LIFE IN THE FAST LANE

23/08/09

Time is slipping by and we are starting to feel the odd cooler early morning and slightly shorter days as we move towards the northern hemisphere autumn, however, it sure hasn’t stopped the daytime temps getting up to the mid 40 degrees over the past few weeks. Happily for Rhonda this week they have dropped to the low 30s and are forecast to stay at this level for a day or two.

Rhonda's Comment: If you cannot read what is on Ken's t-shirt - it says "Work Harder" millions of people on welfare depend on you".

We have had a few days stopover in Decize which is at the junction of the Canal Lateral a la Loire with the main Loire River and the connection to the Canal Nivernais which allows barges to head north through the centre of France and link up to the Canal Bourgogne (Burgundy). The marine port we are moored at is one of the main bases for the area for the giant hire boat company ‘Le Boat’ and at present we have about 35 hire boats tied up. Some of them are loaded with families etc finishing their 7 or 10 day cruising adventures as it is now close to the official end of the main holiday season and schools are about to commence their ‘first’ term so it is time for all those mums to get off to the shops for the last minute school attire requirements etc. Thank goodness too as it will allow the waterways to become less congested again although there has been a distinct lack of commercial boats as they too take their annual holidays mainly in August. Now it is the time for those folk who are not constrained to having to take their holidays at the peak period to get out and enjoy their time on the waterways with less crowding at marinas and with the weather promising to be a little less hot and humid.

I have to point out that it is only over the past 5 or so years that the French have started to realize and appreciate what a wonderful holiday they could be having spending it on the canals. This had previously been left to Germans, Dutch, Americans and English along with a smattering of Kiwis and Aussies and other races.

Rhonda's Comment: Hey Man

We have met up with so many great people while on the canals as previously referred to in earlier blogs and while we have been here at Decize it has been no different. We have had some great chats with fellow travellers and it is such during these sessions that one learns so much from their experiences about ‘best moorings, prettiest villages, best wineries, bakeries and service points” plus all the experiences they have had with happenings to their own barges which one can tuck away in the corner of the memory bank for recall if required when something similar happens to us.

Yesterday we got ‘T boned’ by a couple of Austrians in their 38ft yacht while they were trying to turn around in our marina. They carried, as is typical and necessary with yachts in transverse through France, to or from the Mediterranean, to carry their mast strapped to a frame on the cabin top which is fine except when so much of it sticks out the front of the yacht. This makes them almost a marine jouster and that is what happened to us with them jamming the front of the mast into the cabin side of our boat about 50mm away from one of the cabin windows. The force was enough to push our boat (45 tonnes) quite solidly into the jetty. They then pulled back and motored off without so much as an apology. Fortunately, it is only a bit of filler and paint and a couple of hours labour to correct the damage but it is annoying when someone doesn’t follow common courtesies of at least offering to help repair or pay for repairs. Their excuse when we caught up to them was “we are new and didn’t see you as being so close” and no, I did not swear or curse them either. Rhonda thinks I must be going soft in the brain.

It is only the odd person who causes concern, just like on the roads and a lot of concern relates to the hire boat folk who are so excited when they get on board and start their adventures. They go too fast in their need to see what is around the next corner and sometimes get themselves into a bit of bother. One of the scariest things they often do is, allow small kids to ride on the bow of the boat outside of any bow rail even, so that with the slightest bump or deceleration it is possible to drop the kid into the water which would mean that he or she would probably surface right under the prop. I understand there has been several such accidents over the years.

Rhonda's Comment: No, we aren't going into the business of growing snails!!!!

I promised in our last blog that I would try to answer some of the questions we have been asked by readers, in particular regarding the canals relating to specifications, how they were built and when etc. If this part is likely to bore you then I apologise in advance and suggest you skim through until you are clear of this section.

