Seascapes Travel Log
Michael Grew
Tue 1 Jun 2010 13:31
Friday 28/05/2010 Chartrettes Marina
George works during the winter months and today was his last day so he couldn’t look at the engine until late pm. We took the bikes to supermarket and then over the weir bridge to Fontainbleau Forest. This section was full of outdoor sports equipment.
Bad news, we need the gear box out – George knows a mechanic he trust further down river so he is going to call them tomorrow. Rained hard in the evening.



31/05/2010 48:22:96N 02:48:47E
09:00hrs went down to George’s boat and and tried to ring his mechanic friend Joe Parfitt without success. So we decided to motor down to the nearest marine engineers. Left Chartrettes Marina at 10:30hrs and having topped up the transmission fluid gently cruised up the Seine. At 12:30hrs, just before we arrived at the lock at Champagne, we came up on an elderly Swede in a 14 foot special rowing boat. It had a mast with a small jib, a small cabin, a large solar panel that drove several navigation instruments and a tiny cockpit in which the man was standing in and was rowing, whilst facing forwards (just like the old sailors did in Nelson’s day). We entered the lock ahead of huge barge for which I got I got a telling off for- I should have waited and gone in after him! Agh well I will do it right next time. Once we cleared the lock we drifted until the rowing Swede caught us up. We made him coffee and he told us he was making the trip to sponsor Greenpeace. He intended to row some 3,467 kilometres, finishing up at Marseilles! He must have been at least 70 years of age. We arrived at the boat yard at Moret sur Loing at 13:00hrs. The manager came and had a look at the engine and said that he would try and order the parts required if we could find the part numbers. Thank goodness he didn’t turn us away. I rang John Landsdell from the Seadog Association and he promised to get the part numbers tomorrow. Cycled into the town, it is a lovely medieval town that still has some of the fortifications from when it was a fully walled town.