It’s not ALL beer and skittles, you know!

We left Auxerre at 1pm on Tuesday 29 July having very much enjoyed our stay there, a catch-up with Wolfgang and a weekend visit from Jean-Marc. We had a pleasant and uneventful trip heading south but actually heading up river to Bailly. The mooring had the promised water but not the electricity. We needed water and unfortunately the tap closest to us hardly gave a dribble. A tap further down was running well but our hose didn’t quite reach it. We used ropes to turn the boat 180 degrees, which placed us well for the water and we filled up. An unforeseen result of this manoeuvre was to have the stern “facing” the river flow and so we collected a considerable amount on scum, weeds and other debris which we wouldn’t want around our prop. This meant that in the morning we had to do another 180 degree rope turn to release all the muck that had built up overnight before we started the motor. One of the pleasures of staying in Bailly was Bailly-Lapierre. This is a wine “cave” 200 metres from the mooring in an old underground quarry. This is a huge excavation - people drive cars in underground to taste wine and pick up orders, and there are 7 million bottles stored there at any one time. 4.50 euros paid for a guided tour, generous tastings and a souvenir wine glass. The tastings had the desired impact and we did manage to cart a dozen bottles back to the boat. We promptly drank one of the bottles while watching a beautiful sunset, so now we only have 11 to share with M, who has a penchant for sparkling wine and will be joining us soon.

The following morning we continued through to Cravant, where the port DID actually have the promised water and electricity - the latter only during the opening hours for the Tourist Information Office at the port but when it’s free, you don’t mind that! We used the power in the afternoon for the tasks that require it: getting the washing down (Thomas, the great washing spinner need electricity), charging Emilee (our computer) and the phone, and vacuuming the boat before going for a bike ride around the village. A few other boats were moored there and several camper vans parked up for the night. We were disturbed in the early hours of the morning by someone with a torch just next to our boat. We watched for a while feeling quite uneasy and then eventually rang the emergency number for the police. They noted the unusual activity and that was it as far as they were concerned. It didn’t help us feel any better but we did eventually manage to half-convince ourselves that the amount of noise he was making was hardly consistent with anyone up to no good. We did eventually go back to sleep but it would be fair to say that we had an eye and an ear half open for the rest of the night. Any thought of sleeping in was quashed at 7am when one of the campervan owners loudly berated the culprit for his behaviour during the night. Before he had woken us (at around 3am), he had apparently knocked on the door of their camper van asking for food. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the hour, he was given a short shrift. Fear is the first response at 3am when you are in a strange place and someone unknown encroaches on your space and behaves in an unexpected way. We think that what we heard was probably him going through rubbish bags looking for food.

The following morning we cycled to Vermenton ,which is at the end of a small side-canal that branches off the Nivernais. We wanted to know if it was worth taking our boat there. Once we had managed to get there ourselves - having been stranded on one side of the port with no obvious route to get over the water into the town - we decided that it was a nice enough place but we were better off staying in Cravant. We spent the afternoon trying to stay cool and went for a swim in the river nearby. Despite having the whole river at their disposal, a group of small boys continually intruded on our space and we eventually gave up and came “home” when one of them decided that mud-throwing might be quite fun… Later in the day when the weather and we were both a bit cooler, we picked our first blackberries of the season (31 July seems very early for blackberries) and possibly the best blackberries C has ever tasted! They were plump, juicy and shiny. We enjoyed them in blackberry sponge pudding for dessert - yes, even in the heat it was wonderful! - and then again with our muesli and yoghurt for breakfast in the morning. That night Mother Nature provided the disturbance and the spectacle in the form of yet another thunderstorm. The lightning was particularly impressive as were the wind gusts that accompanied the lashing rain. We tried not to be unsettled but it was still very late before either of us dropped off to sleep. In the cooler weather of the following morning, the somewhat tired twosome stayed at home and did jobs: we laid carpet in our cabin (covering yet more brown in the process!!!), made and hung curtains - also for our cabin - and removed a door that we have been tripping over ever since we got on the boat. Once it was gone, we wondered why we hadn’t got rid of it sooner. As the day heated up, we cooled down by hosing ourselves down in our togs and then settled in the shade for a quiet read… On the third night in Cravant we slept like babies.

