18th April 2014 – I took half a day of  work on my boat. I removed the remaining bit of the old floor in my workspace area. The amount of dirt in the bilges was enormous. The old toilet used to be there and it must have been leaking for years. I haven’t seen that much rust there then on my whole boat.

16th April 2014 – It is nice to see progress, to see a raised wall and to have a feeling of a closed room, one part that is nearing its status of being completed. I spent most of the evening finishing the wall. I want to keep the shape and curve of the vessel. it costs more time, but I like the result.

14th April 2014 – It is nice to see progress. The problem is that my hold is still filled up with all my stuff from the workshop area. When I put on the roof last month it had to be empty in case there was a fire.

My workshop will be divided into two rooms. One is going to be insulated, the other one remains in bare metal with the original wooden floor from when she was a cargo vessel. The insulated area will be used to store tools and paint, while the other one can be used for cutting and welding metal, sanding down wood, etc…

I build the first part of the wall, mounted an old door from the coffee shop boat and the noticed it was getting dark outside. Time to go home!

13th April 2014 – Insulating is one of the most irritating jobs. It has to be done so why complaining? I spent most of the morning insulation the wall around my water tanks and building the framework on the side of the ship. At least one corner of my workshop is getting shape.

12th April 2014 – My last two wooden hatches are gone. They were used as the entrance for the front tabernakels. I’m making new hatches in metal. While chipping rust from the front metal, I made several holes and decided to cut away the remaining metal as well. I now have a big hole in the front of my boat.

11th April 2014 – After two evenings of hard work, we managed to move the crane by boat to Beernem. A friendly Dutch skipper from the Verwisseling brought the crane on his hatches. While he was going anyway, I also unloaded the remaining stuff of that boat.

7th April 2014 – I’ve started building my first wall. It will divide my workshop from the rest of the vessel.

18th March 2014 – Another day of welding, till late at night!

15th March 2014 – I spent most of they day mounting the skylight into the roof. This was the old engine room hatch of the Frantsis. never believed I could ever use it again!

14th March 2014 – Starting early gives us a long day. Sadly enough, it was very foggy in the morning. On arrival, I couldn’t see the boat from where I parked the car, 20 meters further.

13th March 2014 – I was happy with the result yesterday. Most of the hold was closed. Today was a day of welding.

12th March 2014 – The part of the project that made me the most nervous was getting those sheets on the boat without breaking my bag, a leg or having to dive to get them back.

8th March 2014 – My father came to help. I have made my planning a little tight. Therefore if something goes wrong, I have no spare time to solve it.

Luckily, everything went well today, the roofing felt came off easily, the hatches were loose and I had all the time to weld my supports.

At the end of the evening, I was tired, but the work for the next couple of days was done as well! I’ll take a day off tomorrow!