Back in Decize

We are back from the "folle aventure" as Bernard Coclet describes Le Grand Bal at Gennetines... rain (well, MUCH RAIN) and wind, lovely and lively music and people, not much sleep and much work on the mazurka, schottish, valse and bourree. 
Le Grand Bal is about music and dance of course: "Dancing with others involves the consideration of real issues, as well as experiencing the irrationality of dance without holding back. It is about allowing oneself to be transported by the music and the dance, adopting a universal language of smile and gesture. It is to attempt to tame the dance"  (www.gennetines.org). But fundamentally it is about "Respect for and understanding of others". We (even John) did enjoy dancing but we also much enjoyed meeting old friends, Catherine from Switzerland and especially Frederic from Limoges with his infecting optimism and boundless generosity. I returned re-energised and inspired and John relieved he has survived...
Now Decize. After managing a tricky entrance into and through the Port de Plaisance (side wind and prop walk) we are now moored on the Loire, next to Michael and Pippa on Sterna and are temporarily part of a DBA rally. We are getting ready to welcome Maman and Marine who are arriving by train here tomorrow. That means cleaning and food supplies. Should I also mention that we have had trouble with the sea-toilet? It syphoned in twice in the last 3 days!! John is grumpy after mopping up the bilges, I am neurotic about sinking...But now, after cleaning, dismantling, polishing, sucking (the air admittance valve) we are (nearly 100%) hopeful that it functions properly. And grateful it didn't happen whilst we were away from boat!

Just about to cycle to Gennetines, leaving Wilhlemina in the good hands of Mark Vardy at Gannay. Weather hot and sunny, forecast rain... we 'll try to pitch our tent NOT at the bottom of the field like last year!

It feels very funny (and nice) to spend a whole day on land after 674km on inland waters (and 86 locks). After a copious lunch we walked through the Promenade des Halles, a beautiful avenue of plane trees planted in 1771, nearly 1 km long where we looked at "Des Forets et des Hommes" a photograph exhibition initiated by the foundation Good Planet to show the beauty of the world and its fragility too. The 70 photographs indeed very beautiful and thought provoking were built around 6 themes: discovery, inhabitnats, uses, services threats and solutions. Most enlightening.
The evening was spent back on the boat and the heat, still unbearable until the storm at last broke. By that time we were in bed and all the portholes were open...a few floods were found.

Decize

Decize at last! our destination! and it is much too hot for me to sit at the computer...all I can say is that an eclusier offered us tomatoes, courgettes and green beans and that I have found shop where I bought a lettuce, peaches and nectarines, milk, beer and wine. It is now too hot to eat and we will just sit inthe shade of a beautiful lime tree.

Chevenon

Jaugenay chapel

Over Canal du Guetin looking down onto Loire

Chevenon was supposed to have a boulangerie, epicerie and restaurant but...it was Sunday of course! and despite several attempts (cycling 1 km to a shop that had closed the minute before, to a boulangerie that was shut for holidays, walking miles to deserted villages in the heat...) we didn't find lettuce, tomatoes or fruits and all boulangeries were closed! So it was lentils and rice last night for supper and soaked prunes with our muesli for breakfast. In fact it was delicious.
Yesterday floated 60-70 feet over the Loire on another pont canal. Quite a sight! We were however a little distracted by heavens opening just as were were going up the big lock (9.23m) leading up to it. We were soaked to the skin and although I could tell John disapproved, I thought the people in the boat behind us were quite ingenious: they were holding a rope in one hand and an umbrella in the other!
This stretch of canal is sublimely peaceful, the only people we met are the odd cyclist, happy people waiving from boats or rushing out of their house to photograph us and the friendly eclusiers.
John has just returned from a little exploration of Jaugenay romanesque chapel (which we remembered seeing last year whilst cycling) and I can see it's time to go, lock is open.

Cuffy

We have decided to stop in the middle of nowhere again for the night. No sounds other than the birds singing... Not so many locks on the Canal lateral a la Loire and we are getting better at mooring with our super stakes and super super hammer I bought in St Satur, so we have time to stop, have a cup of tea and look around. Haven't found anywhere that sold lettuce, tomatoes or fruit and tomorrow in Sunday and all shops (other than boulangeries of course) are closed on Sunday and Monday! Never mind, I am sure we won't starve.

My trust in John took a sharp dip yesterday when I was on the tiller, edging towards the bank to moor and John jumped ashore with a rope he had forgotten to tie on the boat!

False start this morning...we were planning to leave between 9 and 10 to go through lock but 2 peniches went by before us and when we finally cast off (trying to stay still in front of closed lock to show lock keeper we were ready) lock keeper came to say he was waiting for descending boat and therefore we would need to wait.

Lack of water means boats have to "go together". We don't mind. It is all good practice as I have always thought that staying still was probably the most difficult thing to do on a boat (well, for us at the moment) and we only have to take notice of wind and prop walk. No tides!
So now, it's 11 o'clock, and we are waiting.

