Week 237: Grind, scrape, paint, sand, grind, paint... but the wheelhouse is back up
We work hard to complete the wheelhouse while the weather is good.
It's been a grind in more ways than one. But progress has been made. With the bout of stunningly good weather, we've managed to complete the sanding of all the wheelhouse sides, and today (Sunday morning), the front window went back in temporarily, allowing us to put things together again.
If things feel repetitive, it's because they are. We've skipped two work-free Sundays now as we push on with "getting shit done" because, frankly, there's no better time to have the roof off when the weather is as good as it has been.
The three-masted Rembrandt Van Rijn is at the dry dock.
The shipyard has been abuzz now for a week or two on the imminent arrival of a three-masted sailing ship. Most boats that go through the dry dock are flat-bottomed barges like Delfine, which don't need any support, but this is a proper ship. It was built here at the yard (well, refurbished anyway) over almost ten years, so its "homecoming" was a big deal. It operates out of Norway and Greenland, running cruises into the ice and Arctic, including Svalbard. When we arrived on Sunday to do some work in the afternoon, it was sitting alongside the quay, waiting to head into the dock on Monday morning.
We filled the water tanks on Sunday (10,000 litres), an education on how little we know about cold weather climates. Having filled the tanks, we assumed that was it, but we were told on Monday that we should have "blown the lines" to prevent water freezing in the pipes. Fortunately, nothing happened, but it did drop to -3 overnight.
On Monday I collected my Belgian drivers license, another piece of admin done. Then, it was out to Simon's workshop. I spent quite a bit of time there this week, continuing to build the new roof panels and sanding back the stair hatch to the original wood which was covered with thick white paint.
Lots of sanding and construction. The insert in the hatch in the photo is just temporary, it now fits perfectly. Someone is carving a dragonfly in the yard of Simon's Workshop
Tuesday was my birthday, and Karina bought pastries to celebrate. We enjoyed sitting in the sun on Delfine in the wheelhouse with the roof off. It's moments like this that make it all worthwhile.
Gradually, we collapsed more panels, then eventually had Simon come back and pick up the rear and side panels so he could repair some splits. The wheelhouse was completely down, making Delfine look like a different boat.
Gradually dismantling the wheelhouse, day by day.
One evening we headed over to the three master, the Rembrandt Van Rijn. Peter arranged with the Captain for us to have a tour, so onboard, we went to look through the inner workings of a "proper" cruise ship that carries 32 guests. We were amazed that with that many passengers, it only had 3 front of house staff (Chef, Hotel Manager and a Steward), which made us feel better about handling four guests. One amusing piece of technology is the FLIR (Front Looking Infrared) detector, which is used to spot ice in the water when they cruise at night. Two bits of string (yes, literal string) are running from the centre to the bottom of the display panel, making an upside-down V. As long as the ice is outside the V on display, you won't hit it!
Some candid shots from inside the sailing ship. In the wheelhouse, you can see the FLIR screen with the upside down V string.
Karina has been a champion, working hard on sanding the wheelhouse panels. They are all very sun-damaged, but gradually, she's been bringing them back to life. Removing the brass hardware and polishing it with lemon juice. Sanding back all the old varnish to bare wood. Layering coats of oil. Taping and protecting the windows. It's slow and tedious, but gradually, it's all returned to life. The end of the sanding is in sight. In fact, yesterday, we hit a milestone: there are no more windows left to sand around.
We finished the vacuum bagging process at the workshop and now have all the panels. We cut side strips for them, and I sealed them so they are now water resistant. The beams were all painted, and the final coat is being applied. Bit by bit, it was coming together.
The side pieces for the roof panels. Kaisen working on the front panel of the wheelhouse.
On Thursday, the upholsterer came to the boat with Kristof (building project manager) and Emile (architect). It was satisfying seeing the fabric samples in place on the boat, and we had a lot of detailed discussions about how the new cushions for the wheelhouse would be split, how the fabric would lie and more. We also resolved some technical discussions regarding the cupboards under the stairs. As Emile said afterwards, it's good when you get to the fabric fitout discussions – from a planning perspective, things are now all in place.
We celebrated Thursday night by stopping off at a cocktail bar in the sun for fun and part of our "getting to know Gent" experience (and, of course, working out where to take our friends in the future). It was very relaxing sitting alongside the canal, eating a very good popcorn shrimp and enjoying a drink.
Enjoying the cocktail bar...and smiling with a mouthful of shrimp
By Friday, the cracked panels were repaired – Simon cut out the wood and fitted a new section with the same wood from the wheelhouse. You barely notice if you don't know what you're looking for. And the front panel was mostly completed – it's still missing glass (that's being ordered), and there's some on-site fit-out to go, but it was ready to be put back into place. The wheelhouse is a self-supporting box, so you need all four sides to stabilise it.
With such good weather, the front deck of Delfine became a sanding workshop. And varnishing.
Saturday, we finally finished the sanding and prep and managed to get several coats of oil on just in time so that today (Sunday), we could go back to Delfine and get the wheelhouse back up.
So why the urgency? Well, there's a few reasons. The main one, of course, is the weather. It's been amazing, but rain is on the horizon again, and we need to button up. It's also time to finish this project and move on to the next one. It's the school holidays here, and Simon is off next week —lots of little reasons why we need to press on. The big one, however, is that we are heading back to Greece for a couple of weeks and need to leave Delfine secured.
We'll be in Athens to do a sea trial with an interested buyer for Matilda. Getting to this point has been much slower than we wanted, but we're almost here now. It's stressful, though! We are dealing with lawyers and the new buyer (well-intentioned but has many questions) while also working hard on Delfine.
There are a few bits and pieces of our life in Greece that we need to wrap up, including bank accounts, as annoyingly, we've lost access to these due to "Know your customer" requirements, and we don't seem to be able to give the correct information here from Belgium to unlock them.
It will be a busy time. We're taking a break from Delfine to work on Matilda (out of one frying boat into a fire boat, maybe?), but it will still be a welcomed break. Although with Matilda, it's not oiling wood. It's polishing stainless steel!
While we're away, there might be some progress on the floors – one of the first tasks for the building is refurbishing the parquetry. While this seems like something you might do last, it's much easier when nothing is in the way.
Wheelhouse is back up. Beautiful crisp cream coloured beams, refurbished side panels (with one accidentally broken window we'll have to replace...) and the ugly old tarp back on momentarily until we can finish the roof panels once I return from Greece.
Today, we succeeded in putting the panels for the wheelhouse back up. There's still so much to do, though. Lots of bits of hardware still need polishing. The roof panels aren't completed yet, so we put the old ones back on (which meant having to cover the roof with a tarp again because it leaks). We need glass, more hardware, and insulation—it's a long list.
But wow. We also need to step back and marvel at how far we've come! All the outside is now oiled. The wheelhouse beams, which were coated in flaking wallpaper and black with mould, now look amazing. Several cracks and damaged parts have been repaired now. When you step back on the dock and look at Delfine, you can see how pretty she will be with the new roof and paint job. We are GETTING there. Slowly but surely, things are improving. Inside, we're almost ready for painting. Karina has been plugging away, filling holes, sanding, smoothing and making ready.
We're tired. It's a lot more work than we expected. But we're also proud of what we've achieved, and it's beginning to slowly turn the corner with more and more things coming to a close. Never as quickly as we'd like, but they are progressing.
Until next time,
Tim & Karina