SeascapesTravelog
Seascapes Travel Log
Michael Grew
Mon 16 May 2011 19:31
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Pont de Vaux Marina. 12.05.2011
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Arrived at the marina at 18:00hrs,having been driven down from home by my cousin, John in his estate car, after crossing the Channel, overnight, courtesy of LD Ferries from Portsmouth to Le Havre.
We were very pleased to see that Seascape looked in good condition, dirty (very) but no damage and nothing missing. We found the sea toilet that I re-installed in October still did not work in spite of the request made for the boat yard staff to see to it. When the one of the yard staff was approached, he produced the usual Gallic shrug and in broken English said they had been busy but he could do the work first thing in the morning. Typical!! Spent the evening settling in.
Next morning (13.05.2011) Fredrick the yardman arrived promptly at 09:00hrs and fixed the loo in about half an hour. We cleaned the boat inside and out and had a big tidy up. Weather very hot, bright sunshine, no clouds, lovely. We walked John around the town, stopping off in the town square to sample a cold beer. John being a diesel engineer par excellence he checked the boat engine over and found one of the rubber fuel lines to one of the diesel injectors had perished and was leaking. Up to the chandlers and guess what, another gaullic shrug that indicated they didnât have any fuel piping. John and I walked into town to see any of the local garages had any, they didnât. On the walk back we met an English couple, Andrew and Jenny, who live on board a dutch barge. Andrew said he had some piping that might do the job he did and John was able to fix the problem. Jenny invited us all back to their boat for coffee, during the course of the conversation they told us that during the winter, the canal froze and the boats were covered in six inches of snow. The photograph of it was very interesting. When the snow melted the marina basin flooded by a massive 2.5 metres. No wonder our boat looked so filthy! In the afternoon we walked across the fields to the small village on the other side of the marina and had a look at the small cemetery. It sounds a bit morbid, but it was truly fascinating. There were five large (new) glass walled mausoleums at the front of the cemetery, each with memorial tributes from families and friends. The surnames of the deceased indicated that they were in some way related. It must be a very large and wealthy family. Also in the grave yard were several graves of resistance fighters. There must be an interesting story there somewhere. We walked back towards the marina and John and I left Maureen to return to the boat, while we went into town for some liquid refreshment. Well it was a very hot day! After dinner on board we all turned in early as John had to be up at 06:00hrs to drive back to Le Havre to catch the 17:00hrs ferry to Portsmouth.
A very early start, Johnâs alarm clock went off at 04 :20hrs !!! He really must learn how to set the alarm on his new phone if wants to reach a ripe old age. Bless him. I needed a leak anyway so having dealt with the discomfort I then I set my alarm to the correct wake up time and went back to sleep. When my alarm went off I found Johnâs bunk was empty and his sleeping bag packed away! Ah well never mind. Over breakfast we discussed the best route for him to take home avoiding Orleans road works ( traffic there was horrible on the way down). He decided to use the autoroutes for ease of navigation. After he left we continued tidying things away. I tried to get the new fridge to work properly and eventually decided the problem was that the French electricity being rated at 210 volts was insufficient to drive the 240 volt English motor. Gave the fridge a boost with my new battery booster pack which supplies a 240 volt booster for a short while and found that helped and the fridge temperature was lowered. Hooray ( although if we get a heatwave like last year I think we will be in trouble). At 16:00 hrs we were invited to have drinks on board Andrew and Jennyâs barge to celebrate Andrewâs 60th birthday. There we met and number of other boat crews. We returned to Seascape for a late meal then sat and read until the eyelids got heavy and we turned in.
Awoke to a cloudy morning at 08 :00hrs ( a much more civilised time). After breakfast we started sanding down the rubbing strake ( a bit a wood that runs along both sides of the boat to save damaging the hull against sharp objects) The varnish on it was peeling off and looked scruffy. We got about halfway through completion when down came the rain in fits and starts (typical!) Then Madeline from off the barge âHoneysuckleâ arrived for coffee and to look at our cockpit hood. We met her yesterday at Andrews party. She wanted to have a similar hood made to fit over âHoneysuckleâsâ cockpit. By the time she left it was lunchtime. After lunch it started raining again so we abandoned any thought of sandpapering and went over to look at âHoneysuckleâsâ interior. Lovely, all light oak panelling throughout and every conceivable household appliance. Since husband, Robin had a stroke in 2010, which has left him partially paralysed down his right side Madeline has to do all the maintenance herself. Although the way she tells it, Robin didnât do a great deal before his stroke. I borrowed their camera and took a few photographs of âSeascapeâsâ cockpit hood so that they can get the design copied. It rained on and off the rest of the afternoon so the rubbing down was postponed until tomorrow. A cold evening so we read for a bit and then turned in early.