Tuesday 9th July 2013
Last nights mooring was far from ideal. One lock before Charmes. We struggled with the wind and a shallow bank, in mud. Mind you, the habitat was home to entertaining otters ....and the local but harmless drunk!
Last nights mooring was far from ideal. One lock before Charmes. We struggled with the wind and a shallow bank, in mud. Mind you, the habitat was home to entertaining otters ....and the local but harmless drunk!
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Our overnight mooring |
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| Weeds in the canal |
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| Otters circling around last night |
Having sat up late last night reading boat manuals, G lifted the floors once again, early ...I heard the shout of "eureka" within minutes. The leaf baskets attached to the cooling water system were full. Many " ecluse" had weeds and debris floating in large quantities which we had obviously collected. With the baskets emptied, and our attempt at problem solving successful, we set out on our 16 lock day.
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| Inspecting the leaf baskets |
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| Sheer relief |
Within 15
minutes, a lack of charge strangled the bow thruster. Johan confirmed last
night's mooring effort tipped the scales.
A bike
trip, with hand held GPS and coordinates for a automotive shop yielded the
coveted jump leads. Delay: 2.5
hours. We set off.
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| Stopped here to procure the jump leads |
Without risk of inducing sleep and a "too much information" overload, it is suffice to say DAF No.2 started overheating. A scramble through all cupboards and lockers to find a long, steel rod....( It was a hopeless situation trying to ask for such a thing ) Another floor lift later and G unclogged the pipes that connected to the leaf baskets...they were full of mud!
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| Clearing the mud from the pipes |
The sun
burns so hot that without the breeze it would be very uncomfortable being on
deck all day....and they are such long days... we eat at 9 in sunshine.
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| Our beautiful route |
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| Charging ahead once more |
With the hope of reaching Epinal before 6, we valiantly counted down the next 4 locks. It became clear we couldn't make the last 3.
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| The standardized canal sizes were for a good reason!!! We had to wait for this monster!! |
So Thaon les Vosges became our pit stop.
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| The Rotonde in Thaon les Vosges |
We had squared away some serious problems today. It had cost time but it removed some of the underlying insecurity we felt.
My last
words about not making our preferred destination centred around the concept of "making do" with the
provisions we had...we had to wind back anyway...
We were
actually located very close to a "supermarche", just a mere 5 min
bike ride away. We even had more than 10 min before it closed ( a welcome
change)...
I lost my
head.....you know when you stand in Safeway, waiting at the checkout looking at
trolleys. You wonder how some people actually AFFORD the ones which are brimming to the top.....well that was us.
It took a few rounds of bike trips to complete the mission...we were now ready
for the holocaust...... The crap food
quotient was once again comfortably high!
Important note:
Empty
" Nibbles cupboards" depletes the spirit:
Totals:
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| Lots of cellophane and packaging here!!! |
Locks:
12
Overall: 131 out of 218
Distance: 19 km
Overall:
702 out of 959
THAON-LES-VOSGES
In the
beginning of the 20th century, the local industrial magnates built a grandiose
building called "The Rotonde" to entertain the workers of Thaon and
their families. Situated next to the harbour, now used for festivals and town
events, it was within sit of our mooring.
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