11th July 2021 – Today we had our big jump in Oudenburg, a small event where people jump in the water to promote the clean water. With the little boat of my neighbour we mounted the safety line and I was standby on the boat if something would go wrong…
In the evening we hand another small trip with the vlet…
2nd July 2021 – An important day for the community of Plassendale, for the first time in years, a passenger ship moored at our pier. Press arrived and everybody had to give an interview.
28th June 2021 – The pier a bit down the canal was taken by several yachts so the cleaning boat moored alongside, a nice aluminium working craft. Could easily server as a floating bar in my opinion…. Very easy to manoeuvre and a lot of space…
13th June 2021 – I went to see a little Dutch ship in Antwerp. It is a flat bottom sailing boat from around 7 meters. I like it a lot, but I’m not sure if it is worth the effort. It certainly looks traditional, but it hasn’t been maintained for years. I’m also worried about the logistic nightmare for bringing her over to Bruges, since I need to sail over the Schelde. The other issue is I’m still in negotiation about the sailing ship Baron…
1st May 2021 – After putting my distance keepers in the water, it was time to put back the little boats of the neigbours in the water. Hopefully the weather will become a little warmer so we can have some fun again with them.
20th April 2021 – The owner wanted me to move the ship to Ghent. I asked a friend to join so I was sure I had somebody reliable on the front deck. When we left, I nearly hit the lock but could quickly turn around. The ship was so hard to steer and it didn’t listen at all. If you went to slowly it didn’t listen at all. Thankfully it had a reliable bowthruster that helped me a lot. We were not even out of Bruges of the engine was more or less a steam engine and in Beernem the engine stopped working. It started again and slowly we continued the journey but had to abandon the trip at the marina in Beernem. We are halfway….
My battery of the phone died in between, so I could only take a few pictures from the beginning of the journey…
3rd April 2021 – Today I helped launching the Maxx again. Sadly enough it was again no success. The manager of the marina wanted us to stay in the water, while I was sure this was not a good idea. After about 5 minutes I could no longer keep her up without pumping. I tried moving the ship with the idea of bringing her to a yard, but the steering was that bad I had to return and taker her back out of the water.
29th March 2021 – I have many friends from abroad who are living on boats or who have a boat in Belgium. They can’t come to say hello. Sometimes there is one or two exceptions like today. We had a nice chat on a summer-like evening…
26th March 2021 – The owner of the Maxx called me with some exciting news: they will launch the Maxx on 3rd April 2021. Since I promised the make the journey to Ghent, I will make sure I’m there when they launch the ship. Hopefully third time right time!
While I was there, I noticed a sailing yacht, very similar to the Baron
23rd March 2021 – The second part of the distance keepers arrived today. We unloaded them and put them on the street side to paint them. The whole construction is much heavier then expected. I got some paint left from another project and the first set of parts got a first coat of primer.
14th March 2021 – In the afternoon I went to Harlingen to take some pictures of the vessels moored in the inland harbour.
6th March 2021 – While I was walking to the car, I stopped at a ship I had been looking at the last 6 months while I was in Harlingen. It has so many elements I have or want to add to Tordino.
15th February 2021 – I was worried about my ships. I had to work today and then go to the dentist. I was more afraid something would be wrong with a pipe then they would find some holes in my teeth. But both were fine! Nice weather is coming so I’ll start working again tomorrow.
Those few degrees extra outside make it back a warm feeling aboard the Watergeus. I now have again 18°C instead of 8°C. So, one day of not heating takes three days to heat the whole ship!
14th February 2021 – When people can start skating, it is time to worry about pipes and frost damage. I had trouble with the bathroom outlet but also with the cold water system aboard the Watergeus. I’m not sure yet if the Stern will be fine. I did put a lot of heating aboard but it is still worrying. I had a few drinks in the evening aboard the Stern. It is a small ship, so easily to heat. The canal is sill partly frozen so we shall see tomorrow.
In the meantime, the outlet issue of the Watergeus is solved, but it is still only 11°C in the living room, 3°C more then this morning!
9th February 2021 – A friend of mine is living abroad while his ship is in the marina. I switched on his heating system so there is no damage to the ship.
