I thought, "Maybe this is it. What are they so excited about?", but looking around both sides of the harbor were packed with people. They were definitely waiting for something else. By 2PM my butt couldn't take the grating anymore and I had to go get something to eat, so I gave up my primo position. It turns out the ships left whatever port they were coming from at 11AM and they weren't coming into Amsterdam until around 6PM or something. Oh, well, so I missed it.

My cousin's landlords just built a Fiberglas boat, so last night they took us out through the canals to the harbor and back into the canals again. It being the first night of sail, there were quite a few drunken pilots and revelers trying to get through small bridge underpasses all at the same time. It was a bit hairy because they're all in steel boats, so they don't really care if they hit anything. One boat in particular ended up drifting sideways into a passage, hitting the walls, several other boats and blocking the way for anyone else. There were at least twenty drunken revelers on the top deck, a couple of whom almost hit their heads on the bridge.

Amsterdam at night from the water is so beautiful. The light floats on the black waves and makes the buildings glow. We passed many large sailing ships lit up with single strings of lights tracing their vertical outlines. And we went by Silodam which looked like a Chinese water lantern with it's bright colors. It was wonderful. I am so thankful they invited us along.

My cousin needs good times like that. He's had a very rough several months and the next few weeks are likely to be worse. I'm glad that I can be here with him.