12th December 2020 – While I was in Holland, I managed to get three closed portholes for Tordino. Two for the entrance of the engine room and one for the front. For boat parts you must be in Holland. It is so expensive in Belgium….
Category: MS Tordino - page 26
10th December 2020 – I started early in the morning by cutting hardwood plywood for the wheelhouse. In the late afternoon, I had done most of it and my mother put a coat of oil on it. It is starting to look traditional again.
8th December 2020 – Today I mainly stripped down the wheelhouse. I started with the rotten parts and ended with most of the inside. Underneath the wheelhouse is a technical space, it was cleaned as well. A lot was done today, and it will be looking good again in the near future.
5th December 2020 – First the good news: the new charger is installed and I have heating again!. This is great. Thanks to my friends for helping me.
There was a small rotten piece under the door of the wheelhouse. While taking it away, I discovered more and more wet wood. So after about ten minutes of work, I just realize I can better rebuild the wheelhouse. There is now a cover over the roof. This will keep dry for a while. In the meantime the old interior will be removed. It is nothing special anyway and it exists of several layers of plywood and Formica. Time to make it look more traditional again. Maybe I’ll use some of the recovered interior from the Jeanne.
Together with my mother, we made some traditional curtains for the windows. The next step is to remove the modern rolling curtains and also replace them with traditional ones.
29th November 2020 – I had a quick check and the charger is holding it. In the meantime while I was there, I did some measuring of the new entrance and I’m getting there how to build it. It is difficult how to make a nice entrance and and still let it look traditional.
28th November 2020 – I already noticed late in the afternoon I had no AIS signal so there was no power aboard. When I checked the engine room it was not the mains power but the charger that is broken, a very expensive one… It lasted over ten years, so I can’t complain.
I used another charger to keep my ship alife since all my equipment is running of the inverter aboard..
11th November 2020 – Today we cleaned the decks of Tordino, worked in the museum hanging out new objects, adding more labels and lowering an one cylinder Bernard engine.
31st October 2020 – The last day in Belgium before the lockdown. Thankfully the DIY shops will remain open. In the early morning I went to a cheap tools shop that is closing tomorrow. I was there at 8:30 and the shop opens at 9:00. There was already a massive queue of people waiting. I bought some paint for the Stern, screws and tools.. I lowered it by 11 centimeters. It still looks high, but the difference in colour makes it look strange. Once painted, I hope it will be better.
Then I started looking at the wheelhouse. It needs a lot of maintenance as well. I was surprised to see how quickly Tordino is deteriorating. Next weekend, I will continue to work aboard.
25th October 2020 – I spent most of the morning welding and painting the framework for the skylight of Tordino.
24th October 2020 – The second box for the lights was mounted in the early morning. Tordino is starting to look better and better every day.
Later I went shopping, buying a metal sheet for the frame of the wooden skylight my mother is restoring. With one sheet, a few metal strips and hours of welding, I got very far today!
23rd October 2020 – The skylight for Tordino is nearly ready
I mounted the first of two boxes for the navigation lights. They are not mandatory, but it looks more traditional. The boxes came from the Arma where I salvaged them two years ago.
My mother and I cleaned the roof of the living room and kitchen. Most of the green paint is coming loose. A job for next year. I mounted a nice bench in hard wood. Fits with the new style of the ship.
In the afternoon, we changed the Library, creating more space.
20th October 2020 – Every evening, I try to add a few more documents of objects to the Adlib Inventory of Museumschip Tordino. Winter is the perfect time for this. Outside it is dark and cold, inside warm and cosy. Scanning documents and adding them to a database while some music is playing.
18th September 2020 – Last week I received a big skylight. It will serve on Tordino to replace the 70’s looking plastic skylight. A traditional wooden one is looking much better and since Tordino is now recognised as a historical ship in Flanders as well, I want to let it look good.
Like with all things you get for free, there is a lot of work that needs doing.
9Th October 2020 – The amount of books in the Library is growing. Every year I add some more bookshelves for the Library but their is no more space. I already removed the workshop behind the library and added cupboards. Now I added some more in the Library space itself, making it even more harder for people to sit. Not a good idea during the covid-19 period, but I have no other options.
In the afternoon the furniture was mounted while my mother continued cleaning and restoring the old models we received two months ago.
4th October 2020 – Such a sad weather, I was aboard Tordino scanning the covers of books and magazines. When I had some time left, I took pictures of the objects. In the late afternoon, I cleaned my living space, started the engines and did a checkup of the ship.
