Category: Daily Life around the water - page 2

10th October 2019 – Since I was pretty sure I could not get the yacht for a small amount, I went to Westland in Holland, just above Rotterdam. There was a grundel for sale. The owner sold it as a riveted schouw, but it was built in the 70’s and completely welded. The other issue was the location. The ship is in a closed canal near his company. So transport, a crane and a truck are needed to remove the ship from its current location.

While I was there, I noticed the owner had a small metal boat from the Belgian Spits Moving. This ship was scrapped two years ago and some of its paperwork and tools ended up in Museumschip Tordino.

6th October 2019 – There was a small yacht for sale in Ghent. The size looked good for me and I had a look. The owner warned me the ship was looking worse on the pictures then in real. Well he was wrong. The engine ran, but that was about the only good thing I could find. Certainly not a project for me at that price!

5th October 2019 – We went to the Furiedagen in Maassluis.  Friends of us were there with their ship. 

14th September 2019 – There was a gathering aboard the Terra Nova in Vreeswijk. While I was there, I went to see the old shipyard, the museum and the ships in the historical harbour.  It was a great day with nice people and good weather! A relaxing day!

13th September 2019 – I went to Dordrecht to visit a ship that is going to the scrapyard in a few days. It is a ship with a similar history of Tordino. The owner gave me some nice stuff for the museum.

24th August 2019 – The last and final bit of the journey was sailing through the Solent, Southampton into the yard of Bluefin Marine in Hythe. It was hard to get in port after nearly no sleep. It was dark and our map wasn’t that reliable. We made it safely at the yard.

23rd August 2019 – The night journey went nicely. Around Zeebruges and Ostend we had some big waves, but the ship handled it well.  When we started the crossing to Dover, daylight came and we had a good trip. Not much traffic around us until we arrived near Dover. There were so many ships we had to alter course on several occasions

The next bit was from Dover to Brighton where we sailed near the coast. Since we were over 24 meters we had to follow the big ships in the shipping lane instead of the Inland Traffic Zone. They called us on the radio, so we changed course.  At that point, we had another 15 hours ahead. Becoming tired and hungry, it was a hard bit to full fill.

22nd  August 2019 – The day started in the Police station in Ostend. We delivered the papers and had to wait for another check aboard the ship before they could release us.  Not all paperwork was good, but we were allowed to leave the harbour. It took over an hour to get the second bridge working. On arrival in Bruges, Scheepsdalebrug only opened at 14 o’clock. We lost several hours before arriving at the lock in Evergem around 19 o’clock. Smoke came out of the engine room, so we reduced some speed.

At 21:30 we arrived in Terneuzen, heading for Breskens and then to Dunkirk.

21st August 2019 – We left in Bruges at 6 o’clock in the morning.  Everything went well until we arrived at the lock in Ostend. They didn’t turn the lock and about fifteen minutes later, shipping police arrived to do a check up. The lock keeper didn’t believe we were seaworthy.

The paperwork of the ship was not aboard, so we got detained and had to stay in Ostend. We had no paperwork for the inland waterways and nothing for going to sea. So far  the first day of the crossing. The argument of the Belgian civil servant was to load the barge on a seagoing vessel and unload it in the United Kingdom. Even the Police found it ridiculous, but never the less we were stuck in Ostend.

18th August 2019 – We are leaving on Wednesday with the Anwi for Southampton.  Just made some preparations, checking maps and making a list of items that needs doing. It will be my third crossing. 

26th July 2019 – We went to Alkmaar for a gathering of over 200 historical barges.

24th July 2019 – I went to see a yacht during lunchtime. It was in a shed in the harbour of Ostend. Besides the fact it was already warm outside, it wasn’t much better inside. The advertisement mentioned finished for 75%. It didn’t look that way at all.  After 20 minutes I had seen enough. A nice hull, no guarantees on the engines and a lot of work on deck!

In the evening I made a phone call with my offer and she was tempted to accept it straight away. I suggested her to wait a few days. She called me back a few hours later.

These are the pictures on the add. In real, it is much worse!

13rd July 2019 – We had our annual Kolenkaai Feesten. It was a good edition, better then last year!