29th April 2007 – Cleaning the cargo hold is a boring job, but it needs to be done. In the afternoon the electrician came for finishing the electricity.
Author: frederic - page 204
28th April 2007 – Last weekend we filled the holes between the hatches and the den with PE. Today we continued on the other side. From the outside we added polyester to make sure everything is nicely closed.
In the afternoon I cleaned some more of the cargo hold. In the evening I placed a chain and a door bell on the gangway.
In the evening I ran the engine for about 15 minutes. it’s good to run your engine from time to time, unfortunately I had stop since wooden planks were drifting to the propeller.
28th April 2007 – Last weekend we filled the holes between the hatches and the den with PE. Today we continued on the other side. From the outside we added polyester to make sure everything is nicely closed.
In the afternoon I cleaned some more of the cargo hold. In the evening I placed a chain and a door bell on the gangway.
In the evening I ran the engine for about 15 minutes. it’s good to run your engine from time to time, unfortunately I had stop since wooden planks were drifting to the propeller.
26th April 2007 – Today we continued working on the electricity. Since I wanted a lot of changes and additions, it might even take some more time.
While the electrician was working, I decided to continue to clean the cargo hold for making the floor.
24th April 2007 – My electrician came in the afternoon to provide the back accommodation with decent 220v power system and a new fuse box. He place the fuse box and prepared all the sockets.
22nd April 2007 – Completely broken, I didn’t do that much. Cleaned some part of the cargo hold, where the floor will be created. The wood of the gangway was protected and I visited some friends.
21st April 2007 – Since I didn’t work on my barge the last couple of weeks, I made an effort and worked from six in the morning till nine O’clock in the evening. The roof is finished and one side has already been closed with pe-sprays. Instead of the gangway, we made a nice entrance in wood. Further, the area for the bathroom was cleared and a trial model of the floor was created.
I repaired my extensions cables, since most of them had their best life behind. It’s getting time to by some new ones. The water pump was moved from the inside to the outside. Always handy to have it ready.
8th April 2007 – A heavy night yesterday forced me not to work on my boat. I placed a table on deck and tighten the boat to the mooring posts that were placed last month.
A few people came by and started talking with me. There used to be an old boat in Bruges, a German built spits barge. it sank multiple times and believe what, it was on my mooring. We then did a measurement to know the depth under the boat. it is around 1,5 meters. I do remember some information on that German Spits. She was built as a war compensation in 1919. She was raised and scrapped in Antwerp. This must have been 7 years ago. I’ll try find a picture of that boat.
7th April 2007 – I have the boat exactly one year. The biggest problem of house boat people with a partly converted boat is finishing it. They can only work in their free time and often then is the moment to visit friends, going on holiday, etc… So instead of working, I went to Ghent to take pictures of the barges and how they were converted. It was nearly a year since I last visited Ghent by camera. It was sad, really sad to see how barges are being converted into floating lighters. Everybody has his own taste and comfort often is the primer concern above the look of a ship.
In the afternoon I visited Philippe, a man who lives on a converted spits. I wanted some advice and he was kindly enough to take time to explain how he built his interior. He certainly loved his vessel and that’s the first rule for converting a boat!
And in the evening I went to a birthday party…
1st April 2007 – Finally made a cover for my electro motor of my crane. It is common for skipper’s to leave their electro motors outside without a cover, but their lifetime gets shorter. To prevent my electro motor from having a short live, I decided to put a small cover on it.
Painted the mooring posts on land. Will start making use of them next week. Besides ropes, I’m going to use steel cables as well.
31st March 2007 – Instead of working on my own boat I visited some friends in Sluiskil and helped working on a boeieraak. It is a lovely boat. If I had some more money I would have bought her for using as a workshop. She has such a nice original looking line, a real museum piece!
I also bought a new rope for my boat, since a few of them had their best life…
25th March 2007 – Besides going to the engine room and discovering the stairs were still wet I didn’t do much on the boat. When having a house boat under construction, you need to take a break from time to time. I think that’s the best advice I can give…
24th March 2007 – Today we fixated already some of the hatches. First put some rubber under the hatches to protect them. The metal is sharp and can cause damage to the hatches. After that, we drilled a whole in the handles of the hatches through the metal of the den. We bolted the hatches to the den. Afterwards, the hatches were bolted to each other, creating one big roof.
23th March 2007 – Have seen my new mooring posts for the first time. They look good, maybe a bit tiny. But hey, we shall see.
18th March 2007 – The weather was changing quickly yesterday, having a big storm this night and most of the day. I decided this morning to put a car tier under my gangway. Now the only noise I’m hearing is the tier and no longer the metal.
I cleaned some more of the front peak. All stuff I will likely never use again has been moved to the technical space. Since the floor was not dry yet everything is on the water tank.
In the afternoon I put some strong ropes with small winches on my hatches to make sure they survive the weather for the next couple of days.