Category: MS Watergeus - page 42

25th March 2008 – I went to a skipper living on the first barge on the canal. He is willing to move my ship in September to Ghent for an event on old monuments.

24th March 2008 – I always thought I was good at planning, and yes at some stage I’m, but now when the details need to be known, I’m stuck. Nearly twice a week I need to ask neighbours for advice. They are much further then me, so it is not bad to use their knowledge instead of making their faults all over again.

A maybe simple looking question, such as ‘where to put the switches for the lights’ makes my head go crazy. No idea, I have never thought on that one. By the end of the week al these and many more questions needs answers, So it will be again a very busy week.

23th March 2008 – Easter and snow, not a combination that we can see every year. I woke up at 5 o’clock and decided to have a look outside. Snow on the ship and in the street, a bit dark but perfect for some pictures. Inside temperature, around 1,2 degrees Celsius. I went back to bed and an hour later, I had to switch on the petroleum fire.

In the morning and afternoon I really finished the floor (this time it is finished completely), while my parents cleaned the remaining floor bits of the original cargo hold.

The best way to clean the floor is doing it with a metal brush. It is a hard job that will help you training your muscles, but it causes a lot of dust.

20th March 2008 – Since all the wood needs to go to a neighbour a few ships further, and it had to go quickly, my neighbour decided to move his ship along mine. It took half a day of to help and enjoy this little trip.

He had to sail through the first bridge, try to turn and then sail back. It is to narrow for us to turn, so we could sail backwards and then turn or sail forwards and turn after the bridge. He had chosen the second option.

17th March 2008 – The first year I don’t go drinking some Guinness beer on this day. I had to order wood for the framework in the ship and the wood store closes at 5 o’clock.

The azobe wood in the hold is not savable. Not only will it take to much work, it has been gone to far to be saved. Therefore somebody will come and collect it for his fire. Sad, but at least it still has some use. A few good planks will be re-used for a smaller floor in my ship. I started at 7 in the evening with some good music and two heavy lights. By the time it was 2 o’clock in the morning, one third of the wood was on deck. There was no space left to move, so I had to quit. One good thing about this: My hold looks bigger again.

15th March 2008 – Mainly worked on the garden today, like I spoke to somebody yesterday who asked if I had a garden. Yes I do, a few flowers and little trees on deck give me a green impression.

In the afternoon a friend living a few ships further came. He started looking at my plan to convert the hold and when he was finished, nearly everything had to change. The wood I had ordered last month is fine, but not suitable for the main construction. Furthermore he made me have a good look at some ideas I had. Most of them were fine in theory, but in practice non realisable or to expensive. I know what to do the coming week!

11th March 2008 – While I’m still making more concrete plans for converting the hold, I found it was time to make a trial construction.

9th March 2008 – The intention was to clean the cargo hold from last week and to start sorting out the wood. By the time the hold was cleared, I continued to do the remaining part of the floor, around 40m2. It took me all afternoon but still I’m not finished. I hope to finish it next Saturday.

1st March 2008 – There is a meeting of the Vlaamse Woonschepen, an organization that protects and fights for the rights of the Flemish house boat people. The meeting and reception are being organized by the house boats of Bruges, which I’m part of.

In the morning I cleaned my hold, put some decorating stuff in and did shopping for the meal tomorrow. I didn’t have that much stuff by hand, so every item I had was spread over the hold such as an air vent, old fuel cans, small winches, meters from an engine, anchors and navigation lights.

24th February 2008 – When I woke up, I had an idea to clean two tanks. When I finished the day, all four tanks were cleaned, placed in position and I moved the empty fuel tank on location as well.

After placing the first tank on starboard side, I started realizing there was a big chance not all of them would fit. After three tanks were placed, I had to push the last one in between. I’m glad I didn’t buy 6 tanks!

16th February 2008 – Mainly cleaned the tanks today, but not that hard. Thursday was enough for me! I just hope not to put this job on a long term project.

In the morning a company came to make a price for the insulation, I’m considering to use sprayed foam. There are many reasons why I would take it, but as many not to take the stuff. A few reasons are:

• Easy, it takes one day only
• Whole space is insulated, nicely closed and little to no chance to have condensation
• What to do with welding?
• My sides still have cement from her watersupply career, so if this falls of, so does the insulation?

14th February 2008 – A very romantic day, except for my neighbour and me. The watertanks arrived, I believe the hardest day of 2008. Since my crane can’t reach into the hold, we had to lower them by hand. The tanks, each around 100kgs are not exactly what I would call easy to handle.

They arrived at noon, so in the early morning I painted the newly built floor and the metal around it.

In the afternoon we cleaned my tanks and put them in the hold, later I helped my neighbour who had a car crane. A bit easier, but not less hard.

10th February 2008 – Before finishing the wooden floor for the watertanks I cleaned the remaining bilges and painted them with line oil. Everything looks shiny clean!