Ok, so here goes. As I understand it the following information is correct, however, I am sure there will be folk who have a lot better knowledge of the history etc than I do, so I await comments from those readers and contributors. The canal network which criss-crosses France is approx 8200 kms in length and while it is not all joined up because some of it was only built to serve particular regional areas. The canals do cover most areas other than through the more mountainous regions and were originally built along streams or river beds by armies for their kings etc to move troops and equipment to battle fronts. Some of the earliest designs of barge locks go back to Leonardo de Vinci refining a Chinese invention dating around 1495. Napoleon was a major promoter, user and developer of the canal system in many areas. Later the carriage of goods and produce for commercial purposes dominated the need for further development but as so many of the canals were privately owned, it was not until 1878 that the National Water Board was set up under the public works minister Charles de Freycinet.

He set a standard in France for the size depth and width of the canals and locks and this standard still applies today. The canals are dredged to a minimum 1.50m deep with a 25.0 m minimum width. Of course in some places the canals are much, much wider with full turn around bays even for the 38m barges. With the locks being constructed to the following standards minimum depth 1.80m with width of 5.20 m and 39 m long (minimum) thus the standard commercial barge is called a peniché which is built of a size which fits snugly into the locks. The barges are the workhorse of the canal system and have a carry capacity equivalent to 10 x 30 tonne truckloads, so one can quickly begin to see the true value of moving bulk tonnage in this manner. In the larger canals or rivers like the Seine, the barges are much bigger and it is amazing to see these craft with the wheelhouse which is set on a scissor type lift apparatus, sitting above the stack of containers or logs so that the skipper can see forward over his load. Many of these barges will carry a car on deck ready to offload using the deck derrick so that the owner can get away to attend to business or pleasure rather than being confined to the boat.

As daunting as it seems, the first time you see one of these penichés coming towards you in a small canal situation, the skill of the barge operators which is usually a husband and wife team, has to be seen to fully appreciate how well they manoeuvre these monoliths along the canal system and particular, through the locks bearing in mind there is only 15 cms clearance space from wall to wall over the width of the barge.

There are many variants of how the locks operate from being fully controlled and automatic which are indicated to the barge by red and green signals to enter a lock, to manual locks operated by a lockmaster (eclusier) who will wind down the paddles (two at each end) to either close or empty the lock plus will open or close the main gates which means a lot of walking from end to end up to 8 times per filling and emptying the lock. This is where we generally get off our barges, if possible, and at least help with the winding or pushing/pulling of the heavy gates.

From this manual operation to fully automatic systems which read of your arrival from the magic eyes set in the bank so as you pass, the gate operations are triggered, however, in between there is a lot of other methods used which takes a bit of learning about but once you overcome the initial nervousness the system makes sense (generally) and all goes well.

There is an unwritten law that when one is entering or leaving a lock, slow is the go, no matter how tempting it is to rush into an apparent benign empty awaiting lock. After solidly clouting a lock wall at around 3 kph, one day due to my feeling that I had this entry and exit business sorted, I bent the toe rail and scratched the hull quiet deeply, I then learnt that ‘slow is the go’ as 45 tonnes of moving barge just does not stop like your car can do. As some of the old bargees say, “there are only three main rules to observe in barging, slow, slow, slow”.

Well enough of this hilarity and news of canal and lock specifications for now but if you have any specific questions we are very happy to answer to the best of our ability.

This week has seen us make two trips to the dentist for Rhonda who snapped a tooth and then re-snapped it a couple of days later when munching on the wonderful French crusty bread. I have to comment on the service. Firstly, appointment set at 9.30 am, she was taken in on time and emerged in less than 20 mins. The dentist had taken full x-rays with a machine which just followed ones jaw shape and put a full film onto the computer for viewing or action. He mixed the tooth replacement compound and after 10 seconds only of drilling set the tooth up, dried it with a blue light. No grinding off nor polishing required and Euros 68.00 later we were on our way. Apparently, the latter failure was due to her not waiting for the full setting of the compound, however, he rebuilt the tooth two days later and she was free to go. No charge at all for the follow up treatment. Rhonda rates him as the best dentist in the world due to the No pain and the express service. Sorry about that Willie.

Harry had a trip to the vet last week due to his conjunctivitis and the vet gave us excellent service and correct medicates so the eye is now back to normal. If only we could eliminate completely the flea problem which is a real pain at this time as no matter how often we bath Harry or apply Frontline or similar, as soon as he gets out into the grass he picks up a new infestation, I think.

