On our way.....
Having managed to persuade the Auxerre port engineer
J-P to carry out an unscheduled oil and filter change on Blue Moon we set out
on the first leg of our planned journey down the Burgundy Canal in the
direction south towards Dijon.
We are travelling with another boat of similar type
and size, Sirius, owned by John MacDonald a harness and saddle maker from
Somerset and Reggie, his small Yorkshire terrier.
Reggie is very adventurous
and pays frequent unexpected visits to Laddie to check whether he has eaten all
his dinner or not. Reggie has a special basket to ride in on the front of
John’s bike whenever he goes off to look for supplies and sits there looking
cute and attracting attention from all the ladies. John is not averse to this
as he is on his own following his wife’s death a couple of years ago.
These last couple of weeks have been extremely
arduous. From the start of the Burgundy canal we have several weeks of travel
uphill to the summit at Pouilly en Auxois, a climb of over 290 metres in 156
kilometres and 115 locks. We have so far only done 102 kms and 50 locks.
This is hard work. To give you an extreme example, the
first lock at Migennes is over 5 metres deep. You motor in and crane your neck
up to the blue sky above and hope to see the head of the eclusier or eclusière
as is often the case with many lock keepers female, appear.
He lowers a long pole with a hook and you loop your
mooring rope on the end. It is looped round an invisible bollard and passed back
to first Sue on the bow and then my rope to me on the rear upper deck. We then hang
on to this for grim death as the paddles are opened and a torrential waterfall
pours in. The boat bucks all over the place in the turbulence getting first
pushed back (Sue’s job to hold it) and then sucked forward with incredible
force (my job). It’s not possible to tie off the ropes as we are continually
rising, so they have to be kept taut. The engine is only used in an emergency
due to the noise and fumes.
John’s engine smokes a lot so he always follows us in
and Sue is frequently treated to a gentle shower in the front (very welcome on
a hot day.) This goes on for 5-10 minutes with arm and leg muscles screaming
for relief. We’ll have shoulders like Garth, soon!
Eventually our head and shoulders appear above ground
level and Laddie gets a view of the lock-keeper's cottage and garden and often
his cat or dog, and we can relax until the next one.
We managed 6 locks between 9-30 and 12 this morning,
our record with 2 young and lively guys who earned themselves some cold tinnies
as they departed for lunch 12 until 1.
Overall the eclusiers are very friendly and helpful
and we occasionally buy produce from them. This week one guy sold us 2 bottles
of Chablis then dug up a fresh lettuce from his garden for us while the lock
water rose.
It poured with rain the day after our last message,
but it’s been scorching hot ever since (30 degrees today) with the hottest May Day
since 1922 (36 degrees registered last week) and forecast for a hot summer with
droughts in various regions. We can’t raise the Bimini hood when travelling as
there are continuous low bridges so we have to slap on the factor 30 and sit
and roast most days.
The main problem is the weeds in this canal. In places
it’s like a garden lily pond and we have had several breakdowns due to a
blocked weed filter. The engine overheats and stops and you are suddenly
drifting with no control - rather stressful. Unfortunately a loose wire from
our engine to the temperature gauge meant we had no warning and we overheated
massively, destroyed the impeller pumping the coolant and damaged the exhaust system.
I did not even know I had an impeller, but fortunately John Mac had a spare on
his boat, came over in midstream, removed the mangled impeller and inserted his
spare, got us going, towed us off the muddy shallows and climbed back on his
boat to re-join Reggie.
What a hero. We’re sticking with him for the time
being but he has to go back for major engine repair eventually.
Then the engine compartment flooded and he pumped it
out with a spare pump he happened to have. The water was soapy and it turned out
the shower outlet had been blocked for some time and overflowed round the
engine We found a little flue brush in a cupboard and Sue rodded it out.
Another problem solved! We don’t paddle in the shower any more:-bliss.
The next day the engine compartment was flooded again
and overflowing into the bilges. We called our new Engineer contact, Didier who
came out next morning and diagnosed the exhaust coolant problem, tightened a
big jubilee clip and kept us on the road until winter repair/replacement can be
done. He also reset the water heater, all of which came from the incident with
the loose wire.
Nearly 400 Euros of call-outs so far, but all seems
well so far now. And we just battle the weeds on a daily basis.
John and I do a little biking locally which is very
pleasant but I fall behind on the slopes which he doesn’t even notice. I asked
‘have you done much cycling?’
‘Not until recently but I’ve done John O’ Groats to
Lands End, and London to Paris for charity’
He has a daily ride up a one in four hill in Somerset
too. Say no more.
An old guy (nearly my age) looking like a tramp pushed
a heavily laden bike into our little port the other day, went into the shower
block, came out and lay down in the grass, around 4 0’clock. Later he charged
his phone and his electric bike battery from the port outlet, made himself some
food and lay down on the grass for the night with long gloves and a big hat (in
case of foxes.) Next morning I offered him a hot drink which he politely
refused with a smile and put on state-of the art cycling gear and prepared for
off. Where are you going? I asked ‘Paris’ and he tooted his horn happily as he
left. There’s hope yet…….
Sorry this is long but it’s the first Wi-Fi since the
last message..
After Pouilly summit there’s an hour long tunnel and
then it’s all downhill.
Fingers crossed we can survive until then.
A bientot
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| In a lock |
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| John and Reggie in Sirius |
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