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A New Pilot House
It’s time for an adventure. After all, isn’t that what makes life so interesting? Lovita and I went to Holland in the
middle of winter. To bring you up
to date, we are extending the pilot house on Rabelo by 12 feet and putting a
hydrolic top on it. That means
that we no longer have to travel all day in the rain, hail, sun, heat, wind or
cold being exposed to the elements.
Instead each time we approach a low bridge we simply drop the roof of
the pilot house by a foot, Tom opens a hatch for his head to poke out, we go
under the bridge, and the roof goes back up. In theory it sounds good. We’ll let you know this summer how it works out.
When we arrived with 4 suitcases, 2 carryon’s, purses, and a
glass lute that will be hung on a wall, Wilco was there to greet us. What a relief since we had been
traveling a long time, were tired, jetlagged, and had to get to work
immediately. We went to the
apartment, dropped off our things and went to see Rabelo. Holland was a shock as I had never been
there in the winter. The ground
was covered in snow and frost was on all the trees. It was beautiful.
It was magical. It was
cold. Even the deck of Rabelo was
covered in snow.
In one week we accomplished everything we had set out to
do! For our new pilot house we found
floor tile, corian for the navigation station, high pressure laminate (HPL) for
the walls and ceiling, etched glass for the table and cabinet top, fabric for
the sofa, fabric for throw pillows, and even designed the sofa. We also made adjustments to the total
layout of the pilot house. It was
a very busy and very successful week.
On Sunday all the stores are closed. Since Lovita had been talking about a
purse museum in Amsterdam I thought the reward for all her efforts in helping
me would be to see the Tassen Museum.
We had been advised to take a bus to the train station, and then a train
into Amsterdam. (We were staying
in Rotterdam) We independent
ladies decided to drive instead.
It was a piece of cake driving into Amsterdam. It took one hour, there was no traffic, and we decided to
simply park in a public parking lot.
Street parking in Holland is very difficult. The Tassen Museum on the history of purses was excellent and
worth a visit. High Tea in their
little restaurant was also relaxing.
The shop in the museum warranted a great deal of time since (of course)
they sold purses and other knick-knacks.
After that we wanted to go visit Van Gogh. We came out of the museum and were shocked to find snow
coming down heavily. I told Lovita
we needed to get back to Rotterdam as quickly as possible. I hadn’t driven in snow in 40
years! What I experienced was a
2-hour white-knuckle drive! On
entering the freeway the car in front of me fishtailed. Not a good sign. The other side of the freeway had
multiple accidents and a snowplow.
Where was our snowplow? The
freeway narrowed to one lane as people followed in each other’s tracks. We couldn’t see the lanes. It was getting dark fast! This meant that for the rest of our
trip I had to worry about icy roads and treacherous driving conditions.
This is what it looked like driving to Rabelo after arriving in Holland.
Rabelo was covered with snow.
No matter what the weather the people still ride their bikes.
Driving in the snow storm.
The canal where Rabelo is tied up froze over.
Here is what we found to decorate the new pilot house.
We cooked every breakfast and dinner in our apartment.
Wilco made a mock up of our new pilot house.
We fine tuned it as we went along.
