Blanquart Yachting's Quay Aug 5 - 9

 August 5: Pressure Washing

Looking at the amount of scrubbing we were going to have to do over the next few days we decided to have Juniper pressure washed. Actually a few years back we had decided this should be an all partner expense looking at the amount of time it would take to hand scrub. 

We made an appointment to move Juniper from her slip the Saône to the Blanquart quay on Le Canal de Bourgogne. We got all set to make the move and went to start the engine, nothing happens, try again, still nothing. Checked the battery voltage and it looked good. Tried the lower steering station and the engine started very easy. Looks like it's just an ignition switch. Moving Juniper through the first of 193 écluses we will transit in the next six weeks. Like riding a bike, it all came back to us even after a two year break.

The pressure washing team was ready for us and as soon as we had everything off our decks they started in with a scrub brush and the pressure washer. 3 1/2 hours, plus an hour or two for lunch and Juniper was looking much better. Now we start on the inside.

August 6 Birthday Time:

Today there was a significant birthday in the group. Joan officially became a senior citizen. At breakfast she received cards from our family and her work. Then Béatrice (the owner of the B&B) brought her a candle lit jar of homemade jam. We spent the rest of the day scrubbing till shower and dinner time. Our dinner reservation was at "La Barge Gourmande". A nice French restaurant, built on a barge, with about a dozen tables and three dinner choices each night. Dinner was finished with a sparkler candle on top of our dessert and everyone in the restaurant clapping in unison.

Dinner at La Barge Gourmande

Dessert at La Barge Gourmande

 August 7: Time to move aboard:

We've been staying at Les Charmilles (a wonderful B&B within walking distance from the boat. Today is the day we move aboard. It's been really hot since we arrived and getting even hotter every day. Our refrigerator craps out on us today. Not sure if we blew a fuse, or the refrigerator had died. We check in with David, the owner of Blanquart Yachting to see if his electrician could come take a look. Unfortunately he had just left on a two week holiday. David came down and discovered the issue appeared to be corrosion on the power cable. Luckily our newly minted senior citizen was nimble enough to get behind the refrigerator, disconnect the cables, sand the corrosion away and put it back together. It's beginning to look like we will be on our way soon.

August 8: Time to Provision:

Refrigerator is working (hopefully reliably), the ignition switch has been fixed (turned out to be a wire that somehow disconnected itself and the loose end was no where near the switch), and Juniper is clean enough to let us get underway. We spent the day provisioning and scheduling with the VNF to have an éclusier assigned to handle the many écluses (locks) we will pass through.