Back in the water and a flood on-board
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
