Author: frederic - page 195

Arma – First visit

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.

Watergeus – Floor for the watertanks

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.

Watergeus – Seeking for advice

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.

Watergeus – Planning

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.

Watergeus – Internet connection

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.

 

Watergeus – Phone issues

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.

Watergeus – Ordering wood

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.

Watergeus – Windy

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!

Watergeus – Line oil

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,