26th August 2003 – The plan was to move the Varta to Ghent. The Varta was a spits barge which had been dry-docked at the IDP yard in Ostend.  We left the yard and at the end of the dock, the engine wasn’t cooling. We couldn’t stay since the lock just opened and moved on. While in the harbour, the engine started smelling badly.  We made it through the big lock into the Houtdok.  We started dismantling the cooling system of the engine and figured out the internal cooling unit was blocked by dirt.

At the end of the evening we had to leave the harbour and moved the ship, in the dark, without navigation lights to the canal Ostend-Ghent. The rest of the journey will be for another time.