log blank 2000


2001

No map this week - please see last week's.










What Happened Next.

Since the above "regular" log, we settled Albert in on the mooring in St Jean de Losne, watching in admiration the toing and froing on a large hire base, as they receive and dispatch customers, and begin the end of season wind down.

We were taken up to Roanne to fetch our car, and spent 3 days meeting old and new friends in the port.

We also visited Geoff at Montchanin, on the Canal du Centre, Geoff was the mechanic/engineer who lived on a peniche in Roanne, and in between helping out in places like Bosnia, helped out with boat repairs and alterations.

Geoff has taken over the old Conoisseur base there on the Canal du Centre. Both he, and Roanne Port, and of course the numerous boaters concerned, have been hard hit by the untimely closure of the Centre. Geoff, in particular, has had a nasty set back at a time when any business is particularly vulnerable - in it's first few months of operation.

Whilst some of the previously made comments in this log concerning the VNF and this particular closure may have been unfair, incorrect, untrue, or just over the top, there is no question but that "communication" between the VNF and it's customers, and between the VNF Offices of the Chalon sur Saône Regional Office, the Montceau les Mines office, other offices in other regions, and customers, has either been sloppy, bad, or non-existent.

The story, sifted out as much as possible, is that the Canal du Centre's main reservoir has needed repair for some years.

This was to be done last year (2000), and to enable it's commencement the reservoir was run down through the summer, and not permitted to re-fill during the winter rains. This we know as the canal was closed last year, as well as this, but only in the 2nd week of October.

At the last minute, government (at least, they are the stated culprit) withheld the necessary funds for the work, and no repairs were carried out, but money was set aside for repairs this year.

Be that as it may, no water was stored during last winter, and the Canal du Centre started the year with insufficient water, finally running out in September, still having been unable to fill or use it's main reservoir during the wet summer.

The repairs - we are assured - are currently approaching completion, and the reservoir will be filled this winter and spring.

Having said all that, one has to ask - obviously there was a known programme - why were "chomage" notices only sent round 10 days before the stoppage, why did the notices take over a week to get from the Chalon office to a very limited circle of recipients, and onlyl situated in the immediate locality of the canal, and, in particular, why were other VNF regions not informed, and/or requested to inform all boaters in their system?

It has to be admitted that as far as we are concerned, we were naturally disappointed, having been stuck behind an emergency stoppage for 5 weeks up near Strasbourg, to find that, on arrival in the area, that there was no way, and never had been a way, for us to get through to our booked winter moorings at Roanne, however hard we tried. But we are guests in France, that is the way things are here, and it could be argued that for people like us to complain is "off side"!.

We have subsequently obtained good moorings in St Jean de Losne, with which we are pleased, but we do miss Roanne.

Currently, we are doing "good winter things" to the boat, like making lists of al the things hidden in the various lockers and hidey holes all over the boat, changing engine oil, engine filters, looking learnedly at the anti-freeze, and gossiping hugely with everyone.

We leave for The Isle of Wight at the end of the week, where a first duty - apart from telling exaggerated or untrue stories of our doings over the last 6 months - will be to write up the Brittany trip.

It was a pity it could not be transmitted at once, but we only took light luggage, which excluded the lap top, but included the old Psion 3a, upon which the log was kept. It is, normally perfectly easy to transfer from a Psion 3a to a PC. via a piece of kit called the "soap-on-a-rope". Mine does not work, but I have the wherewithal to do it properly on the Island.


The Brittany trip is now written up - delay resulting from broken computer, etc, is covered elsewhere.


And Finally -