24th February 2008 – When I woke up, I had an idea to clean two tanks. When I finished the day, all four tanks were cleaned, placed in position and I moved the empty fuel tank on location as well.
After placing the first tank on starboard side, I started realizing there was a big chance not all of them would fit. After three tanks were placed, I had to push the last one in between. I’m glad I didn’t buy 6 tanks!
23th February 2008 – I decided not to work. Not only am I still very exhausted from the last couple of weeks, I wanted to make some time to visit all of my friends from Sluiskil, not just the skipper of my barge but also my old neighbours and a few other friends.
One of them had redone his interior, another one had dry-docked his barge. There was a lot to talk about since the last time.
22nd February 2008 – In the afternoon, I had some time left, I decided to make a walk in Ghent to see some barges and how they were changed. It had been some time since I made just a big walk through Ghent. It was becoming dark and cloudy, so I didn’t take a single picture.
19th February 2008
16th February 2008 – Mainly cleaned the tanks today, but not that hard. Thursday was enough for me! I just hope not to put this job on a long term project.
In the morning a company came to make a price for the insulation, I’m considering to use sprayed foam. There are many reasons why I would take it, but as many not to take the stuff. A few reasons are:
14th February 2008 – A very romantic day, except for my neighbour and me. The watertanks arrived, I believe the hardest day of 2008. Since my crane can’t reach into the hold, we had to lower them by hand. The tanks, each around 100kgs are not exactly what I would call easy to handle.
They arrived at noon, so in the early morning I painted the newly built floor and the metal around it.
In the afternoon we cleaned my tanks and put them in the hold, later I helped my neighbour who had a car crane. A bit easier, but not less hard.
11th February 2008 – In the late afternoon I visited a spits barge in Ghent, not just a spits, but one with a very special engine, an ABC (Anglo Belge Corporation). These engines were very rare in these type of barges. The new owners, a young couple are converting the ship into a youth hostel. I was impressed of the size they made out of the cargo hold by just cleaning and painting the whole space. The back accommodation, still contains traces of the oldest accommodation in the back under the deck and the later built upper structure. They still have a lot of work, but as they mentioned it is always interesting to meet other boat owners and to learn. So did they, so did I!
10th February 2008 – Before finishing the wooden floor for the watertanks I cleaned the remaining bilges and painted them with line oil. Everything looks shiny clean!
9th February 2008 – In the morning I visited a Friese Maatkast in Sluiskil with some people who are looking to buy a barge and convert into a space for young people (also office space, etc..). The weather was nice and we had the chance to make a small trip with the ship on the canal Ghent-Terneuzen.
In the afternoon I ran my engine, it had already been over a month since it ran the last time.
2nd February 2008 – Since the metal for the ribs still hasn’t arrived, I decided to build a floor in preparation for the water tanks. Under the front cabin, I cleaned the whole area and started putting a floor. I’ll hope to finish it during the week, so whenever the water tanks arrive, I can place them straight away!
The floor is build on the same idea and with the same structure of the big floor in the hold.
29th January 2008 – My first of ten theoretical lessons to get my sailing license started. It was more or less for yachts, still I learned a lot of new methods and ideas I would never have thought on.
28th January 2008 – The best advice for the interior dimensions is of course to bother your friends and colleagues at work. All of them recommended me to make the kitchen bigger, so I did. I’ll draw it again on the floor somewhere later this week.
26th January 2008 – The most important job while building a framework is to figure out where to put your stuff and to get an impression of how big every room will be. With chalk I drew the bathroom and kitchen on the ground. After I was finished I noticed the original idea was not that great. The kitchen was way to small for working in. I couldn’t even put some furniture in. On my plans I never had a big kitchen but I enlarged it by one meter.
Another important job was to plan where I should put some more weight, some ballast. It took me nearly an afternoon to draw the whole plan. When I was finished, I measured it and wrote it on paper for further plans.
I worked on the wood as well that was delivered. Since once the boat is finished, I can no longer get to the wood, so I’m protecting it now for the future.
27th January 2008 – After a long time, I decided to go to Terneuzen and picture every ship that was moored in the harbour. Since the fences around the old water supply ships were gone, I had a perfect opportunity to take pictures of the Viking and Schelde, fleet mates of the Watergeus!
25th January 2008 – In the morning the phone company put the cable and created a switch box on my gangway, so in the future, it will become easier to spit the cable for my neighbours.
In the afternoon, they delivered the wood for the framework of the cargo hold. We put everything inside through a porthole, just like we did last time.