We left early next morning and were in Pregilbert by lunchtime. We walked to the commercial trout and salmon hatchery nearby but didn’t see anything cheap enough to buy so went back to the boat for a lunch of supermarket smoked salmon pasta and salad and very nice it was too. The navigation after lunch is the worst we have experienced so far. The weather was not flash - drizzle and wind, although not cold. The first lock we came to was a challenge. It was closed, there was a strong crosswind and we were in the direct flow of the river Yonne that we were leaving at that point. We were third into the next lock, just managed to squeeze in and the bollards were well back from the edge making it difficult to get a rope around them. Locking up on this day continued to be a challenge when at the next lock with not a lock keeper in sight, Catherine went ashore and eventually found the lock keeper enjoying a cuppa and saying he would be ready soon! By then there were three boats waiting to enter the lock. We were first to arrive, English people were second and had been ‘hovering’ and another boat with people of a nationality we won’t mention were third in line. We told the English boat to go in first as they were on the move and we would follow them. Incredibly the ‘third’ boat (a hire boat) aggressively entered the lock ahead of us . In one way didn’t matter but it is considered very bad manners in this boating world, especially as our actions sped up the whole process for everyone concerned. That boat was being piloted by a young lad while his Dad watched on. It ‘bounced’ into the lock and their rope work was incredibly inept. (we have a better idea now of why it is so expensive to hire a canal boat, we have seen some very rough handling of the boats and some serious damage to the hull of one. Jean-Louis - our current neighbour - told us he saw one with a hole so large through the bow that he could see clearly inside the boat!) We hadn’t even tied up when the lock gates were being closed onto the stern of the boat! Fortunately, Jeanette has a loud voice and shouted out to open the gates a bit till we were able to get properly into the lock. We then chuckled all the way to the next lock watching the ‘English’ boat travelled at the correct speed up the centre of the canal thus making it impossible for the second ‘rogue’ boat to pass them. They clearly wanted to continue to ‘hoon’ along the waterways, which is very silly really as lock keepers are in contact with each other and if three boats are expected, the other boats have to wait until all three have arrived, often having to mark time outside the lock in the wind etc. We were very glad to find a very lovely ‘wild’ mooring at Mailly le Chateau, give up on navigating for the day and treat ourselves to a well deserved pre-dinner drink and tasty dinner! With things looking decidedly rosier , we went for a walk over an ancient bridge, past the Chapel to St Nicolas, patron saint of barge men and timber workers, up the steep hill to the Chateau which afforded fabulous views for miles in every direction, past one of the oddest war memorials we have ever seen (see pic below) then back to the boat for a shower and a sound sleep. ( We only have hot water when the motor has been running. If we are moored up for a few days we use the solar shower, port showers or boil the kettle and do the hot water and flannel thing.)



The war memorial at Mailly-le-Chateau

A few of our favourite things... (and some others)

THE FAVOURITE THINGS

In no particular order (thanks to Ian and Lorna for leaving many of them for us):

Binoculars:- Essential when approaching a lock to see if it is open and ready to sail into. Some locks have very disturbed water close to lock entrances especially those on rivers. River locks very often have spillways and weirs to one side of them. We had an interesting experience on the Yonne when we had to turn a corner in the river to see what the locks was doing, it was closed and still emptying, ( we were locking up), keeping the boat in a holding pattern so close to such disturbed waters was difficult so I decided to do a u turn only to find in doing so, that the boat was being pushed sideways down the river!

“Thomas“:- An ancient and venerable but very effective spinner of wet, rinsed washing. Thomas does a better job of ‘wringing ‘clothes than any modern washing machine we have ever had. Long may he live, he has obviously had a hard life over the years but is still working valiantly and hanging together with the silver tape mentioned below.. (Thomas is a German brand name) Add to this the ‘Wonder Washer’ which is essentially a small barrel you tumble to wash the clothes in.

Large plastic drum:- Wondered what we would use this for, (other boaties think we brew in it) fabulous for rinsing clothes, great saw horse, useful as a prop for one end of a door being painted, emergency fender ,not needed as such yet

Saws:- Ordinary ‘wood’ saw and recently purchased hacksaw

Mastic gun:- to use with silicone sealer. Much used, especially for fixing leaks. Catherine is getting better and better at it and has settled on her favourite brand of mastic. She is Queen of the Mastic Gun.

