On our way!

Due to a shortage of internet download/upload until the end of the month, there might be a shortage of photos on our blogs until then.

The good news is that we were craned back into the water on Monday 20^th of June. This went well and Penny (who hates watching it) arrived back early from shopping to witness the last steps. I (David) always explain why Penny is not there- because she is scared to watch- and Simon who drives the crane always says he too is scared to watch! We made a turn in front of the boatyard and sped off down the river at more than twice our normal speed with the engine just idling. As the river was still officially closed, we stopped 2kms downstream at a small town called Laroche St. Cydroine. A nice spot where we have stayed before. We went to the town square for the Fete de la Musique with town singing groups performing. We kept to the outskirts until the Mayoress spotted us, welcomed us and ensured we sat on some of the few available seats. We left before it concluded and tried to sneak away but the Mayoress made sure we understood there was more of the performance to follow.

Unfortunately, the local Boulangerie has closed down but we still managed with baguettes from the Depot du Pain at the Epicerie. During our stay, we went to the Migennes Market (which is an excellent market) and Penny travelled to Paris to vote at our Embassy in the Australian elections. This was her fourth trip to Paris in three weeks! We also discovered that our TV was not working. By a strange coincidence, we also found that France moved to all high definition TV this April. Our TV displays HD but does not receive it. Fortunately, I was able to cycle to a large hypermarche and purchase a small box which gets arounbd the problem plus, as a bonus, the TV receptions is now all high definition.

David stayed behind to mind Anja and also to construct a new front railing. The old one had become rather dilapidated and had also been made in five parts with lots of joins. The new one is made in two parts with very nice wood provided by Simon Evans.

On Friday night, via the internet, we got the exciting news that we could travel further the next morning. We radioded the lock on Saturday morning but received no reply. So we headed down there at 0910 and when almost there, got a call from the eclusier to say he was closed and we could not come. So, we headed back upstream and heard him calling someone else on the radio. Just as we were tying up at the town mooring, he called us, apologised and and that we could come! We did finally enter the lock though it was delayed because of a problem with the sluice gates (this was the first time the lock had been used for a month).

Anyway, we have made it 20kms downriver but are stopped again because the eclusiers (lock keepers) are having to manually re-lift the barrages. This involves lifting steel needles about 8cm wide and dropping them into the water, suspended on a cross beam. There are about 800 of them per barrage and it is very time consuming.

We just got word that we can travel a further one lock tomorrow but then no more until Tuesday. Hopefully we can get onto the Seine later in the week and speed along without delays because we are about 17 days late on our plan for the year.

At the moment, we are at the pleasant town of Villevallier.

Best Regards,

Dave and Penny