Barging on ANJA

There has been a huge quantity of commercial traffic on the river. Because of the long stretch of fantastic weather (which we brought from Australia- 20 straight days of sun in a row) they have been emptying the silos of grain.

The first day, we were following a push-pull pair of barges. One 39metres and the other 38 metres. They were lashed together end to end. We were following them and fortunately were able to fit in behind on the way to Joigny as the first locks are longer than normal but we would not have fitted with them in some of the later locks.

We made the trip from Joigny to Sens in the company of a large (48x5.2metre) grain barge which was going to Antwerp. The arrangement was that we would be the first boat into each lock, moving as far forward as possible then the peniche would squeeze behind. This wenbt well at first in the straight sided locks. Then we came to the sloping sided locks where we could not come as far forward. At this stage, the large boat decided to come alongside us. All very well when the lock is full of water, but weith the sloping sides, as the water drains out, the boats move closer and closer together. The first time we were quite anxious as the lock keeper started the water draining and then went into his house! All went well but there was only 40cm between the boats once the water had drained out. We discussed it with the other skipper and he agreed we should go out first each time. Very agreeable to us as we did not want to be squashed!

We were the only boat in beautiful Sens when we arrived on Jeudi Saint (Easter Thursday) but there is now a couple from Holland and a charter boat.

We will remain a few days to unwind and complete more of the chores. These including cleaning away dust from the all the cutting that David had to do in the bathroom- using a diamond saw to get through the tiles, timber etc.

Below you will see another peniche sharing the lock plus the quay at Sens where we are comfortably tied up. It is in the centre of town.

Happy Easter everyone,

Dave and Penny

Monday, two weeks since we left Sydney, another beautiful day. One main task remained. Some months ago we had ordered two new double- glazed windows to replace two leaky ones, but for various reasons, the replacements were still sitting in a shed at the boatyard. Meanwhile David wanted to finish off another engine addition, an alternator which would enable our engine to produce power at low revs, sent from Sydney and already installed but not wired up.

We arrived at the yard to find the windows being forklifted onto the boat- but then one of the two was 3.5cm too wide! What a day of action! Simon prevailed on the window fabricators to drive 85 kms from Sens and bring back the old window to be put back temporarily. The correct one will be made and fitted when we are in Montargis in May. The other, accurate window was installed carefully, the "old" one more hurriedly, and next we knew, the word went out- Anja is about to be lifted back into the water!

It seemed as if everyone in the boatyard was lined up to see this event, everyone except Penny who was too scared to watch closely. She sat in the car and studied maps.

A tractor was used to reverse a large trailer under the boat. Then special hydraulic jacks raised the boat so that the land-supports could be removed. Simon (the owner of the yard) then reversed everything quite a distance to the river. This included a tight bend with boats and sheds on either side. At the water's edge, a huge crane with canvas slings was used to raise the boat and gently put it back in the water. On board, nothing moved. A very gentle operation.

So two weeks after leaving Sydney, our most optimistic date, Anja is back in the water waiting for tomorrow to be provisioned and filled with water before we set out on first full cruising season in France. We had a date for our last Table d'Hote at Les Chouettes; Christian brought out champagne to celebrate our milestone. We were very sad to finbish our two weeks with Chantal and Christian.

Next day we checked out of the Chambre d'Hote, dropped our bags at Anja and went straight to the supermarket to stock up while we still had the car, which was returned later. With the food stowed the last remaining task before casting off from the boatyard was to fill up with water. What is that odd gurgling behind the shower? What is the new waterfall behind the tiles above the bath? We had a major water leak but all the pipes had been built in behind the wall and tiles.

We were so set to go that we decided that the leak could be investigated just as easily at the town quay in Migennes, so we cast off our lines at 4 o'clock to travel the short distance from the Yonne River into the Burgundy Canal.

David spent the first few hours of our 2011 trip wriggling around the bathroom cutting out panels and tiles. He located and fixed a couple of poor joints but still the gurgling continued. Finally next morning he discovered a bypassed pipe that had been blanked off and left in place so had remained full of water when the main system was drained for winter. It had blown off at a join after freezing. David rode his bike up to the hardware store to buy replacement parts, and by mid- afternoon we were again in action (though the bathroom was still in a mess).

Chantal and Christian visited us in the morning and kindly brought some of their own eggs and Chantal's final "Care Package". Every morning for 15 days, she gave us a package of cakes and biscuits to eat that day. The 15th was particularly large (a cake tin full of goodies).. Nothing was ever the same from day to day and Christian told us that Chantal had to think and work hard to make 15 totally different lots of gateaux.

Thank you Chruistian and Collet for your wonderful friendship and hospitality! Chantal and Christian also brought us a much awaited lketter from OFII (Immigration) about our visas. Whoopee!

We were still keen to move on, so after waiting for two huge commercial barges to go through the lock (and then join together in push-pull configuration), we headed off to Joigny then off the next day for the longer trip to Sens where we will spend Easter and take the chance to get ourselves and the bathroom back in order.

