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.

3 Perfect Days to Besancon

Besancon 17 Sept

I've written about Dole and Besancon many times, probably more than anywhere else on this blog,  We have travelled the stretch in between them more times than I can remember since our very first trip in 2001 on a rental boat.  Still, when Caroline and Phil said they could only come from the UK for 3 days I couldn't go past this trip,  For Canal afficionados it has lots of technical interest, alternating beween the canal and the river, as well as lovely. scenery.  

Lilou and I spent a week in Dole where is was 33C every day, but cool at night and in the mornings.  By the time peak heat was reached around 6pm we were in the shade, so careful time management allowed me to get my projects done and still manage some Dole wanderings.

The day before they arrived it started cooling off and we had a light drizzle for our departure around 2 pm.  A downpour just after our second lock was the end of the rain and we arrived at an open pontoon under the cliffs by a weir for a perfect evening.  And so went the rest of the cruise, everything aligned perfectly, almost. Lunch the next day didn't go as planned as the Hotel was closed and being converted into a daycare centre.  No problem, a short walk to a Routier Cafe gave them an experience that everyone should have - a working man's lunch spot.  But in France that is a full 3 course meal with wine, and very good too.  

We arrived at our favorite weir at 5pm and it looked like there was no room.  But wait, the barge Kanumba waived at us to indicate they were just leaving and our pefect spot opened up.   

The next day took us into Besancon as the Citadel loomed over us and around the loop of the city t0 culminate in one of the few locks in the system you must operate youselves, or at least the crew must. A lovely meal in town completed 3 perfect days. 

 I'll leave you with some random photos.

Dole:  Budapest 1000km this way but please go via our historic centre

 

I finally got to the top of the Dole Chuch Tower. Well worth the wait.

One is real.

A fine lunch!

Thank you Kanumbra

Besancon ahead.

A great crew working the last  Lock

This clock has 30,000 moving parts that run (ran) the the clocks and bells in the Cathedral.  Not many of those part are moving now.

And we're away.

Dole

The welcomr cool down was not to continue and the late summer heat returned.  Not as bad as before we arrived but in the low 30's/90's with merciful cool nights.  The nice ladies in the marina put Armida in the prime spot under a tree so we only had sull sun until about noon.  Here the heat builds through the day and peaks at around 6:30pm.  I tried to get most of my errands and cleaning work done in the mornings.  Everything is up an running so I am working on restoration and varnishing.  

Dogs are very popular here:

And the town keeps to its nautical roots.

We probably should have stayed in the shade but a week in Saint Jean de Losne is enough, so early on Wednesday morning we set off up river to the Rhon au Rhin canal aiming for Choisey just before Dole.  There wan't much traffic so I expected an easy mooring but the pontoon was full. 

We continued on to Dole where there were plenty of boats but room  for us.  Here is the obligatory picture.

Dole gets evewn better than when it first wowed us on our first canal trip in 2001.  It seems to have become even more charming and character filled.  Apparenlty the odd name comes from an ancient word for the TOLL that was collected to cross the bridge over the river.  That may have been the original Roman bridge, two arches of which are still standing.You can see more on Dole here.

We'll be here for another week until Caroline and Phil arrive, along with a forecast of rain and cooler weather. Plenty of work for me to do but I will manage some Dole wanderings, in the mornings at least.  There's always something happening in Dole.

Waiting for the Crane

 St. Jean de Losne

A first French Shrug

Lilou and I have arrived in France, are back on Armida, and in the water but have already had our first French Shrug that illustrates the Uknown Unknown aspect of boating.  

It was a fairly routine trip with a minor correction when I realize on the RER train into Paris that our connection to the TVG at the Gare de Lyon was going to be tight. Fortunately the the SNCF Connect App actually worked well and let me rebook on a slightly later train to Dijon.  Picked up a rental car and arrived in, a much cooler than recently, St Jean de Losne, and much cleaner after a downpour that morning.  I got the back half of the cover off and into the clean, if a bit musty boat. and we flopped in for the night. A couple of days cleaning and organizing and we were ready to go back in the water.  I spoke to David in the yard on Monday about going in on Tuesday and he said we will load up the trailer that night.  The implication was that we would go in first thing.  Never assume!   

Next morning I heard the crane start up and wandered over to check, where I found a boat transport truck waiting and a large cruiser in the water.  Oh well, not first thing.  The cruiser was fairly tall and I am guessing it was the common story of the boat comimg up the Rhone and Saone and planning to take the canals to the North.  At St Jean de Losne is where they find out that there is a height limit of 3.5m (on good days) and a road trip is called for. I asked David how long?  Shrug.  2-4 hours?  Maybe all day, I joked.  

An hour later the boat is lifted and there are people looking at the bottom.  "Oh, it has twin props, they will have to come off".  Not always easy to do, and two workers spent the rest of the morning, tapping, hammering, heating and clamping.  I thought my joke may be true.  Around 2, after lunch of course, the props finally relented and the boat was loaded and gone.  And we were in.  

No leaks, but no engine start either.  The yard had replaced some cooling pipes on the engine before I got there that involved a large mechanic poking around in the enclosed engine bay.  This can and did lead to some older wires beging disturbed, namely the Neutral interlock and the shut off solenoid.  I fixed the first the engine started straight up, and then wouldn't stop.  Fixed the second, cleand the hull and motored around to the marina pontoons.

The marina is quiet with most of the Kiwis gone but we are adjusting to this life quickly and looking forward to setting off next week.  Lilou now has a bad back and can't walk too far so we have another chariot.  It gets a lot of smiles and comments that always include "Bebe", so think they are surprised not to see a baby in there.

ised

2023 A Short Season

We had a late visit to Australia this year, only getting back to SLO in mid June.  After last year's heat there was no way we were going to rush off to France in July.  Rosie is getting more frail and Terry is having doubts about more air travel, so this year it is the skeleton crew:  me and Lilou.

No firm plans yet as I will be concentrating on sprucing up Armida with the idea of selling this year or the next but I hope to get some local cruising in.  We will be there from August 26th to October 29th and are open to visitors for up to a week at a time.  Let me know.