2008 The Pioneers
2011 The Armada
2015 The Luxury Smokebox
and when failure looks like this, who cares!
2007 Mazdog's mega-joint
The (Chequered) History of Our 4-20 Boat Trips [updated repost from last year]
We've not always been entirely successful but even the failures have been fun.
There are lots more details, pictures and videos about these trips and substitute sessions in Travelogues and on YouTube. Here's a summary:
2007 fail
AzLaker organised a boat through Rookies coffeeshop. I think this was the same boat that the Channelites had been out on a few years earlier.
Loads of us turned up at Rookies ready to go but the boat had broken down. Nevertheless we had an amazing session including a mega-joint that Mazdog had rolled for the trip.
2008 success
In 2008 we discovered the St. Nicolaas Boat Club. Unfortunately this no longer exists but it was a wonderful collective with a few boats, associated with Boom Chicago comedy club.
On a chilly evening we did a smoky tour on an open boat. There were only four of us, SilentlyScreaming, me and our respective partners, but I'm calling that a success.
2009 success
Having checked out the St. Nicolaas Boat Club we spread the news and had lots of people saying they'd like to go for a cruise around the canals.
On the night we were all gathered in the Nes but when we tried to round up all of the people who said they wanted to go most were too stoned to move. Nevertheless, about eight of us made it and had a brilliant trip. It was also a much warmer evening than 2008.
2011 success
3 little boats, 2 shifts, 1 dog. This time we started, rather appropriately, from Voyagers. Rather than a single boat, we had three small ones and so many people that we had to split the group into two so that the boats could go out twice.
2012 fail
Following our success of 2011 a large group assembled in Voyagers ready for a repeat sailing but the boat had broken down. As a substitute we all piled onto the free ferry across the IJ to explore a couple of coffeeshops in Amsterdam Noord.
2013 fail
Again we all gathered in Voyagers and again the boat didn't happen. We had a good party instead though.
2014 fail
This time Elasticband tried to organise a boat for us. After several sunny days, on the day we planned to sail there was a rain shower and it was a bit overcast. We all congregated in Coffeeshop 137 but the weather scuppered our plans. We did, of course, have an excellent session instead.
2015 success
We broke our run of failures in style.
Less than a week before the 20th I heard about Ganja Cruises, a guy with a smart covered saloon boat. Somehow we managed to get ourselves organised in a few days and had a successful expedition.
2016 success
We did an equally wonderful repeat performance with Ganja Cruises.
2017
Sadly the boat we went out on for the past couple of years is out of action at the moment.
Choices:
> Ganja Cruise's backup boat - an open boat, with a pop up roof if necessary, and very comfortable for 8 people.
> Smoke Boat- boat with largish cabin. Looks a bit bigger than the original Ganja Cruise boat but also more expensive and shorter trip. Macky has been doing some research on this option (thanks mate!) so we know a little more.
> Those Dam Boat Guys - looks like a smaller open boat, a bit like the old St Nic operation.
So, the first thing we need to establish is how many people are interested. If we're hoping to spread the cost between 20 people then it would be good to have a list of about 40 here. This is based on my 50% principle. In 2009 we had a list of at least 20 and 8 turned up, including 2 friends of mine who weren't even on the list! Last year we had a list of 20 and 10 showed up.
Please post here if you'd like to join us on this year's boat trip.
