Category: Daily Life around the water - page 6
10th August 2020 – The last day of the Minart in Bruges, the new owners invited me for a drink. They are leaving tomorrow.
10th August 2020 – The new owner asked me to help picking up another engine for the Hornblower. Not really worth mentioning, but once the ship is moving again with her new engine, I might remember this post.
7th August 2020 – Today I noticed a beautiful ship passing by in Bruges. It was the tjalk ‘De Vrouwe Linda’, built in 1910. It was in commercial service until 1964 and then became a houseboat.
7th August 2020 – BBQ in Oudenburg
1st August 2020 – A person I once met through facebook called me about his spits barge that might go to the scrapyard. We went to Evergem and had a look. It is nice old spits barge with some history. It has a beautiful accommodation. I sincerely hope there will be future for the ship.
Once the visiting was over, the owner invited us to his place for a drink and a chat. Boats bring people together.
31st July 2020 – What is nicer than being on deck, having a drink, meeting up with some nice friends and having a BBQ?
Moored in a marina, looking at old Dutch barges and having another drink? It was a great evening!
11th July 2020 – I was in Nieuwpoort again to help putting the last bits together for the journey of the Anna Sophia to England. The skipper is a friend of mine and we chatted while fixing several issues. By the time most things got sorted out, it was to late to leave for the lock with the tide. The journey is now postponed…
It wasn’t a lucky moment for the owners. Batteries were dead and charging them took a long time. Broken navigations lights are an issue when crossing at night. You must be seen on a busy shipping line like the North Sea. Weather wasn’t stable and it remained a little to windy.
11th July 2020 – In the evening I met a nice English skipper with a beautiful barge, the Alberdina. He is planning to go to Paris with his ship, but needs a place for the next couple of days. Since the Minart is sold and the owners are not around, I suggested mooring alongside. I am always up for a nice ship alongside. This morning he arrived, I took a rope.
During the day, I noticed people starting to take pictures.
8th July 2020 – I promised the owners of the Anna Sofia to have a check and to have some stuff done. Sadly enough I didn’t had any time yet. It took me some time to find the vessel and the jobs that needs to be done will take some time. Luckily enough I had silicon and a silicon gun in my car to seal the sink of the bathroom. The other jobs have to be done Saturday evening.
It is a lovely interior, traditional Dutch, but with some nice details like old doors, stain glass, etc… It gives a cosy feeling! Some new nice ideas for my yacht came up. Only if I had the time to work on the Stern…
7th July 2020 – I shouldn’t have taken a day off to help. The result was known before we even started. When the ship was launched in the water, the bilges became wet quickly. First through a small hole, later through the holes of the original plate. I tried with cement, but when closing one hole, water came through another one… There was nothing that could be done, but taking the ship back out of the water. The owner doesn’t want to give up on her and has already spent a fortune on a ship that isn’t worth it.
I am pretty much doing the same with my little yacht and shouldn’t judge. Nevertheless I am talking about different amounts of money of realising the same size of ship.
What annoyed me the most in this project is that the owner didn’t listen and had to say I was right at the end of the day, spending a fortune on craning that should never have happened. In my opinion there are only two options left: fiberglassing the whole hull or scrapping the boat. It is hard to say, but you will now already not get back any money you spent in the ship….
6th July 2020 – With a group of friends we moved the Mouette to the Flandria yacht Harbour. We started the operation at 5 o’clock in the evening, but had to wait for the batteries to get charged. The lock was busy since they hadn’t worked for nearly a whole day. It took us some time since the ship is taking a lot of wind and we wanted to go gently. Around 10 o’clock we were moored in the marina, just in time before it got dark.