24th September 2008 – Most of the wires have been prepared and are in position. They are not mounted yet since there not yet everywhere wood where it is needed.
Category: MS Watergeus - page 36
23th September 2008 – Mainly worked on the electricity for the sleeping room. Also, the whole ship has now been insulated (except a small piece on the side where the frame is still missing).
We also made a wall to hide the electricity. A similar wall will be created all along the ship.
22nd September 2008 – Today we started placing the electricity. Not as quick as I thought, but by the end of the day we made some progress.
We wasted most time in going to the shop, making holes for the switches and sockets, figuring out how to put the cables behind the walls without removing the panels, etc… In the end we just removed the panels again.
By the end of they day most of the electricity has been finished in the office space.
21st September 2008 – In the morning I drew where the electricity and cables should come and be mounted. In the afternoon, I placed all the cables for my computer network. The rest of the afternoon, I insulated the roof of the kitchen and corridor.
20th September 2008 – Today I went to a second hand market in Ghent. I didn’t find anything suitable or affordable for my ship. In the evening I went looking for some old navigation lights aboard a spits barge. The old skipper sells a lot of stuff. So I left the ship with two bronze navigation lights and two bronze search lights.
19th September 2008 – Again went looking for some wood. I didn’t have enough money yesterday, so today I bought some more till there was nothing left in the shelves of the shop.
18th September 2008 – Went looking for some more decorative wood. Again a lot of money has gone into a small amount of stuff.
While making a hole for the cables through the front cabin, I heard some water running, quicker and quicker. My first thought was one of the plastic tanks below was leaking, so I continued making the hole. Since it didn’t stop and I couldn’t see any thing I went looking for a pocket light. I had stored all my stuff at the entrance of the forepeak, so I took me a few minutes to get to it. When I started looking around, I saw a lot of water coming from a rivet. When I looked closer, the water came from above the rivet, on the watertight compartment. A bit higher was an old abandoned water tank, I presumed was empty. It was leaking a lot. I took a bucket, to hold underneath it, but it quickly filled.
Since I have the ship I have always known water in the bilges, not realizing the cause. Now I did. By the end of the evening the tank was empty, and so were my bilges. I continued hovering till it was dry, filling over 30 buckets!
So again, the support for the cables isn’t finished. Tomorrow is the last day, so I have to be sure it is finished.
I also ordered my new batteries and charger. This time I’ll go for something decent.
17th September 2008 – Started building a support for the cables coming from the front accommodation to the hold. If it wasn’t for the neighbour, I would have been finished.
14th September 2008 – Today, the Watergeus was open the whole day. In total, including yesterday, 364 people visited the ship. Where I had intention of making groups of five people, I twice 10 people aboard, 10 in the back accommodation and the in the hold. My father stopped them at the entrance of the ship, while I was explaining the ship to a group. The other group could walk freely in and around the ship.
By the end of the day, not the ship but I was a wreck! I don’t think I’ll do much the coming week!
13th September 2008 – 63 people visited the ship in the afternoon, not bad for a simple partly converted house boat! Double the number of people who had subscribed. I was glad to tell my story several times, but by the end of the evening I couldn’t speak anymore, having trouble with my voice.
12th September 2008 – Mainly prepared the ship for Open Monumentendag tomorrow and Sunday. I emptied the whole back accommodation, just leaving an old laptop with some pictures and a lot of old stuff. It really looks old now. I will be sleeping in the hold for two days.
In the evening we lowered the mast and put some new flags. Since the winch is broken, we have to lower it by hand, not an easy job. Let’s hope the flags will last a year, like the others did…
8th September 2008 – During the day my mother painted a second coat of paint on the den, front cabin, entrance to the hold and tabernakels.
In the evening I went searching for wood for the sides of the sleeping room and office space. I bought laminate for the sleeping room as well.
Later that evening, I put the metal net against the side for the insulation and protected the wood with carboline. The last piece of framework is now also protected against wood worm. Later that evening some insulation was placed as well…
4th September 2008 – During the day my parents painted the den on my ship. I bought the paint over a year ago, but since so many things happened around the den I was never able to paint it. Items such as placing extra portholes, welding a roof, replacing windows, fixing the hatches caused serious delays in painting the den.
3th September 2008 – Finally the glass is in the windows. It was carefully put in the metal frame today.
2nd September 2008 – The windows still had to be painted. When the glass is in, they can no longer be painted. Since it was raining, I had to built a construction that allowed me to paint from the inside.