Making ourselves at home: late April - early May

The more time we spend on our boat, the more we see of others (especially those for sale) and the more we talk to people, the happier we are with Erewhon. Like every boat, she has her good points and her not-so-good points. To begin with, it was the latter that were more evident but not that she is in the water and that we have had some time to look her over and organise her in our own way, we are starting to appreciate her good points more and more. Unlike so many other boats, she does actually provide what we wanted: room enough for two people to live on comfortably, extendable to accommodate another single or couple when needed, while staying a manageable size. She is, as we have been told more than once, a simple boat, which means that her problems should be relatively simple to fix and she has a lovely, quite spacious indoor / outdoor saloon and cockpit area for living, dining and entertaining. The laundry system, although a bit complex and time-consuming, is a miracle of efficiency and is saving us a fortune in Laundromat fees already - as well as providing a source of mirth and entertainment for the neighbours. The boat’s motor is quite new, beautiful, red and sounds sweet and she glides through the water beautifully when given the chance. So far, we have travelled only a few hundred metres from the side of the canal into the marina and there’s every chance we’ll be here for a while. We need to get definitive answers about the navigation licence (EVERYONE has a different take on it and NO-ONE seems to know who is in charge!) - and we may need to get a licence too. The boat needs a bilge pump that works, preferably a shower drainage pump that does too and a full service before we take to the waterways. With May being the month of public holidays (the 1st, the 8th and the 12th are all holidays), there are lots of short weeks - good for mechanics (like any workers) to make the most of annual leave days. We’re hoping that things will be done next week or the week after but you really never do know.

In the meantime, we are making ourselves at home on our boat, in the marina and in St-Jean-de-Losne. We’ve scrubbed Erewhon down and removed all the brown sticky tape marks with white spirits. We’ve been through everything (we think) on the boat and made decisions about whether and where to keep it (although some objects remain a mystery) and found all the possible stowage spaces. We even have a bit of spare room in some places - I wonder how long that can last. We are finding ways to create more storage space in some places as well, especially in the galley. We are starting to understand how some things work (or don‘t as the case may be) - the batteries, the bilge pump, the gas oven with no temperature markings, the gas barbecue, the trolley to haul supplies behind the bike… We have decided on a colour scheme for any future purchases and/or decorating and we’ve made a few purchases, including some towels and bed linen for guests (just in time as it turns out), a big (but not-too-big) saucepan that doubles as a casserole dish, some bowls to relace the amber Arcroc ones that J just can’t stand, a bike for Catherine (there was one on the boat that suits J okay for the moment), a new wooden boathook because the telescopic aluminium one is wobbly and unreliable, some painting supplies… We’ve even planted a herb garden and have the most miraculous crop of radishes… After just four days, fully grown radishes started appearing in bunches beside the garden… the neighbours are pulling our legs because we’ve let it be known that these are supposed to be particularly fast-growing radishes.

The people here (the boatyard staff, other boaties, the locals) are simply fantastic! Everyone is friendly and amazingly helpful. We’ve been invited all over for drinks, meals and a 60th birthday party, and we’ve already hosted three dinners for other boaties too, usually to repay some kindness or another. We’ll write more about specific characters at some stage but everyone is willing to share what they have - be it knowledge, skills, time or transport. We’ve had help fixing a doorframe and help taking the bilge pump apart (although putting in a new one proved too much to ask); we’ve been driven in to Castorama (a huge hardware store) and to Ikea, a wonderful cheap homeware store; we’ve had offers of the use of people’s cars anytime… We’ve learned that everyone has problems with their boat, whether they’ve paid 16,000 euros for it like John and Elaine or 250,000 pound sterling like an English couple we heard about… and every second-hand boat owner has tales about “the previous owner”. In other words, despite vast differences in the size, shape and cost of boats, everyone has a lot in common - and that seems to be what dominates the atmosphere. The approach to rubbish and recycling is another example - anything that people don’t want but that might be of use to others is left beside the recycling station for others to “take home” if they want. We’ve left the afore-mentioned amber glassware (a full dinner set!) and some other kitchen implements that were of no use to us and we’ve picked up a broom handle and some endives from a full box left there.

The boatyard staff, who were so distant to begin with, now greet us with smiles and handshakes (while still providing no firm answers about when work might get done) and our transactions in the town could not have been more pleasant - whether returning a bike to the supermarket because the pedal fell off (the new one was personally checked over by the store manager before I was allowed to take it away), getting information about phone card options for calling NZ (comparative info re cost of NZ calls searched and printed out) or buying 2 of each kind of sausage in a butcher shop (the 6 lots were packaged separately and the type written on each package). The Tourist Information Office in town runs a book swap service for boaties with a whole room full of books to choose from, most of them in English. I’m sure it helps that we are in the country and not in a big city… but if we have to be stuck anywhere for a while waiting to start navigating, this would seem to be as good a place as any. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the weather has been fabulous for most of the time we’ve been here. Here’s hoping it lasts…

Catherine