After over 1,300Klm of French canals and Rivers and over 750 locks we are nearing our winter moorings in Roanne. Well do you know what? this year has been a fantastic experience we have cruised all over central France, up the Rhine as far as Basel in Switzerland and lots and lots in-between. Sadly now we are in the first week of October and we are nearing the end of another boating season. One of the best things about boating is when you enter a harbour and meet up with friends you have met before (or indeed friends that you have never met before) The converse is also true when you have to say goodbye to good friends. That just seems to be part of any nomadic lifestyle. We expect to reach Roanne in about a weeks time. Then it will be a matter of preparing the boat for the cold winter ahead. Engines need to be winterised batteries topped up, and domestic water tanks drained. Then on 01-Nov-10 we will be flying to Dublin to spend a week with family and friends before heading up the road to Belfast where we will be house-sitting for five months. That should be an experience and I will keep this site updated with all that happens. We haven't seen the house yet but I understand that it is not too far from Belfast Lough so we can go for walks and do some boat watching! As for now we are at a mooring in a small town near Montceau les Mines, called Genelard. We will move again in the morning. We befriended a couple on a boat in Meaux last May and we met them again here in Genelard, we call them the T's. We call them that because he is called Terry and she is too. And if it wasn't for bad luck they would have no luck at all! So I made up this little ditty for them...
There’s lots to go wrong, when you’re boating along, the canals in a wide narrow boat There’s dials to watch, and jobs to botch, when you’re trying to keep her afloat. When your thruster burns out, it’s a worry no doubt, cos the motor was burnt like toast A week spent in Meaux, cos delivery’s are slow, till a new one arrived in the post. Then the alternator began jerking, and then it stopped working, it’s becoming a bit of a joke, Then they met a barge, the size was quite large, and the skipper was a right bloody bloke. Then claiming right of way, It's an old bargeman's cliché, and a right dent he put in the bow Well Terry went mad, it was really quite sad, and the skipper never raised an eyebrow. But it all got worse, when he got stuck in reverse, and he hit the bank with a shudder The cable had broke, the boat did a back-stroke, and managed to mangle the rudder. Though greatly shook, Terry took a quick look, in the engine room under the floor There was frayed wire, a situation quite dire, But he said “Worse things happen in War” Now the rudder is mended, and disaster suspended, and he’ll be on his way quite soon Just a diver to refit, and our hero won’t quit, to mishaps he has become quite immune. So Terry’s not vexed, and we wait for a text, to say that he’s motoring and feeling plucky But we just better hope, that he’s brought a towrope, cos we know that he's not very lucky. *** Seeing as I was feeling a bit poetic I did another one for my buddies Mark & Annie. Lets just say they have certain loo problems!! There’s not much fun, when you’re out in the sun, on a barge with a dodgy loo You can motor along, while singing a song, and forget about all that poo. But it’s full to the top, and can’t take a drop, so you must head to a quiet creek Not when it’s bright, because it’s a terrible sight, to see to see what you ate last week. The hose you unwind and a battery to find, to connect to the dodo pump Like a midnight trooper, in a half drunken stupor, the dodo you try to dump. But the joints sometimes leak, causing the neighbours to freak, as dodo goes squirting about Then the pump starts leaking, the whole place is reeking, and covered in little brown trout. It’s a covert task, so you wear a mask, which makes it harder to observe Keep a look out, there’s no-one about, living life on the edge of your nerve. You sit and watch, stuff that passed by your crotch, and say “That doesn’t look very memorable” Life’s really a riot, on a high roughage diet, but a diverter valve would be preferable. When the tank is empty, and you have pumped out plenty, you start coil up the hose Battery packed away, though you smell like Bombay, and you’ve got bits of doo on your cloths. Now the job nearly done, you’re on a home run, and you think you might have a drink But Annie knows better, and throws you your sweater, saying “Sleep out there …you stink” ***
Harry & Marion "Driftwood"