4th May 2023 – I noticed the Scaldia near Oudenburg
3rd May 2023 – I spotted the spits barge Noelle from London. She passed along Tordino in the afternoon.
3rd May 2023 – I continued sanding down the wheelhouse on starboard side. Once it was done, I did the entrance door of the back accommodation.
1st May 2023 – As every evening or spare moment, I continue scanning. I still have around 8 folders to scan. Sometimes it is interesting stuff like boat contracts from the early ’20s.
30th April 2023 – In the morning we continued making the inventory of our flags. Weather was to good to work inside so I started cleaning a part of the den that was more green then the grass on the other side of the canal…
In the late afternoon I continued removing varnish from the wheelhouse so I can redo the wood in oil. A few years ago, against my own believe, I used varnish. Sadly enough it didn’t stay well for a long period.
30th April 2023 – Time to clean the outside of the ship. It wasn’t looking right at all so I spent half a day cleaning the outside of the ship. Added some new flags and removed the old LED lights from the mast that were broken.
I noticed the decks were extremely slippery. I nearly got in the water, so I was glad I never removed the railing around the ship.
30th April 2023 – The narrowboat Coole Swan came by.
29th April 2023 – We had a special visit today, the daughter of one of the old owners of Tordino . She wasn’t expected to find the ship and came by to visit the museum. When she read the name of her father, she was totally surprised.
27th April 2023 – While driving back to Plassendale, I noticed teh Chasin’ Dreams sailing towards Bruges.
23rd April 2023 – We started making an inventory of our flags aboard. We have several boxes with old flags.
22nd April 2023 – With a nearly weekly addition of a big box of documents and books to the Library, it was time to start reorganising a little. Last week, we added an extra cupboard and now we sorted out some categories and made more specific divisions.
16th April 2023 – I quickly replaced the flags at the front of the ship and added a light to the mast. I’m not happy the way it is mounted, but it will hold for now.
An extra cupboard was mounted in the library and I had a drink with several neighbours. They day was gone in no time…
15th April 2023 – I don’t know what to do first. Lately I’ve been scanning thousands of old documents and photos. They still need to be put in the right folder or box. I still have plenty of books to scan, label objects, mount a few new items, etc… On the other hand, I urgently need to work on the outside of the ship as well…
Anyway, I started by putting some new flags on the gangway…
The next job was to start to empty a few smaller rooms aboard Tordino and move the stuff to my workshop. I want to have some more breathing space aboard. When I had to empty the Watergeus, I quickly dropped a lot of stuff on Tordino. Since last year, I got so many new items for the museum, I want to give them a respectful place, so my personal stuff and tools need to go.
10th April 2023 – Today I started scanning documents from a broker based in Antwerp in the early ’20s. It is one of three folders I got last Saturday. The scanning will take a lot of time but it is worth it!
8th April 2023 – I drove around to Antwerp, Dordrecht and Scheveningen to pick up stuff for the Museum. A nice collection of old dia’s, old documents from shipyards and insurance companies and and a private collection of books. These are nice additions to the collection of the museum. It might take some time before they are digital available, but at least we know what to do when it is raining…