Cruising again!

Seurre

Our throttle cable is fixed and I can add one more skill to my list, and at last we are away.

 

Today started  off cool but ended sunny and warm in the little town of Seurre which is at the start of the “large” Saone.  This where the river gets wider and even slower as it makes its way to Lyon where it joins the Rhone. Seurre is a lovely little town and the mooring, when we arrived at noon, pretty and peaceful.  Now it is 6pm and the rental boats are still arriving, “Rembrandt”  the big tourist hotel boat has just moored further down so it is not quite as peaceful, but still pleasant.

Now we can take our time, leave when we want, and stop when we feel like it - what we like about this life.  I have not quite relaxed into the slower pace yet but it won’t take long. Terry is already there and the dogs - well they have their own rhythm anyway.

It is supposed to rain tomorrow so we may stay here, or not.  When we do leave we will take a day to Chalon sur Saone and spend a few days exploring this larger town before heading into the Canal du Centre.

Here’s wishing Skye a very happy birthday.

A day at a French Laundry

Saint Jean de Losne

No, of course not THE French Laundry, but one more important to us. Here there is a Laundromat right on the quay in town which makes doing laundry not such a chore.  It is a grey, rainy day and we can pop the clothes in the machine and retreat to our cozy boat and watch TV with British people outside on boats wet and cold in London as they celebrate the Queens Jubilee. 

We have just had our friends/neighbours Craig and Toni visit us in Dole, where we puttered about for a couple of days in glorious weather. We hope they enjoyed their introduction to canal life as we enjoyed having them here.  They were very easy to have on board, pitched in with meal making and are now off for another three weeks of travel.

Coming back from Dole I went to increase speed coming out of the lock and nothing happened, we just slid out to the waiting pontoon.  After some poking about I discovered a broken throttle cable to the outside steering position and was able to rig it so the inside on still worked, which got us back here. Let’s hope this is the last thing to go wrong this year and I will spend tomorrow (no more I hope) snaking in a new one so we can set off on Tuesday,when the weather is supposed to improve, down the river Saone and into the Canal du Centre.

Wet and Happy

Dole.

At last we are in the water – the weather is great, life is good again!

After dealing with the minefield of May’s public holidays in France, adventures in plumbing that lead nowhere, waiting for parts that a) weren’t ordered and b) was the wrong part number, express couriers that took the long way round and various other frustrations we finally got in the water on Friday. A test up the river proved everything to be working fine and we are happy campers.   We had a jovial dinner with friends from last season (Pete and Allison from Il Largo) and a couple we met way back in the Netherlands, (Frank and Jill from Detente) and set off for Dole again. While we got bored with the little town of Saint-Jean-de-Losne, it is not called the centre of the French waterways for nothing.  We must have met at least 10 other boats that we have spent time with over the last two years.

We decided that our first trip should be in the relative calm of a canal rather than the large Soane River that has few moorings and still a fairly strong current so it more difficult should anything go wrong, and Dole is a pleasant place to meet our friends Craig and Toni who arrive tomorrow, that is if you don’t factor the carnival that had set up across the canal for Doles big weekend of excitement.  The fireworks were fun but the noise of the rides and screams until 2am were not so much.  Fortunately it is closing down today.

Lilou is not yet sure about this home that keeps moving and doesn’t like walking on the pontoons but loves all the action she can see, Rosie has settled back in nicely. Still got final cleaning and organizing to do but hope to get into the relaxed routine we expected  two weeks ago.

High and Dry

Still here and still out of the water.  We were thrilled when the welder started work on Thursday giving us a good shot of getting finished over the weekend, but of course this is France.  Thursday was a bank holiday but the yard still worked, why? So they could take the Friday off and make it a long weekend of course.

Still we have managed to check off some items: the water system seems to be working OK after having to replace the expensive shower mixer tap that froze despite my best efforts to drain it.  The electricals are good, so all that remains is the engine which looks to be OK.  Some of the Unknowns are resolved, hopefully we will be in the water by mid-week.

