Armida Travels Again!

 

Liou and I are back in France and Terry and Rosie are home in California.  Armida did not sell and we are not sorry.  Terry would love to be back on the canals as she really misses it, and we doubt Rosie would survive the trip, but she does continue to survive everything else, for how long? There were some issues with the cover that could not be resolved remotely, so here we are.  And while here there were other improvements that I've wanted to make, and the cover refurbishing will take some time.  So, might as well do some cruising.

So, what am I doing here?

Ok, now I get it.

Dinner and a Movie? All in one place!

The cover looks good from here.

Not so much from here

The frame was broken at the back but no major damage.  Some of the material is perishing due to the hotter summers and I have organized it to be repaired by mid-October.  At that time I'll rebuild the frame.  

So back in the water.

And around to the nice shady spot on the pontoons.   

A very good spot as the temperatures were into the 90s/high 30s and we got nice shade by 2pm.

And good sunrises.

And some misty mornings.

Saint Jean de Losne was a shabby town when we first started coming here but it has steadily improved.  It still doesn't have the charm of many other French towns it does have a unique church that they have been restoring over the last few years.  Maybe they will do the inside too.

If the French Canals are the Long Village then Saint Jean de Losne is the town square.   Ther are more inland cruising boats and boaters here than anywhere else in France and a lively social scene, on our boat included.  

And at the local bar on Wednesdays

It is also a crossroads where you reconnect with people.  This is Tom and Laurel from Washington state whom we met when they invited them on their barge when we rented a boat on the Canal du Midi in 2006.    They were one of those who convinced us that: "We can do this!".  We later heard they had sold their barge and given up cruising.  Well, yes and no.  They couldn't give it up and are now on their 3rd boat, passing though Saint Jean de Losne and heading south. 

After completing all my projects and meeting the two week rule we set off.   I've decided to cruise up the Petite Saone for a couple of weeks and turn around.  The Saone river transitions from the Grande Saone to the Petite Saone at the St. Jean de Losne, where the bridges are lower, the locks smaller and no big river cruise ships.  That meant I left the port and turned left to the north.

By now the weather had changed after a front and storms moved through.  It was mainly clear but with a chill north wind and afternoon clouds. As we go north the flat flood-plain lands fade and the woods close in.

After about 6 hours cruising (a long day for me) we had the visitors pontoon at Pontaillier to ourselves.

A nice town and a chilly morning.

After the sun got up, we left for a pleasant cruise to one of the more pleasant moorings, Mantoche

Lilou loves it with the enclosed grass right next to the boat and keeps bugging me to go out. 

There is a Swiss couple with their custom built boat that they retire to permanently.  They have three herding dogs that Lilou is interested in playing with, but they are not reciprocating.

Still chilly days not getting above   the 60s/low teens and cold at night.  We will stay here for two nights, After two weeks of getting up and checking my to do list it is nice to relax.   Now I can check the item: Write Blog.

Not Over Yet.

Despite some interest Armida has not sold yet, and our old dog Rosie is still with us,

Terry is staying home with Rosie but Lilou and I will be returning at the end of this month.

More to come.

Reflections

 Armida, you've been a great boat!

She is on the market now and we'll see what happens.  Our broker is optimistic, but if she doesn't sell over the winter, we may be back next year to take her back to the Netherlands where there is a  bigger market. 

It has been hard coming to this decision, not made easier by the wonderful weather recently, but it has been coming for a while.  We have two grandchildren in Sydney, and a new one in Southern California, 5 hours from here.  We do still love France and the vagabond life on the boat, but something needs to adjust and this is it.

Armida was the perfect boat for us as it turned out.  Big enough to be a comfortable home for two, and perefect for the dogs, yet easily maneouvered, and shallow and low enough for all the canals we wanted to do.  She was even the perfect size to be single handed, once I had the ideal fender arrangment worked out.  We hope someone buys her who appreciates her as much as we have.

If you are interested, ro know someone who might be she is for sale here: 

https://www.leboatbrokerage.com/annonce-bateau-valk-kruisers-valk-kruisers-1260-393274.html?l=en

Dog not included.

Working on It.

St. Jean de Losne Marina

As it was time to get to work the weather changed to cool and rainy on the day of liftout.  I felt I had allowed enough time to gt everything dne.

However the scope is must larger as over the last couple of weeks  I had reluctantly come to the inevitable conclusion that it was time to put the boat up for sale.  This meant that there was no putting projects off until next year, and all that stuff on the boat has to be gone.

This is where all the radar arches on Dutch boats end up in France.  (We didn't have one)

All tucked away and put to bed.

Farewell to Nathalie and Laure in the Office.

And bye to David Blanquart, it has been our home base for 10 years.

I got everything done but used up all my extra time; we got to the platform in Dijon for the train to Paris with 3 minutes to spare.

We had an afternoon and night in Paris where Lilou caught up on the latest news from the capital.

And we had out last drink at the Place de Vosges.

 But we had planty of time at the airport.

