L'Avenir - Cruising Europe's Inland Waterways

One of the beautiful lavoirs at Valence d'Agen We travelled a less than epic distance of 7km on our first day of cruising. 'You do know it's going to rain?' I was saying a quick goodbye to a small group of the other boaters we've come to know quite well in Buzet's port. We all looked up at the steadily darkening sky. I nodded and shrugged. L'Avenir's engine was already going and from the signs of activity on deck  it looked as though I'd better get a move on or I'd miss the boat. Time to go. Our general rule is that we don't move when it's raining preferring to stay warm and dry inside looking out in sympathy and admiration for those that do. They tend to fall into two groups; the hirers who don't want to miss a single day of their expensive holiday and the intrepid  yachties who seem to me to be a race apart. This canal (the Garonne) joins up with the Canal du Midi and together they are known as the Canal du Deux Mers (canal o...

 Doctor's Waiting Room - everyone's gone outside for a smoke I have abandoned ship whilst our new batteries are being wrestled on board and below decks into a space just big enough to accommodate them and requiring Houdini skills to reach. I prefer to be well out of earshot of the 3 men doing this job on a humid 35 degree day. Each of the 2 batteries is nearly 70kg and they have to get the dud ones out first. Yesterday we visited the doctor to get some advice on the gammy knee. This entailed a phone call to make an appointment which is my least favourite thing to try and attempt in French. I had a brain fade, suddenly not remembering the word for appointment which is, the virtually unforgettable, 'rendez-vous'. So, I said (in French) I wanted to 'see' the doctor which apparently doesn't translate well. There was a longish pause then the person on the other end said, 'but why?' So I then had to launch into an undoubtedly unnecessary description...

We're back - and seemingly doomed to repeat last year's debacle. 11 months is too long to leave a boat completely neglected. Poor l'Avenir looked in a sad and sorry state when we arrived. This part of the canal de Garonne, unlike the Midi, is blessed with abundant, healthy, beautiful trees all of which drop their leaves in winter. L'Avenir acquired a winter blanket which rotted down over time into a gooey sludge, blocking drain holes and blanking out the sun from the solar panels. Result? Scungey decks and worse - flat batteries. I feel all the energy being sucked out of me as I write those words.You may remember that we had battery problems last year which led to other disasters. Well, here we are with the sequel and it's one of those really boring ones where it's just a re-run of the original. After 2 days travelling all we wanted was a cup of tea and a visit to the loo both of which require elctricity. (Yes, even the loo). We connected up to the mains a...

Xmas in Australia - Santa arriving on the local fire truck It's been a long time since the last blog post. I had meant to update everyone and make my excuses much sooner and now here we are into another year. It's odd that as kids we often said 'I didn't mean to (insert catastrophe)' whereas now I'm forever excusing myself with 'I meant to (insert any number of jobs)'. When we left l'Avenir in Buzet at the end of May we had thought we might return for a month or so later in the season but we winterised her 'just in case'. As it turned out this was a wise move. And so, to the reason we had such a short summer season in 2016. We became grandparents for the first time and what a delightful experience that has turned out to be. Our grandson was born in mid June and is, of course, entirely gorgeous. The one drawback to being at home has been we have had to endure our first Melbourne winter in nearly 10 years. And yes, it does get cold and w...

Damazan So, it seems I tempted fate once again. The slightly 'smarty pants' tone of my last post might have requested a more appropriate title - something like Pride Comes Before...(you know the rest). To be fair, I was just relieved that the resident engineer seemed to have found a way around a major repair. He clearly had that too good to be true feeling because first thing next morning he said, 'I'm not happy. There's more to it.' He then proceeded to dismantle the gearbox once again - and he was right. I'm a little vague on the technical details but the source of the problem was eventually found and was one of those things which apparently had been on the verge of going wrong for longer than we've had the boat. In short, a welder had had a brain fade - or perhaps a coffee break - exactly halfway through a job and had welded only two of four sides of a small rectangular piece of steel deep in the guts of the gearbox. After 8 plus yea...

  Val de Garonne  'If we wanted, we could be there in a day or so' (my words a week or so ago) Talk about tempting fate. I was referring to our impending arrival in Castets-en-Dorthe the final port of the canal system in the south west of France. From Castets it is possible to lock down onto the tidal river leading to Bordeaux and then the Bay of Biscay. There had been some talk of taking our boat to Bordeaux - a conversation to which my enthusiastic contribution was along the lines of, 'yeah, right.' I was keen to make it as far as Castets though - the end of a long journey from the north of the country to the south. Fontaine de la Font d'Uzas Our plans weren't to be thwarted by fate or mythical water gods but by Spring in full force. I've already posted some pictures of the riotous growth of trees and plants along the canal banks but a similar thing is happening in the underwater world. For some reason the water is particularly clean in t...

Port of Meilhan 2 weeks later. Updating the blog is even slower than our progress along this canal. Not that we are in any hurry. Last year's cruise was a marathon effort so, this season, we are aiming for some balance and relaxation by going nowhere fast. In that respect we're succeeding quite splendidly - although, on second thoughts, perhaps one of us didn't too well with the balance part. His ribs are gradually healing I'm happy to report but sneezing is to be avoided if at all possible. When we arrived at Buzet  a few weeks ago the plane trees lining the canal were just beginning to come into leaf. Now we're surrounded by the brightest and most beautiful greenery. I had forgotten how green Spring in the northern hemisphere can be. The foliage has been helped along by copious rain but then it is April and showers are a feature of the month. There's been plenty of sunshine too and when it does appear it is quite warm. Off come the thermals (in my de...