April 10 Thursday

Cowes, Isle of Wight to Evereux. (by road)

Left Flat at 0430, - dreary ferries across to mainland (Britain), and thence Portsmouth to le Havre.

Cool, calm crossing - but duly horrendously expensive with meals on board, and inevitable "duty free" goodies.

Off at lunch, and straight to le Klerk filling station (about 77 cents, I think, multiply by 7 to get sterling equivalent - hence diesel cost equaled about 55p per litre!) at Honfleur, where we had our almost traditional lunch picnic overlooking the harbour.

However - general packing up of flat and early start left us feeling a bit bent, so only made Evereux - dined and slept at Hotel Kyriad - another chain with same system, prices etc, as the Campaniles. €79, drinks, dinner, bed and breakfast for the 2 of us.

 

April 11 Friday

Evereux to Rogny les Sept Ecluses.

Bad map reading saw us driving for an hour in diametrically the wrong direction. Hence our "early" start was virtually delayed by 2 hours.

Met up with Val, and Jeff, and their boat Villeharduin in the Nichol’s yard at Rogny.

Lunch, lots of talk, sage but ill informed advice from self on de-winterising, more talk, welcome invitation to stay over in their boat - very welcome, we seem fragile, on this trip, and thought of arriving on Albert un de-wintered late in evening unappealing, and anyway, we were enjoying the gossip!

 

April 12 Saturday

Rogny les Sept Ecluses to St Jean de Losnes.

Found Albert in good fettle, dry as a bone, tucked away in usual corner.

Coupled electricity, but no water on pontoon, so borrowed CBL hoses - removed fittings, and joined them all up with ours, and drew water from crane water point. Would have been easier to drive over to main pontoon, but did not want to start engine till had a good look at everything.

Jan and John of Blackbird Fly rescued us from drought-stricken picnic left over, and fed us initially on gin (still feeling part worn) and then unbelievably welcome supper.

 

April 13 Sunday to April 24th Friday

In St Jean de Losne.

Weather like UK - very bright and sunny with hot days, but cool evenings and mornings.  When we left the Island (IOW) the daffodils were almost over, and spring/early summer is proportionately advanced here.   The main worry - as yet not visible immediately - is the incredible dryness since the end of January, and the frequent cold winds.

 

Much work on boat - but probably realistically only 3 to 4 full days worth. Incredible how the jobs take so long when one stops and gossips, wanders off to greet someone else newly returned, and generally muddles along in an inconsequential and irresponsible way.

The water supply pump repairs resulted from last year in Belgium, when the shower pump-out gave up the ghost, and the main water supply leaked periodically right through the season, after being frozen up during the winter.  Winter repairs and new purchases were installed - and in the case of the new water supply pimp which turned out to be 24 volts (we are, regrettably, only 12 volts), re-replaced.

The loo job was re-utilising the original loo, holding tank, and pipe installation supplied with the boat, designed for canal-side sanitary station pump outs. The "replacement" system was planned for us by Back o’ the Moon, but I think was first experimented and carried out by Dibby 2.   Buy and install a macerator pump, connect it's suction side through existing piping to holding tank sucking out outlet, connect holding tank breather to original pump out entry drilling a couple of 10 mm holes in the cap the while (let air in during pump-out), set pump’s delivery to discharge through breather hole on side of boat, and hey presto cheap and adequate "solution". However, don’t pump out when breasted up, or passing a fishing match on Sunday afternoon. To the more fastidious reader - please note that all boats on French canals have sea-going toilets, and discharge straight into the canals and rivers, and we know of nobody that uses the blue or formaldehyde "sweetener" loo chemicals used in UK - they use either nothing, or the "green" variety.

 

It all sounds as though life was real and earnest.   It wasn't.  A great deal of chit chat, entertaining and being entertained, wise discussion on serious topics like the possibility of the Bourgogne shutting due to water shortage, and availability of spare parts, visiting old friends ( ask S. about Freddy Martz - they should both know better at their ages) went on throughout.

 

Meantime, of course, as we were in a large hire base at one of their busiest times of year, there was the endless fascination of watching what looked like total and entertaining chaos, as hirers returned their boats in the morning, for them (the boats) to be transformed in almost the flash of an eye to clean, immaculate, professional pristine condition for them to go out again on the same afternoon with fresh clients.  As the boats arrived they were "sorted", then obviously the most popular job, driven over to "our" pontoon which was a sort of holding ground, leaving space for other boats to be worked on.

We had to hang around for the extra 3 or 4 days due to sudden and nearly terminal failure of a tooth - it broke off during consumption of an ordinary, relatively mild, curry.   The earliest appointment we could get was Friday - so rather than charge off into the unknown with a sharp corner fang protruding, it seemed appropriate to wait.

On the Friday evening - our last evening - as we prepared for departure, across the basin chugs a most fascinating boat.   23 feet of "Otter" narrowboat, built of aluminium, and designed as a trailable version.   We remembered the class appearing at the Birmingham boat show about 6 years or more ago.   The couple on this one, High Jump, have trailed their boat behind a Landrover and launched and cruised her in all the best parts of the Continental waterways  over the last 4 years. Can't help thinking that their investment of boat, trailer, and towing vehicle can't be more than a full sized narrowboat, but with the incredible flexibility of being able to start each trip as, where and when they want without reference to other people, yards, cranes, where they finished their last trip, or extra cash.

Last job before departure - disposal of car.    Always tricky, there are any number of places in the open, but as she is some 12 years old we feel that 5 to 6 months shut up in the sun could be terminal, so we paid reasonably heavily to tuck her up in covered secure accommodation.   She will dose - DV - her summer away in a grange in Echenon, about 2 kms from St J de L.

"Final" farewell drinks with Wendy and Harry on Encore B, with Jan and John of Blackbird Fly. Super!