Bye France

The Final Stretch

 Dijon to St. Jean de Losne

The magnificent weather continued as we puttered around Dijon for a few days.

Fortuanetly I didn't need anything from the bakery on a Sunday morning.

The big boats cleared out on Monday. 

But not the big fish!

15 Kilos!

Then back he went.  The same guy was back the next day trying to catch it again.  No Luck.

For us it was two days down the long stretch of staight canal to St John de Losne

OK Lilou, back on the boat.  Oh all right I'll get you.

These "House Boats" are poppimg up along the canal, possibly Air BnBs.

The trip was fairy uneventful except for the afternoon of the first day when the rev counter stopped working, in fact all the instruments did, as well as the bow thrusters.  I didn't dare attempt to stop the engine in the locks and hold up traffic so kept going until I got to the mooring I was aiming for.  Even the engine shutoff didn't work and I had to physically operate the lever. 

I then spent a a couple of hours checking all the likely suspects such as fuses, key switches and tracing the instrument wiring, all the while "catastrophizing" about being stuck in the middles of nowhere.  Finally I noticed a diagram of an obscure connector on one of the original (dutch) drawings.  Wher could that be.  Aha, it was a collection of connectors on the back of the engine, one of which had unclipped and come loose. Plug it back in and "Voila"  all good.. Phew!

The Last Man Out

I set off on Friday in 2C/35F weather to head back down the canal towards Dijgon as the last boat of the season in this section of the canal.  A little later the sun came into the valley and another perfect day ensued.

Three days earlier I met friend Ross from Sydney who was staying in Paris.  After a walk around charming Dijon and the obligatory caress of the lucky owl we were off up the canal into the Ouche valley.

As a long time boater, he was set to work doing the ropes as forrard hand, a position I occupy on his boat.  He quickly improved his lassoing skills.

At one lock the bollard I was aiming at was occupied by a curte french bulldog who sat right next to it and stared at me, or maybe Lilou, as I hesitated throwing the rope and possibly pulling him into the lock.  The lock keeper finally intervened.

The first  day out of Dijon is pretty but not that interesting.  The next day was better as later in the day I offered Ross the choice of stopping of continuing.  "More Locks Please" was the response,  We continued on to Pont d'Ouche.

The next morning we came back down 5 locks (downhill is a new experience) to La Bussiere where we capped off the trip with lunch at the Abbey which is now a lovely Relais & Chateau Hotel.

Ross caught a cab back to Dijon station, Lilou and I had a rest and took the next two days heading back to Dijon, assisted most of way by the very frienly and helpful eclusier, Olivier.

As we continued down we passed the last of the large Hotel Barges (badly  parked) who are leaving this section to finish their season elswhere.  He will be the last man out of this last bit.

We are now in the port of Dijon with the other big boys who are loading up with guests and heading down the rest of the canal in the next couple of days.  I will wait a few more days as they move slowly.   The weather is still pefrect, or as one of the skippers described it" "Exceptionell".  Truly.

Perfect weather for?

Well, almost anything really. Beautiful and sunny, reaching 34/75 around 6. Clear nights and mornings. It was that way in Besancon as I revisited the Citadel and continued as I made my way back to Dole, but a storm was forecast so I left to get a better view from the rural mooring at Choisey. 

It was a bit of a let down with some wind and rain but no fireworks. Lilou appreciated that.  

                                                         

The next day was back to St. Jean de Losne where I spent one night on the river quay before moving into the marina to get to work .

The pefect weather was back and this time it was perfect for the project I had at hand,  

The main  cabin has a hatch that is big enough to lift the big engine, and provides welcome cooling at the end of a hot day.  It was hand built but over the years a little water had got in and the teak decking was buckling. I had been putting it off as a major job  involves a lot of disruption on the boat. As it's ouside, the perfect wesather and the forecast were, well, pefect..  

Removing the teak was easy and underneath was not as bad as I feaared, nor a good as I hoped.   It tooks me about 6 days and still needs a little finishing off but it's waterproof and in much better shape than it was. 

            

                               

After a week of work it was off up the Canal de Bougogne to Dijon.  Friday, I spoke to the lock keepers to let them know I was leaving the next day and would take two days.  There was much discussion and I was made to understand that there would only be two lock keepers available on the whole Canal on Sunday and it might be slow travel.  (Locks on this canal are all manually operated).  The next morning (Saturday) I showed up at 9am and told them I thought it would be best to try to go all the way to Dijon that day.  No problem, they said, but oh, by thevway we only have two lock keepers working today.  Oh well, French Shrug).

It actually went perfectly:  All the locks were in the right state, I had only lock keeper in the morning and two after lunch and  21 locks later  at 5:30 I was nicely tied up in Dijon's near empty and free port.

And the weather is still perfect, for everyting.

                               

Yes  Lilou, it's time to get back on the boat.

But before I get to the next project it will be a short jaunt further up the canal with friend Ross from Sydney. Then back into the port here before that part of the Canal closes due to low water on  October 8th.