Month: February 2017

26th February 2017 – I got up early. It was windy again and I decided to have my coffee in the wheelhouse. When I had nearly finished my coffee, the phone rang. A wheelhouse roof in Bruges blew of. Since it was a good friend of mine and he was abroad, I drove there to cover it.

In the afternoon I painted some more of the hold. It will take ages, but as I wrote in all my previous blogs, you learn to know your ship by cleaning and painting. It must have taken a long time to build the Tordino in 1922. So many rivets, so many different plates.

25th February 2017 – It was windy again, but I decided to open my hatches anyway. Most of they day I painted the hold. A second coat on what had been last weekend. I’m looking forward to see the whole hold painted cream white!

24th February 2017 – Time to order my wood and get some more materials for the weekend. The whole afternoon, I was driving around to arrange my stuff. Sometimes I just wonder what takes more time and energy. Getting the stuff or doing the conversion.

21st February 2017 – I just managed to fix the issue with the lorry. I can now easily open my hatches again.

20th February 2017 – Just went shopping, new steel cable for the lorry, brackets for my workshop and paint for the hold.

19th February 2017 – The day started with bad luck. One of the cables of the winch on my lorry for the hatches broke. I could solve it with an old rope since all my tools were in the hold and I couldn’t get to it.

Once I was in the hold, I continued painting where I stopped yesterday evening. I was annoyed by some of the wooden cargo floor that was lifted out. I took it all out and rebuilt it. I will have to bolt a few planks, but I need my drilling machine for this.

18th February 2017 – I cleaned bilges today. The smell was terrible, but now the hold doesn’t have that smell anymore. My father cleaned the sides and all of us painted the bulkhead in the afternoon.

7th February 2017 – The macerator is broken in the Watergeus. To get to this device, I need to empty the workshop under my deck. It is filled up with wood, old tools and spare parts for my other ships. I started emptying this place to bring it over to the Tordino where I will need most of it. I had a van full of old wooden pieces, small lists and profiles.

12th February 2017 – I’m preparing the hold for the conversion. I built some tables and started sorting out my tools. It gives a good feeling to know how much space I now have to start building. I

can easily turn around with wood without hitting the sides of the ceiling. It is great to have a working space again.

11th February 2017 – Another drive with the van to my ship. When doing a conversion, you need a lot of equipment and parts. I never finished the conversion on the lemmeraak ‘Op Hoop van Zegen’. When I had to empty the ship, I put everything in boxes. these are the first boxes I will need. They contain screws, bolt, nails, etc… I was surprised to see how much was left. enough to do some conversion and construction!

6th February 2017 – Friends of me are cleaning an old barge in Zelzate. The ship is filled up with old stuff, rubbish and tools. I came to collect a few pieces that will serve in my museum.

5th February 2017 – Nearly finished. This is how I would describe my metal platform in the hold. I did another day of welding and I’m getting there! If it wasn’t for the rain, I might have finished it.

4th February 2017 – I asked several friends to come and help. The new stairs needed to be lowered into the hold and put in position. The weight of 120kgs was the issue. With four of them on deck and me downstairs we managed to do the operation very quickly. The stairs was quickly welded and the rest of the afternoon we sat down and talked, making plans…

3rd February 2017 – I bought the Tordino without radar and radar support. These pieces were sold by the previous owner. While I was in Leeuwarden last month, I managed to buy the support back from the new owner. It is a heavy piece that I already moved several times. I decided to weld it to its original position. Looks great again! I still need the controls, cables and monitor, but I’m sure I will find them one day at the right price.