Friday, 18 June 2010

Problems fixed and up/down the Yonne River

Hi Everyone,


We reached the end of the Bourgogne Canal on Friday 11th June. 81Hrs of motoring, 192 locks and 22 days. We saw a lot and thoroughly enjoyed it.


Since Tonnerre, we visited Saint Florentin which was very interesting.


We had contacted Jo Parfitt, who runs a ship yard on the River Yonne, about the damage done when we were sucked by the Hotel Peniche off the canal bank at La Bussiere Sur Ouche. This damage was to a thick steel plate which supports one of the main driveshaft bearings. The welds were broken on one end and the plate was twisted. The drive shaft was not true in the bearing.


On Saturday, he advised that the earliest he could help us was the following Thursday due to volume of other work and the rather poor weather (frequent rain). So, we decided to go down the Yonne River.



David caught the train back to Tonnerre to buy a huge spanner which might be of assistance straightening our bent plate in case Jo could not help. He was "stuck" in Tonnerre for some hours awaiting the return train. The huge spanner caused a lot of interest from people who marvelled at its size and wanted to know what it was for. There was a huge Petanque (Boulles) tournament at Toinnerre with over 300 games in progress. Dave bought a set of Boulles along with the spanner so people were very chatty as he wondered around with the boulles and spanner.


Just as we were leaving Migennes on the Sunday, Jo rang to invite us to drinks at the boatyard in association with a National TV filming happening on the Tuesday. He also said he would look at our drive shaft problem.


So, we went to a place called Joigny which is really beautiful. We had a wonderful spot on the river from which we could view the town with the famous vineyards behind. We spent a very pleasant day exploring the town. There were many highlights including very old buildings and interesting history. The locks on the river were very different from the canal in that they were HUGE and could take a number of boats at once. There is quite a lot more commercial traffic here so you have to watch out. But, the river is very wide so it is a bit more relaxing than the canals.


On Tuesday, we went to Jo's shipyard and rafted up to a 22M barge belonging to a fairly old Frenchman. Jo had said he would look at our problem then but clearly this was not going to happen as the film crew was very active with a lot going on. Then lots of people in suits began to arrive for the drinks. We went over but were a bit out of place (even though we had dressed up). So, we collected a couple of the handouts (which were about the Nivernais Canal) and these are very useful. We had our own drinks on Anja. Jo is one of the ardent supporters of the Nivernais Canal and this was an important promotional opportunity.


Anyway, Jo came and looked at our problem 4pm Wednesday and said they would fix it Thursday as as there was also welding to do on our neighbour's boat. That night, David pulled up the floorboards and removed as much as possible of the bearing which was mounted on the twisted plate. Unfortunately, the heads were burred on many of the screws so he had to drill them out and we will need to buy more screws (a brisk ride up a long steep hill to the local Bricolage store at Migennes).


Anyway, Thursday morning dawned and after a boat was lifted back into the water by Jo's crane, our neighbour fired up his engine. Together, our two barges weighed about 80+ tonnes, but he skilfully manoeuvred us both at once to the side of the river and we made fast. His work took until mid afternoon and then it was our turn. Jean Francois was our very able worker and he straightened and re-welded the damaged plate. Then he and Dave re-assembled the bearing and other bolts and then tested at low revs. All appeared well. We were EXTREMELY grateful for Jo's assistance and the work of Jean Francois. His charges were extremely modest. Penny had been out shopping and doing various chores in Migennes. She discovered at La Poste that a parcel of books from Amazon America had arrived but she could not pick them up because she was not David.


As soon as we could, we left the boat yard and moved to a spot on the beautiful Yonne and David cycled to La Poste and picked up the books. We had exhausted our English books and they are not available here. So, this was an experiment to see if Amazon could deliver quickly to Poste Restante. The whole thing worked well at modest cost and the books came in 8 working days. This bodes well for next year when we will be away for much longer and probably will not yet be up to reading all our books in French. We will also buy second-hand English books on eBay France as there seem to be a respectable number for sale.


So, now our bearing and plate are fixed, we can travel at a faster speed on the river which has a higher speed limit. Our problem did not really affect us on the canal which has a 6km/hr limit for boats over 20 tonnes (we are 36 tonnes).


So, tomorrow, we are probably off downriver to Villaneuve sur Yonne and then onto the beautiful town of Sens. We might go further (perhaps to the Seine River) but then will come back up the Yonne, probably to Auxerre to pick up Peter and Alison.


More later,


Dave and Penny