Month: October 2007

Watergeus – Last bits of metal on the roof

29th October 2007 – Today the last bits were finished of the metal work outside. It has taken a long time, but finally I can say the roof is watertight and the Watergeus looks like I want her to look.

The hatches were cut up today so they would fit around the skylight. The last chimney was placed for the heater in the living room. he air vents from an old Kempenaar were placed and adjusted so they could rest on the hatches and still look straight. Handles and a fallback security system were placed on the skylight.

 

This means the end of a job started last year in September 2006. Starting with building a den, ending with the roof. There was a period where no metal work was involved, where I tired to solve the leaks of the hatches, but that was just a waiste of time and money. So if you would like something done properly, don’t try to mess around with fillers etc… Do it good, do it once.

Watergeus – Inviting friends

28th October 2007 – Today a big day, I invited a few friends for a drink aboard my ship. I always talk about my ship, but it was actually time to invite some of them and show what I were doing. I knew a day later she would be finished, but there was no option of doing it on a later date. Most reactions were positive, only not many people realized the size of the ship and what can be done with such a space.

Watergeus – Painting

27th October 2007 – Since tomorrow a few people are coming I want the boat to be looking as clean as possible. Not only did we repaint the wheelhouse with primer, the foot of the crane, the inside of the portholes and a few other items were painted. With all the light colours, the ship looks much bigger. I have a big ship again 😉

Watergeus – Painting the den

26th October 2007 – The den didn’t look good, several different colours of paint, rust, dirt, remaining of tape, writings with measurements, etc… It was a big mess. The perfect time to paint the den again. The only primer I had was again Navy gray… So we pained the den, it took us half a day to paint it nicely. With the paint that was left, I painted the air vents that will be placed in the coming week.

Watergeus – Exhaust

24th October 2007 – This evening I removed the insulation of the exhaust to find out how badly it is damaged. While hitting the noise reducer with my head it felt down. So I discovered water must have entered through the deck into the exhaust making it rusty and fragile. As far as I could see, it must have taken years to become so bad.

Picking up Tine’s boat

20th October 2007 – Today I sailed aboard the Sermar, my new neighbour in Bruges. The ship came from Merelbeke. We sailed around 6 hours to Bruges. A very nice spits barge, just out of service, but perfectly suitable to start again!

The spits was built in 1944. She had been sailing with the same owner for 42 years.

The skipper moored the boat in a small spot in front of my boat in no time. The water in the canal was green, had never seen it so bad. While I were sailing, my parents had cleaned the cargo hold and painted the inside to make it look a bit nicer.

Watergeus – Hatches and skylight

13th October 2007 – This morning we tried to put back the hatches, but since my hand has become worse, we had to stop very quickly. The boat looks much nicer anyway, but I would have loved to put them all back. It will be for another time.

The skylight is painted and looks very nice. I’m glad I placed it, but if I had more money I would have put a few more!

Watergeus – Fixing the door

6th October 2007 – The man of the yard came to discuss the further plans on the boat, building a skylight, redoing the door and making a price for my exhaust pipe the broke sometime during last week.

Since the exhaust is broken, I just can’t start my engine anymore. Everything needs replacing once, not that now is the right moment, but hey we shall see.

Barges for the UK

1st October 2007 – The only event worth mentioning today, besides heavy raining, is the passing of a Luxe Motor called Zorg en Vlijt. The owner was underway to England. A lovely hull, such a nice shape and length, I believe priceless.

As so many Luxe Motors, they go to England and get sold their so expensive, no one over here is ever going to the UK to buy it back, believe me!

Later that day another two barges passed along. I believe it were two aken, but don’t ask me any details. Both together next to each other, they passed at a reasonable high speed.