Menetreol

Canal cruising on Wilhelmina is not as stressfree as I had expected! the locks of course are always an unknown quantity, they are very narrow (we have about half a foot clearance each side at our widest point), will a breeze blow us off course at the entrance? (we now have decided to lower the leeboards to give us more stability), and then there  the curents inside the locks and getting the ropes on the right bollards. Outside locks we can relax a bit more except there is always the threat of meeting a peniche round a blind bend. Just before Briare we nearly hit the bank because we moved too much out of the way of such a peniche on an inside bend. We are also stressed about finding fuel, a problem we are not used to when on the tandem! The best price for diesel is in supermarkets, carrying a 30 l drum can be tiresome but we have now at last evolved a syphoning system to transfer gazole into the boat without spillage. John sucks through a black tube... no mouthfuls of diesel so far!

The scenery has been lovely, many people wave and photograph us "votre bateau est magnifique!". We certainly have not seen another sailing barge.
After crossing the Loire on the most impressive canal bridge we are now in the Canal Lateral a la Loire, with more holiday makers but less commercial traffic. Have just been informed that water levels are low so that could mean waits at locks for up to one hour.


Had a day off today. Walked through vineyards and across a redundant railway viaduct up to Sancerre, a medieval fortress town. A most pleasant change.
Ready for bed now, especially John who has battled with the paraffin cooker to cure (yet) another leak!

Vernon, 5th July

45 km and 26 locks further, here we are in Paradise, a stretch of water surrounded by long grass, tall hedges and a majestic lime tree, 4km north of Briare. I can't recount the number of scratches and bumps we have had to submit poor Wilhelmina to, entering or exiting locks nor the number of beers we gave away, but I will not forget Sunday's river swim, WARM deck solar shower and hair wash (at last!), nor Jean-Michel, an enthusiastic eclusier, boat and canal lover who admired Wilhelmina and took every details about her for his collection, nor the early clothes washing session with Jean-Pierre's wonderful washing machine (we took the opportunity when we were moored near water and electricity and Dammarie-sur-Loing), nor the amazing sight of Rogny's ladder of seven locks, built during the rign of Henry IV,now replaced by the more practical six non-contiguous locks we took - boats can pass one another thank goodness.

It has taken us all this time to eventually relax, stop shouting at each other for putting the fenders at the wrong height or wanting to put the leeboards down or bashing the entrance of the lock  and realise how wonderful it is to be gliding on these waters.

Montargis

All these locks is hard work! and we are going through most of our stash of beer...(we give one to each eclusier or eclusiere, they are so nice!).
Last night moored in a lovely quiet spot after Neronville's lock, near trees and a mint carpet. Everything was so quiet and lovely. Yoga in the morning (on the mint carpet) then coffee and croissant...

Just now are moored temporarily in Montargis so we can supply ourselves with food (and beer - not for us of course!). I have sent John and I can just hear him come back. Next lock is over 4m deep. Will we survive it?

Episy lock

Tom went at midday and I found launderette in St Mammes on my bike. Lock day today. We learnt how to glide inside lock without scratching sides and how to operate the gates. We had to lift the blue lever. Easy really, once you know. Next lock was “manual” i.e. an eclusiere was here. We were quite confused, first thought there was a boat already in the lock (it turned out it was moored way before and not in our way at all), then we attached our ropes on the wrong side of the lock so we weren’t able to help the lady lock keeper. She explained how eclusiers communicate with each other about boats movements in the Canal. She was so nice we gave her a bottle of wine.

We had thought of mooring before next lock (there was a restaurant nearby…) but after chatting with eclusier Frank, we thought we could make an earlier start by mooring after lock. John had to undo his carefully placed spikes and we are now moored under the trees, birds are singing and we are just about to go and investigate the “Auberge de l’Ecluse”.  

Moret-sur-Loing

After 2 extremely hot days (38 degrees inside cabin! and 3 or 4 dips in the river every day to cool down) we had a thunderstorm last night that cleared the air. Moored next to Champagne’s lock for the night, bought gazole (we must siphon fuel in next time rather than spill a great part of it….), met Francoise and her dog Moustique and still learning so many things: today we turned Wilhelmina because John wanted to tar the other side of the boat (over the battle scars…) and he wanted to practice turning without the engine on, ie with ropes only. Well… why did we do it right next to the lock?

We got away with it but we could have run into serious trouble had there been peniches wanting to go in or out. As it happens, a few minutes after we eventually managed to turn, a double followed by two others gathered around to get in whilst 2 or 3 were steaming out. Phew! Another lesson! We have now left the Seine and its huge peniches and are in the Canal du Loing just past Moret’s tiny lock (compared with the ones on the Seine. Everything is quiet and beautiful, we saw 2 air balloons floating by whilst we were having supper. Bliss! Tomorrow, Tom goes back to England and we will start the series of “automatic locks” (do we have to pull or lift the lever to make the lock fill up?) towards Briare.