27th February 2009 – In the morning I removed the bow rudder from the Julie. It took some time before I completely understood the system. It was actually not more then just undoing some bolts and using a hammer to remove the rust. The last piece, the rudder itself had to be cut.
In the early afternoon the bow rudder was gone, so I had time to remove rust from the side. A very intensive job, but a good one for the ship!
23th February 2009 – Another interview aboard the Watergeus about the new mooring paperwork that is coming closer to us.
22nd February 2009 – We had our official meeting for our houseboat society in Ghent and most people agreed on the fact there is still work to do before we have our new mooring papers.
In the afternoon I walked around in Ghent to admire some of the other houseboats.
More then three years ago, a young couple bought an old rusty tug, the Wendy Ann II. They nicely restored the ship, repairing the hull, cleaning the ship and building a brand new traditional looking wheelhouse. She was successfully launched today and is floating again!
I have worked on many projects, but what they have realized in three years is just amazing. My deep respect to Becky and Seb!
15th February 2009 – After the party, I decided to stay with friends. Their barge Helena still has it’s original back accommodation, with mirrors, several types of tropical wood, etc… It had been nicely vanished. When staying there, you suddenly were back in the 30’s.
3th February 2009 – The Julie was dry-docked today. Good luck to the new owners and my respect for taking on this job.
30th January 2009 – Today we sailed the Julie to a shipyard in Zelzate. In the morning I had to ran a few times from my ship to the Julie bad back. You start realizing the distance of the dock after a while…
We left at 08:20 and arrived at 16:00 in Zelzate. We had no problems and were able to pass every bridge and lock with no waiting at all! A beautiful trip on a nice but cold day! We broke the ice on the canal and lost a part of the rudder. We had no other issues.
21st January 2009 – So again I helped on the cooling system for the Julie. We cut the packing for the plates closing the cooling circuit. At the end of the evening some little adjustments were done on the steering as well. If everything goes as planned, we might be able to start the engine over the weekend.
12th – 13th – 14th – 15th January 2009 – Mainly watched some people working on the gearbox of the sleepspits Julie. The next days I helped a little on their cooling system. When helping on such a project, you realize how little you know about ship engines. I learned more in those four days then I learned at school…
19th December 2008 – Around Christmas, it is time to visit your friends, so I went to Sluiskil as well. As usual, nothing changes over there. It was like I left yesterday…
17th December 2008 – As a yearly tradition, I went to England. Most of my friends have a boat in the Kew area near Brentford.
14th December 2008 – Instead of working, I went to Ghent to visit some boat friends.
11th December 2008 – In the evening we made a test drive. It took us 45 minutes to make a little trip of 800 meters. Th engine ran and good, but we are not sure what caused us to make it at such a speed. Even a traditional sleepspits, where horses or people were pulling the ship were quicker. The owner and skipper decided not to make the trip tomorrow and I fully support their choice.
10th December 2008 – In the evening, the engine was cleaned and filters being replaced. It was a small job taking a lot of time. The people are so motivated to sail there barge to the yard they worked late in the evening.
9th December 2008 – On Friday we will sail with the Julie to the yard. The owners were talking to me today asking some simple questions. By talking and listening to them, I could perfectly see myself a few years ago when I had to go to the yard.