The High Life

Mothers' Day Market at Castelsarrasin

Our first night of 2019 on board and I'm feeling a little concerned. The boat shifts slightly as we walk around and every so often a shiver passes through her from stern to bow. So what? Boats are supposed to sway as they float 'gently down the stream' (as our granddaughter would sing). We aren't afloat though. We are perched (teetering to my mind) on wooden blocks and it's a long way down a rickety ladder to the hard ground. The shuddering is caused by long trains zooming past at up to 200 kmph - we are parked right up against the railway fence. Just on the other side is the main line from Toulouse to Bordeaux. The joys of life aboard - on land.

On our arrival in France we spent 4 nights in a hotel to minimise the discomfort of camping onboard. During that time we repainted l'Avenir's bottom and generally cleaned up as much as we could. Not easy without a water connection. The boatyard is large but the power and water outlets are few. We have a long extension to connect to the electricity but water has to be fetched by bucket or container and then hoisted on board via a rope slung over the side.

One of those 'working t shirts' put to good use. Only 29 to go.

Somehow, when we return each year, the boat never looks as clean and tidy as it seemed when we left. Understandably the outside needs a good scrub after months of rain and wind plus a coating of soot from people's winter fires but the inside also always looks a bit forlorn. Dust that escaped the final vacuum clean has settled over everything; a pair of grubby jeans lurks in the laundry basket; a few dead spiders lie in the corners. And, disappointingly, someone has made off with our satellite dish. In all the years we've been boating we've only ever had 2 items stolen - a boathook and a bucket (one near miss with my bike though). I suppose we should have brought it inside.

Another disheartening discovery (not entirely unexpected though) is that, once again, my clothes seem to have shrunk over the northern winter whilst Rob's t shirts have multiplied. I have tried to cull the latter only for them to be retrieved as 'working t shirts'. Enough have been saved to wear a clean one every day for a month.
I've done disappointing and disheartening. They are pretty wishy-washy words for how we feel about our brand new, expensive, made-to-measure canvas canopy. After our old canopy was damaged last summer we decided to take it home to Australia and have a new one made. The boat detailer we took it to (who had done work for us previously) assured us he could do the job. He would take the old canopy to pieces and make a pattern from the pieces. It took him all of the Australian summer to get around to the job and in the end we only got the finished product back the week before we left. You know how this is going to pan out I'm sure. Let me tell you that after we attempted to put it up there was one of those word clouds hanging over the boat for days. It was the bluest of blue and filled with words that would make your ears burn. So, what do we do? We just have to try and make things fit as best we can. Modify/cut down the frame, move the fasteners, perhaps buy a sewing machine and add in some extra canvas. I don't know who taught that guy to measure. Polite words fail me.

We've done all we can for the moment. Today is a holiday. Tomorrow morning we are slotted in for relaunching and I am feeling more nervous than I was when we were pulled out - now I know what expect. That launching ramp seems a very long way from here.

Welcome back to the blog for the 2019 season. This summer
we will be on board for longer than the past couple of years. No new babies to welcome! I hope you enjoy following our trip.