18th June 2013 – Cleaning the bow is one the things I want to finish before the winter starts. he whole ship looks very much neglected and is in need of a good coat of paint. The bow is rusty, but it is also the nicest part of the ship… I’ve done the hatch and the mast, now the deck and the bow!
16th June 2013 – Besides repairing the damage done by the wind yesterday, I started on the bow. It will be a major job to remove the paint and rust of the bow! The old name signs are gone. I’ll reuse them as decoration at some point….
The mast got another coat of paint. It starts to look good!
16th June 2013 – Most of the time, it is quiet in Beernem. On Friday, there was a tug with a broke engine. It moored next to my neighbour. Today they towed it away. Interesting to see…
15th June 2013 – While I was cleaning anyway, I removed the paint from the hatch at the front of the boat. It was to windy to paint, still I decided to give it a go. Some grass and dust was blown into the paint, so I can restart…. 
Out of frustration, I removed some more of the interior of the boat.
14th June 2013 – I have no idea what colours I’ll paint her. I have a few schemes in mind, but nothing is decided yet. Before I can paint, I need to remove the old layers of paint and the rust. I started cleaning the beginning of the den.
At the end of the evening I gave it a good coat of primer.
9th June 2013 – I believe a mast tells a lot of a ship. You can decorate it with some flag and all of the sudden, the ship starts to look vivid again. At the front deck is a small wooden mast. Just in front of the wheelhouse is a big metal mast with a satellite disk, spot lights and many cables!
In my original plan, the big mast had to go, but I will re use it at the front of th barge. The little wooden mast is in storage and I cleaned the big one. It was al green and the paint was falling of.
Some smaller things have been done today, like measuring the whole ship, cleaning my workshop and ventilating the boat as much as possible.
6th June 2013 – In the evening I had a look to my ship. While was there, I couldn’t resist to arrange my workshop…
1st June 2013 – The engine room is a big mess. Not only did we a lot of temporary repairs during the trip, it is stored with rubbish, old metal, engine parts and toys. After two hours, I managed to see the see through everything.
In the evening I discovered a ‘secret hatch’.
26th May 2013 – I’ve just removed the last bits of the floor today. In the afternoon, I started sorting out the old workshop with hundreds of boxes with bolts, nails and other pieces I’ve never seen before….
25th May 2013 – I’ve cut of the remaining framework of the walls and sorted out the wood. I drove twice with my overloaded van to a local recycling place. All the wood and insulation is gone. The boat feels bigger. I don’t think I can handle a third day.
24th May 2013 – Three days of work ahead. A lot of plans. I want to clean out the engine room and the break down the big bedroom to extend my workshop.
It is cold and a lot of rain keeps me away from doing an outside job. Therefore I started with the bedroom. The construction exists of layers, many layers. There was laminate, insulation, plastic, chipboard, rubber, linoleum and then the wooden cargo floor. The walls were no different. The ceiling was the hardest bit. They used more nails then there were rivets in the whole boat.
By the end of the evening, the most of the room was gone, still one part of the floor was there.
22nd May 2013 – It has been a very busy month so far. I have been at the yard helping out some friends with their boat. Meanwhile I’m working on a new project as well. I need a little workshop to store my tools and therefore I decided to sell the Hornblower.
My plans for cruising around have to make place for new ideas. What else did Eleanor Roosevelt mean with ‘The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams’?
18th May 2013 –It took some time to start the engine. While undoing the ropes a few nice historical barges and tugs came by for the event Oostende voor Anker. They all thought I would join them. After the second turning on the canal they were to far ahead and our engine was steaming again. Slowly, without having to stop, we managed to get to Beernem three hours later. Mission accomplished!
Recently I got two pictures from Peter van de Haar when we were sailing the ship towards Beernem.
16th May 2013 – I quickly drove to Aalter to check the boat. When I arrived, two fire brigade trucks and the police were at the water side. I thought for the worse, but there was an issue in the factory next to the boat. A friend came and we chatted for a while. Tomorrow we do the remaining part of the journey.
15th May 2013 – The engine didn’t start. Their is an air lock in the circuit and we had to bleed the pipes to the injectors. We turned the boat round on the mooring and left Merelbeke. On the ringvaart we broke down three times, every time it was cooling or a broken belt. The last failure caused us to get stuck on the side of the canal….
A Dutch skipper helped us out of this miserable situation. He towed us to Evergem, from where we continued our journey. In Aalter, we moored the ship and went home. Enough for one day!