There has been steady rain in April and May so the canals that were going to close are now open so we are back to plan A, which is through the Canal du Centre and over the Nivernais, which is good as we never did formulate a plan B.

Here is what happens if you spend too much time in one place:

Unknowns

Thank you Donald Rumsfeld.  Much as I would like to forget you, your aphorism about known and unknown, unknowns is resonating with us now.  I  have my own take on it in our current situation..
France is a known, unknown: much as we like to think we have it figured out we know that unknown things will happen,such as the ATM eating my bank card and the bank cancelling both of them.  Sound familiar? It did the same thing last year.  Fortunately we transferred the account to this town and we will be here a little longer but it is still inconvenient as they send the cards here and mail the PIN numbers to our home, in California.  If you are looking for recommendations for which banks NOT to use in France, let me know.  We have other cards so it is not a show stopper but leads to some interesting interactions such as when I refilled the rental car with diesel at a local supermarket.  After the lady swiped my US (non PIN) card every which way through the machine I offered cash.  Fine, but after much interaction with the computer the cash draw wouldn’t open to give me change – the help of a strong road worker didn’t do the trick so she reached into the cupboard, produced a small crowbar and “et voilà” - change.
The other known, unknown is boats, especially to us relative newbies. I was relieved that ARMIDA seemed to survived the winter and that my jury-rigged cover was intact, until I discovered a couple of small drips of water as I prepped the bottom of Armida for antifouling paint that lead to further investigation and the discovery of excess rust inside the keel.  This will require some welding before I can finish the antifouling.
So now we have the intersection of two known unknowns in the form of a French Boatyard which epitomizes the unknown unknown. We might get the welder on Thursday and it might only take a day – or not! And we haven’t started the engine yet or filled the water tanks so we might find other things! Oh well, c’est la vie.  We just hope we can get in the water and someplace nice  before our friends, Toni and Craig arrive at the end of the month or we will be serving them wine and cheese on our back deck in the middle of a dusty boatyard.
Otherwise all is well. Lilou seems to really like France and the activity – she is angling for a promotion to Ambassador but she needs to learn a little subtlety first – “I’m here and I’m happy” works for some but not all.  Rosie is not too keen on changes but is adjusting slowly. She is perfecting her role of lookout on land by alerting us to the approach of other dogs before we can even see them.
Fortunately both our unknowns come with delightful experiences and surprises and we hope to have some known, knowns to report soon.

Setting off from SLO

Sitting and waiting for the last load of washing to finish and then we are off!

We will drive from San Luis Obispo (SLO) to Ojai where we will stay the night with our daughter Tess, her husband Tony and their two dogs and cat - with our two dogs another dogfest will ensue. Two hours drive on Monday will get us to LAX (traffic gods permitting) and then Air Tahiti Nui to Paris (CDG), pick up a rental car and about 5 hours drive to Saint-Jean de Losne (gods of sleep allowing) and the adventure begins.

Planning…..?

Spring is here and it’s time to plan our return to France.  Our tickets are booked form LA to Paris on May 7th  and then on to St. Jean de Losne  by car. It will probably take about a week to get the anti fouling on the bottom, touch up the paint. change the fuel filters and  complete a few other chores before we are ready to set off again. A lot is still new to us; this is the first time we have left Armida outside for the winter so we hope there will not be too much extra work to do.

Our plan was to motor down the Saone, into the Canal du Centre and up the Nivernais. But, all the best laid plans have a habit of changing in France, and the very dry winter looks like it will close the canal  before we can get there. So a plan B is likely but we will work that out when we get more information there.  Maybe they’ll have a flood in the next two weeks.

Last year saw the loss of our Navigator Noodle but we have a new crew member for this season. Rosie has been promoted to lookout and Lilou will  be aboard as general dogsbody.  She came from the Santa Maria Animal Rescue and is still young with lots of puppy energy.  We haven’t tried teaching her French yet as she doesn’t do that well with English, but she is very sweet.