Regards, Dave and Penny

Palm Sunday! Finally we rewarded ourselves with a day off and became tourists, on another beautiful sunny day. Because we had the rental car we chose places not easily accessed by barge. We first visited Avallon. We had to see our namesake town.

Avallon is very spacious, with streets wider than we are used to in France, a pleasant town with stately buildings.

Next we went on to Vezelay for Palm Sunday Mass in the Basilica of St Mary Magdelene. Vezelay is a Unesco World Heritage Site and the Basilica has been the departure point for pilgrims since the 11th Century. Christian and Chantal spend a month a year forwarding their journey to the final destination, Santiago de Compostela. From start to finish it would take about three months (about 1,800km).

We parked just outside the town and walked up to the Basilica past houses dating back to the 15th century. The Church itself is on the top of a steep hill; on the terrace behind are sweeping views of the plain below and the forests of the Morvan.

Palm Sunday Mass was beautifully sung by the Brothers and Sisters of the Order of Jerusalem. The beautiful Church was full of worshippers, something we have not often experienced in France. We rate this town very high on our list of beautiful French towns.

Returning to our car we found that we had (without noticing) parked in a pay parking area. An envelope on our windscreen offered us the chance to fix it up simply by buying the required ticket (3 euros for the day), putting it in the envelope, and depositing it in the box provided. They get the parking revenue without the fuss of chasing people up. If only other jurisdictions were equally unpunitive!

Next stop was Arcy sur Cure to visit a series of underground caves including the second oldest known painted cave with more than 60 paintings and 170 graphic representations dating back 28,000 years. For Penny it was interesting to see the red hand "negative" in one of the caves, so like those in the Red Hand Cave near West Head which she visited with the Avalon Bushwalkers at the end of March.

Here are photos from Avallon (2) then Vezelay (3).

Regards, Penny and Dave

Another weekend has rolled around and we are feeling fairly satisfied with our work. The weather has been cooler with one morning of heavy fog, but with no rain our work on the roof could continue. We were able to apply the epoxy as planned then the next day the fibreglass matting and another coat of epoxy. Unfortunately by the time it was finished the weather had cooled and it did not harden properly. We waited an extra 24 hours before applying the third coat then the final coat on Friday to finish the week off well. We will paint it later when we are sure it is watertight. Meanwhile the work continues on two other fronts: installing the engine which came in "The Box" (David) and scraping off some rust in the bilge (Penny).

There was some preparation to do within the engine room to install the engine, as David had to enlarge the hole for the exhaust pipe, instal the box itelf so that the engine was enclosed, and then connect up various wires. Before all of this, the box and contents had to be completely dismantled on the ground and the various bits and pieces carried up the ladder and then down to the engine room. The engine was lifted onto the deck by forklift then gingerly down into the engine room, with the help of one of the workmen here at the Migennes boatyard.

The big moment was when the engine started and after some tinkering with wires and adjustments it started to put power into the batteries. Later David put insulation around the exhaust pipe and when first heated it gave off an overpowering smell and choking fumes. David had to hold his breath, descend the ladder into the engine room, open the 6 lid latches, open the top of the generator box and turn off the engine. This was a bit like the emergency ascent he had to do when taking his Scuba diving exam a few years ago. Removing the insulation and applying a blowtorch burnt off the smell.

The rust in the bilge had resulted from a previous leaky shower. The area is now dry but how much damage had been done already? Fortunately with the worst of the rust flakes gone the metal looks intact. We will finish it with a thorough sanding with a wire brush, then some rustproof paint. This will have to wait too. It looks as though we will be busy finishing off these jobs well after we get back onto the water.

Chantal and Christian continue to be excellent hosts and to help us get in touch with the Burgundy and French way of life. Chantal offered to sew some external curtains which we needed to keep the sun out of the front windows. Penny had been going to finish them by hand but gladly accepted. Penny is not renowned for the delicacy of her hand sewing. Chantal did an excellent job and they fit perfectly. Meanwhile Christian provides accurate and helpful information about where to buy specialist products and also keeps us up to date with the weather forecasts and the news of the day. We restricted ourselves to just two dinners at Les Chouettes this week; both were of the same high standard and beautiful presentation that we have become accustomed to.

It is great also to have the chance to practice our French with the limited words we know while Christian translates where necessary.

Christian and Chantal and Vaubon, their very undemanding and friendly small dog, surprised us on Saturday afternoon when they arrived to visit us at the boatyard, bringing flowers and wine to celebrate. This was Chantal's first time on a boat, quite a difficult introduction as she had to climb the ladder to get aboard. We hope they will be able to come once we are in the water and everything is cleaned and tidied. We enjoyed showing then around as they have become so familiar with the ups and downs of the work.

The photo below shows Penny, Chantal and Christian.

All the best, Dave and Penny

 A big day yesterday. We finally got all the rotten sections of roof and bearers replaced. There was more damage than we thought. David kept finding more spots the more we repaired. Also, disturbingly, there was a lot of moisture trapped inside the roof. Hopefully we have got most of it out.

Most of the joins and small holes are now filled with filler and sanded with a small amount to do  this morning. Hopefully, today will be the day of the first coat of Epoxy resin (approximately one day behind our schedule which is determined by predicted rain on Thursday).

