Category: Daily Life around the water - page 12

26th July 2010 – Since I have my ship I met many wonderful people. There is an English woman waiting for her barge to be brought over to London. Next to her, another English couple is moored with their barge. We all went for a drink!

21st May 2010 – The Ontario is back next to me, alongside the Watergeus. For a day I had a view on the water. I’ll be glad when she is gone, not for the view but for my ropes and steel cables.

20th May 2010 – Some stuff has to be taken out tomorrow, so we moved the Ontario by hand to a mooring with land side a bit further on the canal. It was not a real mooring, but we had to improvise something.

12th May 2010 – A few weeks ago, a friend, one of my neighbours, came to talk about buying a boat together. We talked for hours, had a beer and then all went home. A few days later we started mailing boats we found on the Internet.

Today we went to have a look at a barge, a small Beurtschip. The same shape of hull as the Watergeus but with a small wheelhouse, no accommodation and most likely, she was used as a tanker.

The ship was on land at a yard in Zwartsluis. Zwartsluis has many yards, on one of them the Watergeus was lengthened in 1962. After driving for over 4 hours, we arrived. At first sight, she was looking good. There was not much known on the barge. The engine was there, but condition unknown. The hold was filled with a lot of stuff and there were as a lot of work on the hull. At the other side, the size was good and the bottom of the ship as well. She had been doubled.

Since we were now having a lot of questions, we made no decisions  and returned to Bruges. We shall see the next coming days what the future brings…

7th April 2010 – I visited another barge with some potential for the future. It is more of wreck then a barge. At the other hand it is a historical vessel and certainly not in a better condition then the Watergeus once was.

At this moment there are a lot of barges for sale in Belgium. There are a few reasons why:

• Regulations have changed and are changing constantly
• Every ship needs to have a hull survey (every five year)
• Most ships for sale are expensive to buy and no bank will lent you the money
• There are not many free moorings available at this time.

Therefore I’m still doubting whether I will take such a project or not. Buying the barge may be cheap, converting it will cost me a fortune.

21st March 2010 – With a big hangover, we had to clean the Oceana we rented out for the party. It was a hard job.

In the afternoon I visited a few barges and had a nice chat.

4th January 2010 – I hurt my wrist again, sliding on ice and hitting the ground with my bike. A few of my projects will have to wait.