4th November 2015 – My mother came to see the ship. She realizes like everybody else, there is a lot of work that needs doing. It is not exactly a ship I’m proud of at the moment.
Category: MS Op Hoop van Zegen - page 6
3rd November 2015 – A friend came to say hello. It was warm, so we sat outside and had a drink, just enjoying the new ship. Sitting inside is still impossible because of the fuel smell. I will try to remove some of the interior next week.
1st November 2015 – Just continued for a few more hours removing the floor and measuring the ship. There is metal left then expected and this good news. The deck between the accommodation and the old wheelhouse is still there. This is good news. Less welding, and something to start from.
31st October 2015 – I have a wheelhouse in storage, and was planning on using it for the ‘Op Hoop van Zegen’. It is 2.60 meters wide and to large for the lemmeraak. To make sure what is left from the original den on deck, I started removing the floor in the wheelhouse.
Before I can remove the floor, I need to remove the walls. It did take some time, certainly when you have no power tools available. Back to the old fashioned way…
29th October 2015 – I received a copy of the registration documents from the Dutch Kadaster. There is some basic information on the vessel. Looking a bit further, I discovered she was built in 1916 as a fishing vessel. I even found a picture of her.
In the evening, I cleaned out most of the fuel. There are now some puddles left around in the bilges. I will need some old clothes to clean it out more properly; Sadly enough, the smell does stay in the ship and around it.
I had some time left, so I started emptying the engine room. I need a few drives with my van to empty everything. There is so much rubbish collected, I don’t know what to do. Sadly enough, I didn’t find anything useful yet…
27th October 2015 – Rubber gloves, a small bucket, a funnel, a torch and ten empty fuel cans. This is the equipment that I needed for one evening removing fuel from the bilges. It took me three hours and a few breaks to catch some fresh air. The positive side is I see some more bilges and some less fuel. A friend came to remove the old metal gangway. It was blocking all the windows on one side.
At the end of the evening, the lemmeraak was five cm higher on the water, so I did already remove a lot of rubbish!
25th October 2015 – I came by car to collect all the barrels and buckets with rubbish. I have empty fuel containers on the Aquarel and will pick them up on a later date to clean the bilges. Once the smell will be gone, I hope I can start measuring and drawing plans. Being aboard at the moment is not that nice.
The engine room stayed dry and that’s nice to know. There is an old set of batteries, but they are disconnected. I hope I can reuse them to start the engine. There is an old generator aboard, probably a French engine from a car. No idea whether it will start, since the control panel is missing.
24th October 2015 – Happiness turns into a mixed feeling by entering the ship. I have been aboard several times in the past, but she hadn’t become any better. The fuel tanks had been leaking into the bilges. I can stay in the accommodation for around 10 minutes. I changed locks and started cleaning the inside of the ship. All rubbish went into big barrels and buckets. A close friend came and started laughing. After a while she realised how much work I was having…
It was enough for the day. I took a shower and had a drink.