Our little canal boat, The Shrimp Whisker, got some excellent upgrades this year. James designed and built a steering console and attached the old-timey steering wheel we bought at a used boat supply store so we can steer with the wheel rather than the tiller. It makes a huge difference because you can adjust gears on the console rather than having to reach behind you to the motor, which is tricky, especially in the city center where it gets really crowded going through the canal tunnels and bridges with lots of boat traffic.
James started designing it last spring, taking measurements and drawing up the plans.He made a prototype out of cardboard to start.This is the steering wheel we bought when we got Shrimpy, knowing some day we’d use it. I asked James to make the console like the one in Land of the Lost so I could glue gemstones to the top like Enik’s Sleestack console. James and Brian doing the construction in our garden. I still want my gems so I remind James a lot. James and Brian use the bakfiets to get all the supplies back and forth from the canal bank. It’s awesome! Now I can drive it with more confidence. I still get nervous in the busy parts of Centraal in the old canal ring but I’m building my skills.It’s really fun.JW’s old enough to drive alone, which is cool. You don’t need a boating license in the canals, you just have to be 15. We see kids out by themselves all the time and it seems like such a cool way to hang out with your friends. We had some beautiful, sunny weather this summer so I got lots of boat relaxing time. Going out on Shrimpy on a beautiful day is my absolute all time favorite thing to do. Sometimes we just hang out at the dock and listen to music and chill.James, ever a gentleman, holding a parasol for Brian.After James finished the steering wheel he built a fold out table, too and it’s fabulous! We have dinner at the table on the boat when it’s nice out. Geese cheat at cards. We can’t wait for people to be able to come visit again so we can play on the canals. Hopefully this summer. Everyone asks if you can swim in the canals and the answer is yes, but not everywhere. You can swim on our canal (it’s great!) and on the Amstel but you aren’t supposed to swim in Center where there’s more boat traffic. Kids jump off the bridges on our canal and swim to the bank and climb out. You see every kind of water craft you can imagine on the canals, from total contraptions (arm chairs nailed to floating boards) to crew teams rowing with oars, to all manner of fancy boats. Brian should have his own show. He’d be a good BBC mystery detective. He’d never solve a case.