Fat Max:- very useful Stanley knife

Silver all purpose tape:- great adhesive qualities, lost count of its many uses, including holding Thomas together, backing tape to stop carpet fraying.

Electric drill, screwdriver set and screws:- no explanation needed

Brian’s pointy tool:- yes this does need a little explanation. The wonderful Brian (our next door neighbour in St-Jean-de Losne) recently bought a fancy tool with extra fittings in the handle. It looks rather like a stout nail on a handle. He bought an ‘old’ one at a vide grenier recently and declared it was better than his new, fancy one which he kindly gave to us. We don’t know its proper name but it is fantastic for “drilling” small holes in walls prior to putting screws in, for piercing holes in the saloon carpet that Catherine then did blanket stitch around the edge of, and a variety of other uses.

Straight edge and tape measure

French/English Dictionary:- Catherine’s very extensive language skills have not in the past included sophisticated nautical language nor “hardware” French.

Masking Tape

New wine glasses bought in Beaune and Pastis glasses

Corkscrew

Comfy camp chairs for use in cockpit when using above

Ike:- sturdy little folding stool/coffee table bought at IKEA

Boat hook:- all normal functions and temporary clothes line prop

Bicycles

Paper towels:- multitude of uses, not all suggested by manufacturers, particularly when using silicone sealer

White Spirits:- aka turps (of the mineral kind)

Variety of ropes, Stretchy cords and string

Work clothes/overalls: We didn’t bring enough of theseand have had to buy some here - very fetching!

Sewing kit including 5 only pins, haven’t bought any more, they are very expensive here.
Sandpaper:- never be sucked in to buying cheap varieties!

Casserole/saucepan (Dutch oven):- Very versatile, bought also at IKEA, can be used on top of stove or in oven

Camera and Emilee (aka Eee small portable computer)

Rubber bands

Old green canvas: About 1.5m x 1.5m great as a protector of carpet when painting or sorting out tools and other messy jobs. Useful to spread on nettles that are just where you want to hang the solar shower, nice to lie on in the shade of a tree after a swim in the river on a very hot afternoon.

LESS USEFUL ITEMS

Spirit level : (think about it - we didn't!)

Teflon oven tray too big for oven

Iron

Sewing machine, little more than a child’s toy (Update, have just bought a small useful sewing machine, Janome Mini, and used it a lot already to sew curtains and cushion covers.)

Kitset crane: former owner used it to bring motor scooter on board

Trolley/trailer:- to be towed behind bike when carting diesel and gas bottled, so far we have managed with supermarket trolleys

BBQ:- slightly inconvenient to use as it can only be used on deck attached to bottles in gas well

Fish finder: we think it was installed to be used as a depth finder

Chrome book stand

Hair dryer will plug into cigarette lighter

Rechargeable cordless drill, no battery or charger with it

3 Spare bicycle tyres: didn’t fit the bike that was stolen and don’t fit the new ones either

...AND SOME THINGS THAT ARE PROVING VERY HARD TO FIND

Coffee mugs that we like, mustn’t be too thick, that go with the new colour scheme of the boat

Dinner set either they are cheap but thick and/or ugly or if they are half way decent they cost an arm and a leg

Curtain material French tastes don’t seem to coincide with ours and of course we want something suitable for the boat. Most furnishing fabric shops only carry samples so ordering lengths of material is impractical for us.

Flat sheets Here a double flat sheet is routinely 220cm by 290cm, miles too big for the boat beds.

Face flannels French people use a mitt made with thick towelling, odd for us.

Slices of bacon of the kind we are used to

Fresh cream for whipping French version is difficult to find and whips up into insubstantial froth barely able to support the weight of a slice of kiwi fruit on top of a pavlova, and UHT milk and cream seem to be the norm.

