Making Plans

Autumn in Melbourne is beautiful*; sunny days without the searing heat of summer, evenings still balmy enough to relax outside with a glass of wine and nights cool enough to enjoy a good sleep. Also it's time to look forward to this year's adventures in Europe. Those of you who have been regular readers of the blog (thank you so much to all of you!) will know that we are not great planners. Decisions are often made at the last minute, sometimes on the toss of a coin. There are advantages and disadvantages to this rather haphazard approach. It's relaxed; time can be taken, minds changed and changed again- although some may regard this as time wasted and dithering. The major drawback is, possibly, that if you don't plan thoroughly you miss stuff. I have spent quite a bit of time over the past months reading and enjoying other boaters' blogs and finding out about all the chateaux, museums and great restaurants we've managed to miss along the way, the markets we could have visited and festivals we could have enjoyed if only we'd taken the time to research and plan. Ah well,  hopefully with our lackadaisical approach we're less likely to succumb to stress induced heart attacks and there will always another day.

There are some things that require no particular pondering over and they have been done. Flights are booked for the beginning of May, a visit to Scotland arranged, our vignette (navigation fee) paid and insurance renewed. An ever lengthening list has been made of jobs at home that need to be completed before we depart (now if that's not planning I don't know what is). The best part of list making is the flourish of thick black marker as you score off the items - certain people have even been known to add already completed tasks just for this simple pleasure.

Last year we ordered a lot of navigation charts online but as our present mooring at St Jean de Losne has 2 good chandleries on hand we haven't pre-purchased any this time. St Jean is at the junction of several waterways of course, so at some point a decision has to be agreed on (or a coin tossed) about which route to take. Plenty of time for that.

I've noticed many people on their blogs give an end of season summary of the distance cruised and number of locks worked so I've managed to waste a few hours working that out. Some even calculate the number of bottles of wine consumed but perhaps that's better not thought about!

So, for 2011

• km cruised 1,246

• locks 574 

Should you be thinking, 'that's not very far for 4 months - I drive more in a week,' please take into consideration that our normal cruising speed (on the canals that is- rivers are quicker depending on current) is not much faster than walking pace. Bikes (on the tow path of course) regularly leave us well behind and we've even been outdone in the speed stakes by children riding with trainer wheels. Then there are the locks. At best, it takes 15-20 minutes to work through one but should there be a wait for any reason (and believe me, there are many, many reasons) it could take hours. We might decide to stay in one place for a couple of days or a week and when we do move we never get going very early. What's the hurry?

*Insert the word 'usually'. It's never a good idea to wax lyrical about the weather. Since I wrote this black clouds have swept in bringing rain and hail storms and even snow in the mountains. Gales have uprooted trees which need to be cleared up, some chopped for firewood the rest stacked on the increasing number of bonfires dotted around our property. So, that jobs list is getting longer...

Homeward Bound

Gare d'eau St Jean de Losne

L'Avenir is now safely (we hope) tucked up for winter at St Jean de Losne. Our last week or so on board was spent in magnificent autumn weather which made packing up and winterising reasonably hassle free but also made us wish we could continue cruising. However, we knew the warmth wouldn't last much longer and the enormous woodpiles outside people's houses gave a clue as to how cold it would become in a few weeks time.
St Jean de Losne is a major base for cruising boats with many people storing their boats there for the winter and we saw quite a few we'd met earlier in the season. Being in a port for a few days was also a good opportunity to chat to other boaters and share experiences and plans.

L'Avenir's winter berth- the port has a webcam which can be remotely operated by boat owners

It always intrigues me that people can travel the same routes visiting much the same places and have such different experiences and opinions of them. Part of the reason might simply be due to the weather at the time but it's not only that. Depending on the size of your boat, you might have had trouble finding suitable moorings for the night. Perhaps you had to clamber up and down ladders in locks. Maybe you arrived in the only village for miles on the baker's day off or, alternatively, were lucky enough to be there for a festival and fireworks. Or, you had an altercation with another boater and he threw a bucket of water over you (this did happen to someone we met but seems so incredible I have to mention it). The permutations are endless.
So, we're travelling similar journeys but in different ways. Most of us began in much the same way though, and that was  by hearing someone's else's story - in a tv programme or a film, a book, an article or even a blog and then saying,
'I'd love to do that!'

Mantoche. One of the prettiest moorings on the Saone. The chateau was once a royal hunting lodge.