Back safe and sound on Isle of Wight, now for..more than a week? This marvellous adventure is now finished but it is good to be back and be with our people. Back to the grindstone, cleaning, varnishing, tarring, and of course Zumba and West Bay!

  Live with no regrets and love with no apologies (Paulo Coelho)

Rouen

Am typing this in the dark to save our battery...leaving in a few minutes for Le Havre, it is pouring with rain.
Wilhelmina with her mast up and rigging back is ready to go home. Will put sails up tomorrow in Le Havre whilst we wait for Harry and favourable weather. Am dreaming of a shower...have been wahsing in river water for the last few days to save water. Must go. If we are to complete the 120km in one day and cope with incoming flodd we have to leave at 7

Montargis

Too exhausted to write anything but all's well and everyone happy. A few crises, hitting a few stones, too much wind pushing us across lock entrance, boat stuck in shallow water, and much bad communication between skipper and crew. But we are all improving. Well we have to!Yesterday went food shopping for the next installment, Catherine, Claude, Sophie and Felix arriving on the 11th. That will make 8 of us on board!

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.