Sour cream we haven’t found anything like the product we are used to

Kumara French sweet potatoes just don’t taste like our kumara

Auxerre

When we make arrangements to meet friends on the boat, we consult our Waterways Guide about where there are railway stations close to the canal we are on. As we came as close to Paris as we are going to get this year, we contacted our Parisian friends, Jean-Marc (former linguistic attaché at the French Embassy in Wellington) and Rachid, to let them know that either Migennes or Auxerre would be good places to meet because of the rail connections. What the Waterways Guide doesn’t show is the nature of the town and its surroundings, the amount of train activity that passes through that railway station that is right opposite the port nor the mad rush of hire boats that come in and out of a big boat hire base such as Migennes, especially at the beginning of any weekend. Thank goodness Jean-Marc and Rachid chose Auxerre because we couldn‘t have coped with staying in the port at Migennes for any length of time!

Our faithful Waterways Guide also warned us that the port in Auxerre is often crowded and we have developed a strategy for optimising our chances of finding a mooring in such circumstances. We find ourselves a mooring just short of our destination and stay there the night before. We then take off in the morning with the aim of arriving at destination around mid-late morning - at a time when there is a good chance that those who are leaving have already done so but before the majority of new arrivals have come in, which usually happens from mid-afternoon onwards. In Auxerre, it worked like a charm and we found a beautiful spot in the port, directly opposite the Cathedrale St Etienne and with easy access to the footbridge over the Yonne, which joins the port to the city.
The costs of staying in the port at Auxerre were, however, higher than any others that we have met so far - with daily rates of 11 euros for mooring for a boat of our size, 4.85 euros for electricity and 30 cents per person in visitors‘ tax. Additional extras such as showers (2 euros) and washing machine and dryer (5.90 euros each) were also available. However the mooring fees included free water (filling the tank is a priority in any port stop), rubbish disposal and, best of all, free wifi access. Given that internet access of any kind usually costs around 4 euros an hour, it was the free wifi - in combination with the spectacular views across to the town (day and night) - which helped us decide not only to stay in the port but to stay on electricity for the duration of our stay. We arrived on the Tuesday and would leave on the Sunday - morning or afternoon depending on whether our visitors wanted to go for a ride on the boat or not… What we also knew through our faithful human guides (friends Brian and Liz are ahead of us on the same canal and a source of very useful info) was that we could moor for free a few hundred metres upstream at the start of the Nivernais Canal - still within easy walking distance of the centre of Auxerre but without water, electricity and wifi!).

Having said that, we were in Auxerre for a good two days before we even set foot in the town centre or anything like it… We first had to catch up on the chores - washing and vacuuming have to be done when we are on electricity - and on our email and blogging! It was such a luxury to have free access from the boat that one or other of us must have been on the computer most of our waking hours for the first couple of days. Then there were other priorities to see to - we had seen a Mr Bricolage (a chain of hardware / home decorating stores) when we came into Auxerre and we had a list of things we needed for the boat: carpet for the spare cabin (recently repainted), plastic protector caps for the bottom of our dining chairs (to prevent them cutting into the new carpet), a strong plastic bag (for our weed hatch), curtain hooks and slides (again for the spare cabin), and curtains and fittings to replace the door to our cabin (which seems to get in the way at every moment). We found all of the above except the strong plastic bag and brought them back to the boat (2-3kms away) on the back of our bikes. We’ll leave you to imagine how it was done… We have had to become experts in various forms of problem-solving over the past few months - just as well we’ve both had a lot of practice in the past!

Needless to say, some more of our time in Auxerre was then spent laying the carpet in the spare cabin - and finishing off the painting and decorating in that room so that it was ready for guests at the weekend. But we did also venture off into the town centre, armed with a brochure outlining “un circuit touristique” to follow. We really enjoyed walking around the town. As well as its over-abundance of fabulous churches, it has wonderful squares joined by narrow, winding cobble-stoned streets and alley ways, loads of beautiful half-timbered houses, great shops, cafes, etc. It wasn’t too long, however, before our tourist trail took on its own particular flavour, as we found ourselves outside a sewing machine shop. The boat had a sewing machine on board when we arrived - a tiny Warehouse number, more like a toy than the real thing and with more limitations than capability. J was able to use it for one or two tasks but then the bobbin mechanism threw a wobbly and neither of us could get it to do anything other than produce a tangled mass of thread on the underside of any sewing. We have talked about whether or not to replace it - all purchases have to be able to be justified not only in terms of cost but also in terms of the space they will take up. We have been into a couple of sewing machine shops before and found only very large and expensive models, so we were expecting more of the same. What we found was the Janome Mini - a lovely, small, sewing machine that does straight and zigzag stitch (nothing else) and cost just 99 euros. After a demonstration, it was ours and needless to say, our tourist trail was somewhat foreshortened with Janome in tow… We did, however, manage to visit a free exhibition of beautiful painted wooden sculptures produced by Francois Brochet, one of Auxerre’s favourite sons before returning to the boat to try out the new purchase. I should add the this will be J’s “toy”. Sewing machines and I have never really been on particularly good terms.

