10th February 2008 – Before finishing the wooden floor for the watertanks I cleaned the remaining bilges and painted them with line oil. Everything looks shiny clean!
Author: frederic - page 195
9th February 2008 – In the morning I visited a Friese Maatkast in Sluiskil with some people who are looking to buy a barge and convert into a space for young people (also office space, etc..). The weather was nice and we had the chance to make a small trip with the ship on the canal Ghent-Terneuzen.
In the afternoon I ran my engine, it had already been over a month since it ran the last time.
2nd February 2008 – Since the metal for the ribs still hasn’t arrived, I decided to build a floor in preparation for the water tanks. Under the front cabin, I cleaned the whole area and started putting a floor. I’ll hope to finish it during the week, so whenever the water tanks arrive, I can place them straight away!
The floor is build on the same idea and with the same structure of the big floor in the hold.
29th January 2008 – My first of ten theoretical lessons to get my sailing license started. It was more or less for yachts, still I learned a lot of new methods and ideas I would never have thought on.
28th January 2008 – The best advice for the interior dimensions is of course to bother your friends and colleagues at work. All of them recommended me to make the kitchen bigger, so I did. I’ll draw it again on the floor somewhere later this week.
26th January 2008 – The most important job while building a framework is to figure out where to put your stuff and to get an impression of how big every room will be. With chalk I drew the bathroom and kitchen on the ground. After I was finished I noticed the original idea was not that great. The kitchen was way to small for working in. I couldn’t even put some furniture in. On my plans I never had a big kitchen but I enlarged it by one meter.
Another important job was to plan where I should put some more weight, some ballast. It took me nearly an afternoon to draw the whole plan. When I was finished, I measured it and wrote it on paper for further plans.
I worked on the wood as well that was delivered. Since once the boat is finished, I can no longer get to the wood, so I’m protecting it now for the future.
27th January 2008 – After a long time, I decided to go to Terneuzen and picture every ship that was moored in the harbour. Since the fences around the old water supply ships were gone, I had a perfect opportunity to take pictures of the Viking and Schelde, fleet mates of the Watergeus!
25th January 2008 – In the morning the phone company put the cable and created a switch box on my gangway, so in the future, it will become easier to spit the cable for my neighbours.
In the afternoon, they delivered the wood for the framework of the cargo hold. We put everything inside through a porthole, just like we did last time.
23th January 2008 – The phone company came again, they would now put the cable, wasn’t the problem they did not have 80 meters of cable with them. Instead, since they were there anyway, they mounted a cable on the inside and placed the fittings for the modem, etc… They really did a nice job.
20th January 2008 – This evening we had a meeting about the future of our moorings and our vision to the situation. Just see it as an occasion to get drunk cheaply…
18th January 2008 – Today would be a great day if everything worked out the way it should have been planned! Normally the ship wakes me up, but today I woke up with the ship. In the early morning I was expecting the men of the Belgian phone company to come connect my Internet cable. They were not only later, the just could not help me. A new cable has to be laid and this can only be done by another department of the company, so next Wednesday the earliest.
I went ordering the wood for the interior framework of the ship and I found a system for placing wood against the sides without having to drill in the wood.
The gangway of my neighbour felt next to the ship. After trying for an hour we had to give up. The gangway is on land and another gangway in wood is placed. We’ll have another look on Sunday.
16th January 2008 – Last night was very windy. A man a bit further on his ship lost a tier and his ship was banging against the land continuously. Therefore I helped him yesterday with a spare tire. My neighbour had some trouble with her ropes, so I put on an extra rope on the front. So she could sleep well!
The only damage I had was my flag of Amsterdam. I took it of before it became worse, but I’m not sure if I can save it. I might have to buy a new one, a good reason for going to Amsterdam!
13th January 2008 – I visited Andy in Terneuzen who is converting an old tug. Once it was a tug, then a yacht and now he is making it look more original again. It was in dry-dock so I had plenty of time to take pictures of the hull and the other ships in the area.
7th January 2008 – Last night there was a heavy wind, which became worse during the day.
6th January 2008 – Such a nice, day, I wish it was warmer, so I could sit outside and enjoy having a ship instead of having to work on it. Unless I want to wait another year, I have to work to make sure some progress is made. Therefore in the afternoon I finished painting the roof and den on the inside with line oil. The sides of the ship will follow when I have cleaned up the cargo hold.
My neighbour tried again to start the engine, and yes this time somebody found the cause. The batteries were empty. The water compartments were empty, the same problem I had at the end of November. We’ll try again somewhere this week.
I finally made some time to setup my computer nicely. I always updated this site from home, now I can do it from aboard the Watergeus whenever the Internet connection gets ready.
In the morning I went to the old docks in the harbour where an oil boat is moored. It is a ship from the fifties or early sixties. I took some pictures for the Binnenvaarttaal project,