5th December 2017 – It was dry and more then 7°C, perfect for repairing the windows in the wheelhouse.
Category: MS Watergeus - page 12
29th November 2017 – Another night of heavy raining. While I went to the engine room, water was running from the ceiling on several spots. I tried putting a few buckets before going to work. I can no longer ignore there is no problem…
28th November 2017 – I managed to finish most of my cables. Only a few more need to done. I just ordered my two VHF radios and a set of antennas. Once they are delivered, I can finish the panels and hopefully, everything will work.
26th November 2017 – I drilled a few wholes so I can put through the wires for the bilge pumps and other equipment down in the engine room.
14th November 2017 – Two big machines: the Solar Panel controller and the inverter are now hanging in the engine room. It took much more time then expected to bolt them in the bulkhead. I had to ran several times between the two compartments, running up and down the stairs to tighten the bolts.
13th November 2017 – I mounted the first cable gutter in the engine room. The cables need to run tightly and clean, not like it used to be, around everything and everywhere. I don’t want to think yet how many cables that will be running through the engine room, but with all the equipment, there will be a lot!
Two power cables are running from the battery. One of them is spare or in case I need another set of batteries.
7th November 2017 – I just taped a bit of my roof with aluminum tape. It will hold for now and at least it should stop the water from coming in and the wood can now start to dry out.
6th November 2017 – It was still leaking. I think water is coming from somewhere else….
5th November 2017 – Soon after getting up, I checked the wheelhouse. Dry on the side, but a new leak one meter further. With the remaining silicon, I managed to do something.
29th October 2017 – The dashboard in the wheelhouse was no good anymore. I quickly built a new one in plywood. Finishing it will be for later. It is now important that it holds the meters and that the cables become connected to it.
I have two switch panels and a battery meter. There is a bilge alarm and that is it. The idea is to keep it simple.
18th October 2017 – When I moved onto my ship several years ago, the meetbrief was still having the old address where I lived before. To get a permission to have radio equipment aboard, I had to change this document. There are two options:
- driving to Schoten (Antwerp) or
- changing it in Ostend.
It is one of these administrative hassles you just need to do, but it nearly takes you half a day to do so.
14th October 2017 – I finally found some time again to work on the Watergeus. A small job, with a good result. I mounted two fire extinguishers, on in the income and one in the kitchen.
29th September 2017 – A job I was hating was removing the old wiring. I had to check every wire there was. No matter how carefully I was, the light went out in the engine room anyway.
28th September 2017 – There is a lot of pitting on deck. It has been there before I bought her, but it is hard to maintain and I believed the metal was weak underneath. While chipping, we discovered it was rotten. Some parts on deck have been doubled where it was the worst. Other parts will be done at a later stage since I ran out of metal. Most of my spare parts are still on Tordino.
Between the engine room and the storage unit used to be a bulkhead. It was removed when the Watergeus became a water supply ship. In February, I rebuild most of the bulkhead. The bottom plate had to be done, but there were some pipes running through from an old fuel tank. We disconnected the fuel tank, so I can easily remove the fuel pipes and the old fuel pump.
In the afternoon, we managed to get the anchor winch running again. She was stuck. After removing the brakes and spraying a lot of wd40, she started turning…
I made two holes in the wheelhouse for the wiring. To prevent rain from coming in, I welded two rvs pipes. Some brackets for the lights were mounted and the day was over…
Some friends moored alongside late in the evening, we had a drink and time to close the day!
16th August 2016 – The wheelhouse got a new coat of yellow paint. She will need a second one. The lifeboat got her second coat of brown and the boxes for the navigation lights were also repainted.