On Friday morning, I left J on the boat testing out the new Mini on curtains and cushion covers for the spare cabin while I went in search of somewhere to top up the credit on our mobile phone as well as a shop we had earlier passed which sold cobalt pottery vases… yes, still with the spare cabin in mind. I topped up at an Orange shop, which happened to be right next to the Auxerre market, where I also found - at a very reasonable price - some dried flowers in just the right shades of blue and yellow to fill the cobalt pottery vase. Eventually I did also find the shop and the vase and now the spare cabin is complete - in shades of ivory and French navy blue and barely a square centimetre of brown left to be seen!!!

In the end Jean-Marc came alone; Rachid not having been able to arrange a replacement for his weekend shift work. It was wonderful to catch up with him again and to find him looking very well and happy .We passed on the best wishes of many from NZ and we fed him NZ lamb, which may cost less here than it does at home and certainly counts amongst the most affordable meat we can buy here. We spent Saturday afternoon and part of the evening wandering through the town and beside the river, and on Sunday morning we went for a cruise on the Yonne and then onto the start of the Nivernais Canal, mooring up in a beautiful big park not far from the aquatic centre - and still only a kilometre or so from the centre of town. After a leisurely Sunday lunch (more about those in a future posting), I accompanied J-M back to his car, which was parked at the port (no, we didn’t need the rail connection after all!) and he left to do battle with late-July weekend traffic returning to Paris, hopefully having enjoyed a change of scenery and of pace for the weekend. In an earlier posting we mentioned the lovely evenings while we were in Auxerre. The glassy river and the reflections were indescribably beautiful. We were glad Jean-Marc saw this city at its best as it was the first time he had visited it.

J and I stayed another day at the new, free mooring in Auxerre taking advantage of the proximity to the swimming pool on what turned out to be a very hot day and then ventured forth onto our second canal - the Nivernais, which is purported by many to be the most picturesque in France. We’ll let you know what we think in due course…

Catherine

Sudden bereavement: 25th July 2008

Our lovely Roger (of the removable leg) died in his sleep last night. Our sense of loss and devastation has been out of all proportion to the brief time we have known Roger and Chris off the barge Liberté . We met Roger and Chris when by chance we were moored with only Brian and Liz’ boat, de Laak, between us when Erewhon was put on the marina at St Jean de Losne at the end of April. That was such a great piece of luck for us. Both Brian and Liz and Roger and Chris, who are old hands at canal boating, took us greenhorns very easily into their ‘boating family’ as though we had always belonged. We have never underestimated our good fortune.

Roger , a Yorkshireman in every respect, was a detective for about 25 years and seemingly never became cynical or hard hearted.. He had, what we subsequently learned, was a typical Yorkshire sense of humour and we gloried in it. He did much more for us than we ever did for him. Catherine did accompany him on a couple of shopping trips - once when he wanted to buy a new pump for his boat and once to buy decking glue - to make sure he was getting what he wanted. His French speaking skills couldn’t cope with the technical language. (Mind you, C had to check a few terms in her dictionary as well!)

We had a leaking tap in one of the bathrooms. It was a dog of a thing to work on: almost inaccessible and the spanners wouldn’t fit into the confined space. We had several goes at it and in the end did the girlie thing and put a drip tray under it. After all it was an intermittent leak! The day before we left for the south of France, for no reason, the drip turned into something a lot more serious, about a litre a day. We knew the drip tray would be inadequate while we were away so we turned off the water pump, emptied the pipes and left for Nice knowing we would have to deal with it when we got back. Indeed when we got back we contorted ourselves and used all our strength in failed attempts to undo what we believed to be the offending connection. Enter Roger, who assured us such problems were mechanical not physical. We gladly relinquished this problem to one so knowledgeable. Many hours and a lot of exclamations later, Roger disentangled himself from the bowels of our hand basin with the problem solved, permanently as we now know. When Jeanette said to him, ‘was it mechanical or physical?’ He responded ‘it required brute strength and ignorance’. “oh well’, said Jeanette, ‘no wonder Catherine and I couldn’t solve the problem!’
True to his Yorkshire humour, Roger just gave a rueful grin. He knew we were just joking but he also knew it was too good an opening not to respond to!

