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2008

BACK TO CALENDAR 2008
2.2 8 to 14 June 2008

Last fiddled with 03 January 2009 and should be on axmw44.
To the Map on the Contents Page Just click on the words.


8 June 2008 Sunday In Cercy la Tour Canal du Nivernais
9 June 2008 Monday In Cercy la Tour Canal du Nivernais
In the evening received note from Frank - "Belle Etoile" - by hand of a hire boat on it's way up the Nivernais. "Come to St Léger and breast up to me while waiting for the Loire flood to go down and the crossing to be opened".
Thought about it quite long and hard - mooring here at Cercy very good, lay-up mooring available, but w/o facilities, a railway station about a mile up the road, big S.M. about 3 kms away on main road, boulangeries and charcuterie just above moorings.
But, St Léger nearer to final mooring just across the river and Decize railway station is just above the St Leger moorings.
More "happens" in Decize.
Finally - nothing so impatient as keen boater just sitting on his boat on quiet moorings waiting for the system to re-open.


10 June 2008 Tuesday Cercy la Tour to St Léger de Vignes Canal du Nivernais
After a certain amount of faffing about - set off down canal after early lunch.
It was super just to be moving - sitting on the back of Albert gently chugging along - sadly only a 2-3 hour trip.
Found St Léger de Vignes full, but breasted up to "Belle Etoile" as arranged (a Peter Nichols boat - a small one - but easy trotting across from my front end over his foredeck onto the quay. No climbing or jumping) and coupled up facilities.
Weather warm and pleasant - and no rain!
Bit of geography - St Léger de Vignes according to the map appears to be that part of Decize on this the north side of the river and the canal du Nivernais. Everything else is Decize, but in practice the whole conurbation appears to be known as Decize. The railway station - right in the middle of St Léger is known officially and unofficially as Decize.


11 June 2008 Wednesday In St Léger de Vignes Canal du Nivernais
Sharp and heavy thunderous rain storm in night - sufficient to stop river level dropping. - cannot win, this year.
Hire boat foreman - the hire boats just stop as close to their bases as they can, and staff come out with next batch of guests and do the hand over/take over canal or river side - describes this year as an "annee catastrophique"

12 June 2008 Thursday In St Léger de Vignes Canal du Nivernais

13 June 2008 Friday In St Léger de Vignes Canal du Nivernais
Got stuck in, and booked passage to UK. Cost of Eurostar from station E340.00 return. Cost on internet E180.00, so long battle ensued with slow GPRS link, and computer, but finally succeeded - I think. Bought ticket Decize-Paris at station.
I will write up more about this link on it's own "sometime".

All this week rumours flying back and forward - river crossing to be opened "day after to-morrow" etc.
Went down to river, to the barrage, and across to Crown Blue Line via "the up into the basin lock", on Brompton. Current smooth but strong. No way Albert could have gone up against it. My estimate - by eye - that water flow was in region of 9 kms per hour. Albert squirts black smoke and complains at 7 km/h!
Anyway, VNF - all think justifiably - are having none of it. There are boats here that could manage the crossing - but...........
The entrance to the automatic basin lock on the far side is tricky - it is on the outside of the bend in fast current, with a naughty reverse current/whirlpool on the approach, and notoriously slow mechanicals.

14 June 2008 Saturday In St Léger de Vignes Canal du Nivernais
Eventually got stuck in and extracted troublesome prop shaft universal joint. Needed 2 of us - bolts all very tight, and had had plentiful Loktite adhesive applied. This has to go to UK - and is a lot heavier than described. Also, now it is in my sticky hands is it all that bad??
Started raining in the night - long and hard!
Major problem - it has been so wet this year the wood on hatch and the front doors has swelled up, and cannot close either.