Week 236: Here comes the sun

Belgian weather is predictably unpredictable. Still, if we've learnt anything here, it's that you take your chances. With the weather looking to improve, Simon (the carpenter) becoming available and no other major work scheduled, the time to really tackle the wheelhouse had arrived.

For those just joining in, the front window/wall of the wheelhouse was damaged back in Week 213: Lessons galore on the Canal du Centre when we hit a bridge, smashing three of the windows and severely cracking the woodwork. Delfine has a collapsible wheelhouse and the roof is made with detachable plywood panels. At some point in her history (probably more than one some points), those panels were replaced. The current version was not built to last. The panels were too thin, they'd all warped and they left huge gaps in the ceiling. Eventually we locked down the leaks with a makeshift vinyl canopy over the roof, but it's ugly, has no insulation and is all around not up to scratch with the quality experience we want to deliver.

I've been speaking with Simon about this project for a while. We'd always intended for him to rebuild the front panel of the wheelhouse and he had ideas for the roof panels as well. First thing Monday, he arrived and we dismantled everything, just in time for the rain to start. It's been frustrating, battling the weather and the constant leaks this week, but, it is important and waiting on good weather is not going to get things finished. We took the front window and one of the support beams over to Simon's workshop as well as the hatch that covers the staircase, which let Simon start planning while I returned to work on Delfine.

Internally, we've been patching and repairing holes still. It's slow going, but Karina has done an amazing job, sculpting and repairing some quite nasty looking patches that you can't even see now. She is the Rodin of wood putty.

Tuesday I went to exchange my Greek drivers licence for a Belgian one. This became what I consider a "typically Belgian" experience. The rules are quite clear. They don't generally exchange an existing European license for a Belgian one (which for most Europeans, probably makes some sort of sense – if you're a Greek national, even if you live in Belgium, there's no issue with having a Greek license). Of course, I'm a bit of an edge case here – it makes no sense to continue with a Greek license when I don't live there anymore. "No worries," says the woman behind the counter – "if Brussels will not approve it, we will get you to do a medical test like you are thinking of becoming a taxi driver and then they MUST approve it."

Wednesday it was back out to Simon's workshop and we built a mould for the new roof panels in the wheelhouse. This has been an interesting process. The way we're building the new panels is to make them a fair bit thicker and heavier. To do that, we've created a mould, we glue three sheets of plywood together and then place them over the mould inside a large plastic bag. That gets sealed and the air sucked out, creating a vacuum that bends the panels over the mould. Eight hours later, the glue is dried and you have a lovely curved roof panel. Then we'll trim them up to size and fit them. The big design changes are that we now have a series of six single panels that cover the width of the wheelhouse (instead of twelve separate panels with a split down the middle that leaks) and they are much thicker and sturdier.

Our contract with the builders is now signed and several things are starting in earnest. On Thursday morning I started at the workshop and created the second panel, gluing and putting it into the vacuum bag (we can do about one a day), and then headed back to Delfine to meet with the builders. The bathroom contractors arrived and did the "proper" measure for them to begin constructing the interiors and the walls for the bathroom. Building is finally beginning "for real" – we're moving beyond planning to doing.

There was one last major hole I needed to patch. I've been avoiding it as it was on a nasty curved piece of wall on the inside of the deck stairs. I was tempted to hand it off to the professionals, but Karina pushed me to give it a go and using a few ideas from working with Simon, I was pleased that I actually managed to make it all fit back together quite well. We called this mini project Humpty Dumpty.

Martin and Jeff (the electricians) were back aboard again during the week too, things are slowly wrapping up here. The gauges are back into the console now and most of the switches all hooked up. We've made a few minor electrical adjustments, wiring a few things in permanently, we've got bilge alarms and all in all, it's progressing nicely. It still feels like there's a lot to do, but it has to wait for building to be completed.

On Friday I spent most of the day at the workshop again, first creating the third panel and then working on the stair hatch. This wooden box creates headroom when you step down from the wheelhouse into the kitchen and is detachable so the front of the wheelhouse can be removed. At some stage it was painted white, which is all peeling and horrible, and a plywood panel inserted which was cracking and splintering, but overall, it's actually made of teak and the wood is in great condition underneath. Simon cut out the plywood panel and then I spent around 4 hours chiselling out the old plywood around the edges to make room for the new panel to be inserted. Once that was done, I started sanding it. It's slow going but it's work that I can do and both Karina and I believe in trying to reuse and restore what we can, even if it might be quicker to remake some pieces. I think it's going to look really smart when it's finished.

We had a slower morning on Saturday, but returned to Delfine as the weather was improving to take off the temporary roof we'd made on Monday to tackle the supports. These aluminium struts curve over the wheelhouse and the plywood roof panels lie on top of that. They were covered in tape, painted, covered in mould and generally in poor condition. Together we stripped them back, lightly sanded and then I've started painting them. They'll look very smart in the same paint that finishes the outside, a high gloss cream.

Today, Sunday, we're back off to Delfine again, breaking our "no Sunday" work rule, because the weather is too good not to take advantage of while the wheelhouse is detached. We want to get everything finished and back together as quickly as we can.

Until next time,

Tim & Karina