Earlier we recounted how it took us five days to do the one and a half day journey from St Jean de Losne to Dijon. Such is the network of friendship we enjoy, that everyone knew Catherine had been laid low with a bad back. On our final run into Dijon, we had stopped for a lunch break on the side of the canal. (locks close between noon and 1pm) As it happened, Roger was driving to Dijon to pick up a friend from the railway station, he saw our boat, did a u-turn and came back to check we were ok, which we were. We gave him a cuppa, and had a good old natter, it was ssooo good to see him. Jeanette mentioned that the head had fallen off the mallet when Catherine was driving in a spike when we moored up for lunch. This long suffering friend took the offending mallet and a hammer and put it all together for us. Jeanette promised him that the next time she saw him she WOULD NOT tell him our problems otherwise he would avoid coming to see us. Roger accidentally left his packet of smokes on our boat. We put them safely on our bookshelf ready to return to him. We exchanged text messages en route over the following weeks and had a good idea where each other was.

Unbelievably now, we cannot have that chat and tell him about a problem we need help with, (even though we promised not to) and we cannot give him back his forgotten smokes. It is hard to comprehend that the death of someone we knew for such a short time has had such an impact on us. Roger was a gentleman and friend it was a true privilege to know. Our hearts go out to Chris. To have to cope with a sudden death on a canal in a foreign country would be extremely difficult and it is going to be at least a day before close family can be with Chris, we know her son is on his way.

Kia kaha, Chris.

Roger and Chis enjoying a drink with Jeanette in Dole (where they took us on a shopping mission)

Evening in Auxerre

We have had many, many beautiful evenings on our journey up the Bourgogne Canal, onto the Yonne River and now we are at Auxerre and the beginning of the Nivernais Canal . We left Gurgy this morning and had very nice weather all day but this evening is an absolute stunner and it is hard to imagine how it could be improved upon. We are anchored at the port on the opposite side of the canal to the main part of the city. We look across about 50 metres of placid, glassy calm water to very pretty city lights and many beautiful old buildings all with perfect reflections. It makes one wish for a sophisticated camera and the skill to catch the essence of a sight that seems too good to be true. The sky has gradually faded from the bright blue of daytime to a soft misty pale yellow tinged with orange and looks simply wonderful. It is 10pm and although it is dark enough to appreciate the lights, it is still light enough to identify landmarks very clearly. The faithful in Auxerre are very well served with impressive places to worship, we can see three of them without moving from the boat, all old, large and beautifully lit up. You can’t help but be reminded a little of Paris, but this vision seems softer and kinder somehow, probably because Auxerre is a smaller city and much, much quieter, lacking some of the harsh and strident elements of the capital. It is at times like these one could easily believe there is only beauty in the world. If only…
Jeanette

A typical Sunday: 20 July

It is sometimes a struggle to remember what day of the week it is and we have taken to having a special Sunday lunch as a ‘pointer’ for the week. Yesterday was very typical of a Sunday. It started off a little cooler than usual so we were late rising and having breakfast. We then set off on our bikes to the neighbouring village of Appoigny (5km away) as they have a market on Sunday mornings. The ride there was especially pleasant, the sun was shining, the road nearly flat and of course we were enjoying our new bikes. The market was small, not surprising as the village is small, but the produce was very good. We bought green beans, courgettes and cabbage that had obviously been picked that morning, shallots, and some goat’s cheese for Catherine. We also bought a lovely chicken from the butcher and a loaf of bread from the baker. Yes, they are open on a Sunday morning (but don’t count on them on a Monday!). We saw one man coming out of the bakers with an arm load of at least seven baguettes; he said he had a large family! We had a cycle around the village, very pretty with lots of colourful civic planting and well cared for houses with impressive flower and vegetable gardens. Of course the large church was seemingly out of all proportion to the size of the village.

