13th June 2015 – Finally, not a windy day. Time to put the new cover over my terras. At least, I should be dry if it rains. The construction now gives me some extra dry storage as well 😉
6th June 2015 – The walls of the corridor between the study room and the front of the ship are nearly finished today. The insulation on the ceiling of the front was done and some of the plating.
31st May 2015 – I have been in London for two days. Saw some friends, had a BBQ on a boat with musicians, artists and actors. It was great!
What have I been doing the last month. I worked a lot, mostly on the Aquarel and the Watergeus. I didn’t had any time so far to make updates to my blog. I will try to do this the next couple of days!
17th May 2015 – Still sorting out my stuff. I’m surprised to see how many things I have, but once they are sorted out, it seems acceptable. My barge can only handle 165 tons of cargo. If I continue like I have been doing the last two years, I’ll get close to her maximum capacity. I did manage to clean the front deck. Only one engine and two big sheets of metal are left. The other items are now stored aboard the ship.
13th May 2015 – I started building shelves in my workspace area. I’m storing everything in boxes and old pieces of furniture. It works me that way, but I’m loosing to much space. Second reason why I want to build them is so I can finish one area in my work space. One wall had been insulated, I still had to finish the other one. It takes more time then expected.
While taking a break, I decided to add the second wheel to my anchor winch. It looks much better now.
10th May 2015 – I’m just back from a small holiday with my parents. I went to Maastricht. During one of the boat trips, I discovered a small canal with houseboats. Lovely to see.
7th May 2015 – After a hard month, I could finally think again on the conversion of the Aquarel. I was no longer interested in any boat. Now I’ve just draw some plans for the work area. I need a sink, more shelving and a descent floor. Just the idea I’m planning again gives me satisfaction!
6th May 2015 – A friend of mine is selling his boat and my stuff needs to go. Last week, I managed to put some in the Aquarel, but now I can’t enter the boat. I have some shelving in the work area. It was time to clean them and resort my stuff. I was surprised to see how many drill bits I found back. I will have to make my way through all the items I have.
24th April 2015 – The stairs to the hold are not finished. A lot of welding is needed and I don’t want to continue with the woodwork till they are finished. Most of the metal was put in place but another day of welding is needed.
I’ve also started with the bar in the hold. In my exhibition space, I would like to have a small bar or a kitchen.
21st April 2015 – It is taking me to long to finish the bathroom. There are to many things where my only answer is “I don’t know yet”. I tried finishing the wall between the bath and the rest of the bathroom till I ran out of wood. While mounting the fittings for the bath and shower tap, I know the bathroom is getting there.
A major job will be running all the pipes for cold and warm water.
16th April 2015 – It has been in the news and sadly enough I have to confirm it. My friends ship was lost in a fire while moored alongside the Watergeus. This happened last week, the 7th April. Nobody was wounded but the damage is severe. The yacht is lost and was salvaged yesterday. My ship will be repaired in the near future when the insurance is arranged.
A simple diesel heather caused the fire. This can happen to everyone. What saved the Watergeus was the quick response of the neighbours that cooled down my ship with water. One of them used a pump, the other one the street connection. Without their response there would be no Watergeus left!
Regular updates on my blog about the conversion of the Aquarel and my other projects will continue again in May.
7th April 2015 – At 6 o’clock in the evening, there was a fire on a yacht next to me. By the time the fire brigade had arrived the yacht was nearly burned out and the heat caused severe damage to parts of my ship, including the study room, several broken windows, smoke damage, etc…
I will not get into detail at this moment. The following pictures should tell you enough.
6th April 2015 – A third day of working on the Aquarel is starting to be hard. I wished I had slept a little more… Anyway, work wasn’t waiting and I started. Pulling some more wires through the bathroom and starting to strip the wires for the sockets, switches and connectors.
In the afternoon, I looked how to build the bar. I finished the wall behind the bar and added some more wires.
5th April 2015 – I had some more power cable left on the Watergeus. It took some time to pull a wire from the front end to the back end of the ship. At least I now have decent 220v power in the engine room.
4th April 2015 – Working a bit on the engine, dismantling water and fuel fittings. One of the new deadlines is to have the engine running or replaced by the beginning of the summer. The engine room is one of the few areas I left untouched since I own the ship.
In the afternoon, my parents came to help me moving boxes and cables in my workshop. I need to pull wires from the fusebox to the hold, but a lot of stuff stands in the way. There was still an area underneath the front accommodation that was filled by the previous owner. It took us some time to get to it. Anchors, cables, old wooden doors, wooden hatches and some more stuff was stored. Nice things, but most of them useless. It was impressive to see how the ship was built, where the square side of the ship slowly turns into the curved bow. I found back traces from the bow rudder.
After the big cleanup, we started pulling the wires. I ran out of cable, so the perfect excuse to go home and stop working for today.