15th April 2004– I read in the newspaper another shipwreck had arrived in Ostend, so I went to have a look. I met two nice people with a historical trawler, converted as a club for nightlife in London. We had a great chat and I was allowed to take some pictures. A visit to remember…
28th February 2004 – The idea to work aboard was quickly cancelled when it started snowing. I started walking around at the Visserij taking pictures.
29th December 2003 – I started cleaning the engine room aboard the Varta. It is a nice looking ship, but the amount of dirt in the bilges is enormous…
6th November 2003 – I went to Ghent and paid a visit to the Varta. There was another spits barge moored alongside.
26th August 2003 – The plan was to move the Varta to Ghent. The Varta was a spits barge which had been dry-docked at the IDP yard in Ostend. We left the yard and at the end of the dock, the engine wasn’t cooling. We couldn’t stay since the lock just opened and moved on. While in the harbour, the engine started smelling badly. We made it through the big lock into the Houtdok. We started dismantling the cooling system of the engine and figured out the internal cooling unit was blocked by dirt.
At the end of the evening we had to leave the harbour and moved the ship, in the dark, without navigation lights to the canal Ostend-Ghent. The rest of the journey will be for another time.
7th August 1929 – Today the Watergeus was launched as ‘Jantje’ from the shipyard A. Apol in Wirdum, Groningen. The ship was 27.03 meters long and 5.27 meters wide. The engine was a Climax ruwolie motor giving 50 hp. The Jantje could carry 130 tons of cargo and was build for the skipper H. Sannema from Groningen.