We cycled back to the boat and while Jeanette cooked roast chicken dinner, Catherine continued her queenly duties with mastic gun and paint brush. (As I have mentioned previously, Catherine is Queen of the mastic gun and paint brush) The main course was delicious (the gas oven is a dream to use despite its complete lack of temperature markings) the cheese board and baguette that followed most enjoyable and all accompanied with a delicious dry and cheap Italian riesling. (As a rule we are paying between 2 and 3 euros - that's roughly $4-6 - for a very drinkable bottle of wine. We pay more for white than red and have found perfectly quaffable wines for under 2 euros!) A post prandial rest was required with a read of the current novel before doing a few more little jobs around the boat and then heading off for another bike ride up the track by the river to the next village, Monteneau, which we will sail through tomorrow on our way to Auxerre. We were only just hungry enough when we got back at 8pm to have a snack. It doesn’t get dark at the moment until after 10pm, so after dishes and a few more jobs we played cards until we felt it was a respectable time to go to bed.

Jeanette (and Catherine)

Things that keep us busy

As you know, we bought a 20 year old ex hire boat that had had a new 50 hp motor installed in 2004. The hull is very strong and in good shape. It was built in the days when the makers didn’t realise the fibre glass could be a lot thinner and so our hull is a lot thicker than boats made now. Not surprisingly, hire boats, as much as possible, are made idiot proof because it is company practice to advertise ‘no experience necessary, we will instruct you all you need to know’ ! So while the hull and motor are OK, the rest of the boat is in need of quite a bit of TLC and we are on a rapid learning curve to redecorate and stop leaks. Don’t be alarmed at this, we are confident that we can gradually see to the ongoing maintenance issues and redecorate the boat to ‘make it ours’. We are really enjoying the challenges and love Erewhon more each day (although we are both still coming to terms with the name). Of course we look at other boats with interest (and sometimes with a degree of envy) but anything better than ours is also a lot more expensive so we are satisfied we have got value for money... and we have also learned that ALL boats have problems, no matter how much they cost. Day to day living is comfortable but we know we can still improve things quite a lot.

Hire boats are built with a 10 year commercial return in mind. The result of this is, many of the fittings are constructed with this mindset so they are not particularly robust. I suppose some people who hired the boat were not very careful with eg formica bench tops etc. There are enough signs to indicate some people have been very rough indeed. Tidying those things up is harder to do without spending more money than the boat is worth. Add to this a few persistent leaks over the past 20 years on to laminated plywood that seemingly is screwed or nailed into thin air and you begin to get more of an idea of the tasks ahead. Some of the leaks must have gone on for a long time undetected in remote corners as the plywood has in places delaminated and pretty much crumbled. We have been very lucky because the former owners of the boat left a wide range of tools for us which has been wonderful. Fortunately fibreglass isn’t affected when windows leak and I guess the water ended up in the bilges and was automatically pumped out.

We have been told ‘Your boat is a simple boat, do not be afraid to take things apart and have a go at fixing things yourself’ We have become bolder and I guess it is not surprising that our efforts so far have been more successful sometimes than others but we are getting better very quickly. Often it is a 2 steps forward and 1 step backward kind of progress, especially in relation to leaks We have been reliably informed that windows in boats will remain leak free for 7 years at the most. It is likely that we will arrange for all our windows to be removed and resealed over winter. In the meantime, Catherine has become the Queen of the mastic gun and is making a difference. The leaks are smaller now and easily manageable. Jeanette has had a couple of goes at removing deck blemishes with the fibre glass repair kit with some success.

Catherine has an almost pathological dislike of an over-abundance of 1980s brown in any dwelling. There is a lot of laminated plywood stained dark brown (pretending to be teak I think) and the two bathrooms were lined with brown floor vinyl. Catherine is well on her way to eliminating as much of the brown as possible. Using her French language skills, she was able to locate a primer paint to paint on the slightly roughened vinyl to provide a suitable painting surface. The bathrooms are now gleaming white with French navy blue trim. It was a mammoth effort, there were strict time lines to follow regarding the timing of the three layers of paint and the space excruciatingly confined to work in. As I write she is applying a second coat of paint to the spare cabin which up till now has looked a bit like the black hole of Calcutta, well the brown hole, anyway… Very drab indeed. The new paint has brightened the room immensely and we are much happier for guests to sleep there now!


