26th June 2016 – Insulating the ship and mounting power cables. Before you realize it, the day has gone and you barely see any changes.
Month: June 2016
26th June 2016 – It is very busy at the moment. Whenever I have some time, I’m filling up the gap between December 2015 and now. If some links are broken, just let me know. I’m cleaning up the site.
25th June 2016 – Last year, I salvaged a wheelhouse from a spits barge. It is a small wooden cabin that can fit on the ‘Op Hoop van Zegen’. It was stored in the Watergeus on several locations. It took me all morning to get the pieces. My father came to help. It is now temporary mounted on the roof of the front cabin.
24th June 2016 – I bought insulation. It is one of the most annoying jobs on a ship.
19th June 2016 – Today we went to Ghent. A friend of mine asked for some advice on salvaging a sunken spits barge. When we arrived, I realized there was little to no hope to get this thing afloat without taking risks of spending a lot of money.
In the afternoon, we made a walk in Ghent and, as usual, I took some pictures.
18th June 2016 – Time to continue on the engine room project. Today we welded the roof and the frame for the big skylight.
14th June 2016 – A clean job, this what I wanted for today. Not messing around with oil or any other dirt. I build a frame for one side and enjoyed doing it. It went surprisingly well and in no time, a frame for a wall appeared.
13th June 2016 – I just bought myself a new hoover. Much better then the previous one which is worn out, leaking and badly damaged. I spent 50 EURO and it did the job. If lasts longer, I’m a very happy man. All the sand is gone from the bilges. I have clean concrete again. I dropped some sheets on the ribs so I can walk around and sort out my tools before starting the big job of converting the front cabin.
12th June 2016 – The best decision was to put her alongside. I have descent power, no noisy generator and always light.
10th June 2016 – I cleaned the outside, put a cover of the engine room and had a few more hours of sleep… It seemed that more beer then fuel was used yesterday…
9th June 2016 – We welded some L-shape profiles on the deck and mounted the metal sheets I cleaned yesterday. I have now a square open box above the engine room. This means there is standing height in the engine room. Welding was a success until the generator decided to give up. The engine ran but no power came out. We heard some noise, but were unable to solve the issue.
I asked some power to the people living in the houses opposite my ship on the Houtkaai. Nobody wanted to help. They all had an excuse. I was disappointed in the mentality of human beings , and especially in those living there. They think because of livung in a house, they are worth more then you.
Since I have no money for a new generator, we decided to tow the ‘Op Hoop van Zegen’ along the Watergeus. A friend came with a small boat with an outboard and off we were. It took us half an hour and they had to open the bridge twice.
Once arrived, I opened a case of beer and we had a good drink and a laugh.
8th June 2016 – I finished work on the ‘Op Hoop van Zegen‘ and went to my car when I noticed the Carpe Diem was listing badly. I had a closer look and it certainly didn’t look right. The owner is someone I know, so I called him. He would come tomorrow, but I explained to him it was a matter of hours as she was listing. He came 20 minutes later. There was no water visible on the floor, but when the hatch near the bulkhead was open we noticed a lot of water. After pumping for halve an hour, I called another friend with a better pump. In the meantime, the outlets for kitchen and sink were under water. I took a dinghy and went in the water to seal them.
8th June 2016 – Half a year ago, I got metal from a neighbour. He raised the den of his spits barge and cut some holes for windows. Those pieces were stored on the ‘Op Hoop van Zegen’ for some time now. I cleaned them for welding since they were cut with a torch and the sides had some sharp edges.
7th June 2016 – Wood was delivered in the early morning. I loaded it on the Watergeus before going to work. In the evening, I moved the construction wood to the ‘Op Hoop van Zegen’.
6th June 2016 – Half of the hold is now cleaned and painted.