We made three extra trips to Mr. Bricolage (hardware store) because we kept running out of timber for new bearers (16 metres needed!) and screws. We have denuded the shelves of 6 different sizes of stainless steel screws.

The BOX has arrived! Also, amazingly, it seems we do not have to pay any Customs duties or taxes. This is amazing considering how much fuss there was from Customs when we sent over a reburbished but old alternator to Simon. It took him two weeks to get it from Customs and they charged a lot more tax and duty than expected.

We arrived home after an almost 12hr day and, after a couple of quick showers and change of clothes, had a delightful four course dinner with Chantal and Christian.

Dave & Penny

We have been so busy, it is unbelievable. Up at 7am, breakfast then off to the boat. Frequently we need to go via a huge hardware store to buy the latest piles of plywood, stainless screws, paint strippers or more expensively, lots of new power tools needed to repair the disasterous roof.

The roof was badly made in the first place. We will not go into details, but as competent yachties, we have been rather apalled at how the roof was built and waterproofed. It is quite large, covering about 6 metres by about 3.8 metres.

There are lots of areas of rot and yesterday we decided to rip up 30% of the plywood, repair rot in some of the bearers and then replace the plywood.

We went through almost 10litres of paint stripper and also ripped off the gutters and a whole lot of wooden "stringers" (long pieces of wood battens) that were on top of fibreglassed joins in the wood. The fibreglass had delaminated and someone tried to fix the leaks with mastic goo. All this did was trap the water causing rapid wood rot plus the growth of much mould.

Anyway, we will post some photos so you can see progress. As of today, we are close to cutting two replacement panels and attaching them to the roof. Then we need to cut out around 10 other less serious areas of rot and replace them. Then seal all the joins and screw holes. We HOPE taht sometimne on Monday, we can apply a coat of epoxy resin. Then there will be a layer of epoxied cloth plus two more epoxy layers. We will finish upo with three coats of white paint. We should be able to walk on the finished roof and it should also be waterproof and not trap water like before.

Here are some photos.

Regds,
Dave and Penny

We are extremely fortunate in a number of ways.

For a start, we are staying with Chantal et Christian about 25km from where the boat is stored. They are providing 5 star service in a whole lot of ways. The house is great, the service is wonderful, the food is magnificient and they have already provided lots of very useful advice.

Their Chambre d'Hote is calles "Les Chouettes" (the owls) because Chantal is very keen on owls (perhaps that is an understatement). There are statues and sculptures of owls everywhere.

Also, the weather has been wonderful from the day we arrived. We have 30% of the roof removed from the boat and we could not do this if the weather was lousy (which it was until our arrival). They say we brought Aussie weather with us. Most days range from 8 to 24degC but we had one of 32degC when we were on the roof paint stripping and sanding.

More on the roof later. Here we are at breakfast yesterday morning. Every moring, our hosts select special food for us to eat and there is carefully chosen music to accompany our repast. There is also a beautifully presented placard welcoming us, with the Australian and Charbuy crests, weather forecast and latest Australian news. Also a description of the music that will accompany the home made jams, cafe, special tarts etc.

Here we are at the Chambre d'hote in Charbuy.

The 'plane flight was comfortable and uneventful. This time, we did not take a day or two off in Singapore, but flew straight through with three seats for the two of us on each leg. As usual, the Airbus 380 was comfortable and the Singapore Airlines service superb.

From Charles de Gaulle Airport, we took the shuttle train to the next terminal and hopped on a RER (suburban) train to Les Halles Chatelet. It got fuller and fuller until people were really squashed. Other passengers kindly helped us retrieve our bags and get off the train intact. Then we went to the Metro line and caught the Metro. Finallyt a short walk to Paris Bercy where we caught a TER (country) train to Migennes. There was a slight hiccup because the car rental place had moved quite a long way away from the Gare (station) and the usual 2hr lunch break slowed things down.

We went and briefly visiterd Anja. He (in France boats are "he") is looking good with repainted topsides and the hull re-blacked with pitch. Had a brief discussion with Simon the shipwright and then came to the Chambre d'hote which is lovely, as are the owners and our hosts Chantal and Christian.

Tomorrow we start buying things and open up the boat to check mould etc. Unfortunately winter has been unkind and the aft part of the roof which had been undamaged is now damaged.

Regds,
Dave & Penny

We leave for France on Monday 4th April. We will spend up to two weeks getting the barge ready for the summer season and wil then head off, North along the Yonne River, before turning South and performing a huge loop through Burgundy (Bourgogne).

Simon the Shipwright has been performing some repairs on Anja over the winter season. Re-antifouling the hull, repairing cracked and broken engine mounts, replacing two failed double-glazed windows and mounting a different alternator on the engine.

We have already shipped over a box containing a used motor and alternator. These will be mounted in the engine room and enable us to charge the large battery banks. We have stuffed the box full of other things such as books and clothing. it weighs 141Kg and has currently arrived in Frankfurt.

Well, must go and start packing clothes etc. Penny has completed her packing.

Regds,
Dave and Penny