Progress

 

Escargot and Crémant de Bourgogne

Saturday April 16th - It’s Boat Show Time - or in France Salon Fluvial. The show had one new boat vender that scheduled a rendezvous for his owners to have boats to show. He had eight very beautiful yachts, all in Bristol condition for us to look at. There was also a large dock of brokerage boats for sale. Shoreside exhibits were everything from manufacturers the VNF (to government department that controls the rivers and canals of France), volunteer organizations supporting canals, house boat builders (one had a house tied up at the queue) charter boats open for touring and of course boat show food. Our favorite was the stand serving escargot with a glass of Crémant de Bourgogne.

Sunday was boat scrubbing time as we got ready to leave on Monday - plus some well earned reading time.

Monday we got up early, excited to finally be underway, did our engine check had all of gear in place and just as Michael went to start the engine we noticed we had no steering fluid showing. We topped it off and headed back to the repair queue. En route we emptied the reservoir again.

Our young contortionist mechanic
installing our hydraulic steering
Without having to remove our engine,

The rest of the week was hurry up and wait time. Late in the week we finally found that the hydraulic cylinder that moves the rudder had a bad seal that was leaking. We were told they would have to remove our engine to make the repair. The mechanic worked off and on in our engine compartment, we assumed getting the engine ready to pull. It turned out a young agile mechanic was able to reach under the engine and unbolt the cylinder. Of course there were no new cylinders available in France, but there were parts for a rebuild. Thursday late afternoon the rebuilt cylinder arrived and our contortionist mechanic was able to install it before quitting time.

We're finally cruising - our first Cafe au Lait
Sunny day for cruise to Auxonne 

Friday we did a quick sea trial on the canal (between two locks) before deciding we were good to go. We had a great cruise, about 18 kilometers, up the Saône River to Auxonne. So far we’ve had no leakage. Hoping to head back down the Saône Saturday, heading for the Canal du Centre, our first canal for this year.

Started to go for a walk - but the dry-dock near the yard working on our boat was changing boats
We spent the afternoon watching the entire process. Letting water in from the canal - moving the boats
to the canal. New boats in, diver positioning supports - emptying water to the Saône river level.  

What do we do while waiting? Spend time with new friends.
A wine night with another NW boat owner from Olympia,
his boat partner from England, Carol (pictured) from NZ and her partner
originally from the UK but has run commercial boats in France for decades