We bought a remnant of carpet for 45 euros and cut it to fit the main saloon the floor of which was - yes you guessed it - covered in brown vinyl. . To stop the edge fraying (we have to lift the carpet every time we do an engine check) Catherine used string to edge it with blanket stitch and we’ve backed the edges with good strong tape . We also bought some outdoor carpet for the cockpit area which we are very pleased with. It’s green but doesn’t look like it’s pretending to be grass.

Earlier we mentioned a fair amount of time is taken up with supermarket shopping and socialising. Texting is a good way to keep up with new friends discovering where they are and giving each other hints on what not to miss as you sail by. We bought a jar of berry jam from a lock keeper and didn’t find out for three days it was the best jam we had ever tasted and it only cost 2.5 euros. Mark, (he and Jocelyn were with us at the time) was going to cycle the 16 kms each way to buy several more jars but the wind and rain set in and not surprisingly he decided against it in the end. We have let those following in our wake know that the jam at that lock is jolly good stuff. Cycling has just become impossible for us, some b****** stole our bikes the other night. They were locked and the thief must have used bolt cutters. They were right next to the boat so it was surprising that we didn’t hear anything at all. We will replace them at some stage when we find suitable ones and will have to actually have them locked and on the boat. Up till now they have been safe locked to eg a fence next to the boat. That is about a $600 expense we weren’t counting on but maybe our travel insurance will help out a bit. The process of reporting the theft to the Gendarmerie Nationale kept Catherine busy for an entire morning; just as well Jeanette didn’t go too as it would have been a waste of a perfect morning for getting the clothes washed and dried.

You mustn’t get the idea this is all work and no play. Indeed no. At the moment we are in Tonnerre, the weather is dodgy and there are no fees for mooring, electricity and water (10 euros a night in Dijon) . It is a good time to do some maintenance and very close to the railway station, handy for Mark and Jocelyn to leave us and catch the night train to Rome for the next part of their journey. Then of course with Bastille Day tomorrow there will be a lot of entertainment and fireworks for most of the night tonight and there will be no locks open tomorrow as it is a national holiday.

Our days vary according to where we are, what the local attractions might be, what the weather is like etc etc. We only go into a port (especially a paying one) when we need water and/or electricity. Normally there is a charge for that but at Tonnerre, it is free for 21 days, the view is taken that while you are in port you are spending money in the local shops (and we are certainly doing that) which more than offsets the waived charge for water and electricity. Most of the time we ‘park up’ on a nice, hopefully shady side of the canal. (locks are closed from 7pm till 9am and from noon till 1pm) Very often we do anything strenuous first thing in the morning to avoid the real heat in the afternoon and evening. We might cycle (when we have bikes) or walk (if it is very hilly)to a point of interest sometimes before breakfast and just have brunch later ready to be at the lock at 1pm. Then we might motor until we found the next point of interest. We tramped up a steep hill to see a large statue of Mary and baby Jesus which was on top of a medieval chapel. We cycled to see the Abby at Fontenay which is absolutely stunning and saw a reproduction of the hydraulic hammer which was invented there. Such a cunning and yet simple device which men working in the forge would have been thankful for. The bikes have been handy too when we’ve needed food supplies and there was nothing close to the canal.. We are never bored, the days are not long enough and of course when the motoring is over for the day, we can sit in the comfy chairs, in the cool of the cockpit, and sample yet another French wine which cost a fraction of what they cost back home. Mmmm

Update (Monday 21st July) : Now in Gurgy on our way to Auxerre tomorrow While we were in Migennes, we visited a very good bicycle shop and bought two new bikes to replace the stolen ones. We had bought one for Catherine while we were in St John de Losne - a cheapie from the supermarket, which was ok but not great either. Jeanette’s was an old bike (a Healing Cruiser) that came with the boat and was on its last legs anyway. Both bikes were adequate for our needs and we were disappointed when they were stolen. Our new bikes are more expensive. They are both the same model: a Gitane 1930, they are black, upright and have a carrier on the back and a basket on the front. If you think about what women rode in French war movies, you’ll have some idea what they look like. But they are light and easily taken on and off the boat and best of all they are an utter joy to ride!

Jeanette