Week 262: Finishing touches
We slow down and relax this week as we start polishing off the small tasks on the list.
With the heavy push on the stern cabin now complete, it's time to slow down, relax, and enjoy Delfine.
This week has been one where we've tackled some of the little jobs that have been building up. It's been a pleasant change. Sleeping in, cruising on out to Delfine for a few hours, then having a relaxed evening at home.
Karina painted the crew cabin door and the inside of the stairs. I promptly mounted a sign on the inside with screws that were too long and put a hole through the newly painted surface. Whoops.
Whoops. Always check the length of your screws before fastening something from the other side of a door.
Our fire safety inspection was completed, which in turn meant we could register as accommodation with Tourism Flanders. That's now complete. We chased up the ES-TRIN (Our European Waterways Safety Certificate, which is required for navigation). The surveyor is on holiday, but back tomorrow, so we should be able to progress that. Lots of necessary paperwork is being completed.
Karina interviewed Peter at the shipyard for an article in the The Barge Association magazine, Blue Flag. It's a small way for us to support his business and to share useful information with the community, too. All about how to effectively care for and paint steel boats.
We got out and about this week, enjoying the late summer evenings and the canals in Ghent.
With all the painting and the touch-ups completed on the external windows, it was time to finish the silicone sealing on the joints. I went around with Karina taping, then I followed behind and closed off any small holes and gaps left from us when we were picking out old silicone while painting.
Frederic came back to complete a lot more of the electrical work. He fixed a couple of minor things and installed the final power sockets. We've also added a new light to each guest bathroom to make that brighter, so he ran the cables, but that's now waiting on the light itself arriving. We're at the stage here where everything left is just "plug it in" more or less (or screw it in for the plumbing).
Lots of small jobs. Fitting taps (temporary ones). Gouging out old joints and resealing to stop cracking. Putting up toilet roll holders and towel hooks. Fitting a brass plate to hide some holes on the console :D Using the weird tube thing on the side of the boat as a fancy mop holder to dry the mop!
The bathroom taps are still delayed, so I purchased some basic ones for the time being and installed those. Now we have running water in the bathroom hand basins, too!
With the electrical sockets completed, we were able to move forward on a critical item. A new coffee machine! We're really pleased with our new De'Longhi, which makes a decent flat white with the press of a button. Perfect for us and our guests. We've also ordered the TV for the salon.
Karina and I looked at each other this week and decided that, actually, living on Delfine was suddenly more attractive than the apartment! It's time to move back on board and settle in for a bit. Part of testing the boat and getting to know her again. Now that we have excellent coffee on board, we'll be moving back to live on Delfine from Monday for the week.
This meant needing to buy pans for our induction cooktop! We don't have any on the boat that we can use. That was done yesterday. We're all set to go.
We headed out to Dokfeesten. One of the many Ghent neighbourhood festivals, this time at the old docks at Dok Noord, which is now a residential area. Sophie moved her boat this week back to Dok Noord, where she has a space, no longer in the shipyard! A big milestone.
In fact, while there are still many items on our to-do list, there are only two left to complete the "luxury experience". We still need the toilet seats (they arrived with Frederic, but unfortunately, were the wrong size!), and the diesel-powered water heater isn't quite right yet. That limits our hot water in some circumstances, but we can still run up the generator or shore power and create hot water with electricity.
This week, we're looking forward to living on Delfine and knocking over some more small jobs. Testing for leaks through the dog hatch again with the rain that's setting in (it's FINALLY looking promising that it's fixed, but I've said that before). And moving Delfine to Portus Ganda to settle in for our launch weekend where we have invited all our friends from Ghent who have helped us set up and create such an amazing, luxury boat.
Until next time,
Tim & Karina