Rouen
Seascapes Travel Log
Michael Grew
Sun 10 Jul 2011 19:00
Basin St Gervais, Rouen 10.07.2011. 49:26:88N 01:03:23E
Well I thought I would sleep, but I woke in the early hours and all I could think about was that if the water level did drop how I would get the boat out. I even got up just as it was getting light to look at the water level. I was very pleased to find we were still floating, so I did then get some sleep. After breakfast we talked over methods to leave. In the end I decided to just slide the boat backwards, manually, past the three moored boats in the entrance. Which is what we did and it was absolutely no trouble at all. (Phew!) Out in the river we resumed our journey across a mirror-like surface, (the wind was gone) between tree lined banks, lit beautifully in patchy early morning sunshine. Superb! It definitely pays to travel at the weekend; we saw very few barges today. At 11:30hrs we passed through the last lock of the canal system, easily dropping down 7 metres. We have learnt so much in the time we have been in France. When we approached this same lock last year, coming in, we were very nervous and rushed about making sure that everything was secure and nothing could go wrong. Now - no worries. Once we cleared this lock we started to feel the effect of the river current as the tide went out and whereas before we were only travelling at 5.0 knots now we were bowling along at 7.3 knots. In consequence we arrived in the Basin St Gervais at Rouen at 16:00hrs about an hour earlier than expected. A lot more boats were here than there were last year and the whole place seems much more buzzier(?) I think tomorrow will be the crunch day. This is the day we have decided we will put the masts back up. Maureen says there will probably be grounds for divorce. Whatever happens it will be a taxing time for sure. Ah well, we shall see. I must swot up and learn some French swear words.