On top of that I have been suffering a bit from sore sides again and finding it hard to breathe deeply at times which I am sure related to my earlier fall but at that time I was told I did not have a break in my ribs but as there was a big blood mass in there, they couldn’t really be sure. As the central hospital complex is right behind this marina we thought we would go over to see if I could see a doctor.

The staff were amazing, so after expending our very limited French language skills, the receptionist sent for a nurse who could speak some English and who steered us through the paperwork and after asking about my difficulties, she asked us to wait in reception. In about 10 mins a nurse arrived with a wheelchair and insisted I got in and I was then wheeled up to In Patients or the Kiwi equivalent of the same and was sat down while blood pressure and pulse tests and temperature were taken by the nursing sister and then I was put onto a trolley bed and wheeled along the hallway to the doctor who could speak quite good English, so Rhonda and him were able to record my concerns. He questioned me pretty thoroughly and then using the Google Translator on the computer went right through the list of my tablets which Dr Thompson had prescribed over the years to make sure he understood why I had so many different types. Once he was satisfied he told us that he would commence with his own tests asking if we could I wait for about 20 minutes while they completed these!!!! We thought that they must be pretty basic short tests if they could be completed so quickly.

So off I was sent on my trolley bed to X ray for a full set of my chest, back and side, then back to be hooked up to an ECG machine and to have a shunt stuck in my arm so that blood could be drawn or drugs administered if required. He did a pretty full examination of my chest and back testing pressure points in my joints for inflammation and so on. Within 30 mins he had all the results from X-ray, ECG and blood tests and advised that I did in fact have a broken rib which was still moving a bit so was causing the discomfort etc. My blood tests including my INRs were fine as was my heart rate and pulse etc so he then suggested some pain killers etc as it could still take a couple of months for the broken rib which was hurting me with any movement and wished us well for the rest of our adventures.

No charge was levied at all and we can only offer the highest praise for the hospital staff friendliness, assistance, and efforts to please. We truly felt as though we were the only people needing to being attended to at the time. This is the second time we have experienced this sort of great treatment and I can only sing their praises as we have found them to be.

After another day of pottering around at Decize we left there on Wednesday as it looked like it could rain, however, after travelling for about an hour the sun returned and we were back to hot steamy weather again. Gee we have been so lucky with seemingly endless days of blue skies and only the lightest of breezes and the evenings being even better with the clear skies and mild temperatures allowing outside eating and relaxing such a pleasure.

We pulled up in this little port of Vanneaux which has a full modern boat building operation going as set up by an English business person called Mark Vardy. We can surely recommend this place to any other bargees as he is most helpful and is setting the place up to really look after passing boaters needs. Moored further along from “Somewhere” are two other similar boats all built by Delta Marine in Warwick England and the owners have left them here under Mark’s care while they have travelled on by car or train to other locales or returned to England. It is unusual to see so many sister vessels to ours so Mark is going to get the owners to email us when they can so we can discuss features of our boats etc.

Right alongside the port is a neat restaurant, Tabac, ice cream parlour which opens early (for France that is) and stays open until around 9.00 pm in the evening, so you can imagine how popular this place is in this heat. Near to the port is a small village called Gannay-sur-Loire which has seen much busier times but is quite quaint and the Post Office (La Poste) offers good service and the small general store has a fair range of provisions. Also moored here is another couple of Kiwis from Diamond Bay just outside of Christchurch so of course we swapped tales of our experiences with them.

Rhonda was updating our log last night and determined that we had just completed travel of 1000 kms in France on our boat and while that is a lot we seem to be so relaxed at pottering along and stopping over so often that this distance seems nothing at all so we sure hope it all continues as well as the first 1000 kms have.

We moved on from Decize on Tuesday as per our planned journey towards Digoin which is a big city with a large port so we look forward to ‘doing’ the shops when we get there. Meantime, we stayed in this little port which is near the town of Beaulon. This port offers free power and water facilities set alongside the dock. This is to encourage barges and boats to stopover and for travellers to spend money in the nearby village.

We were the only ones here apart from a Dutch couple Andrew and Rita Middelbos on their 1920 barge named “Weltevreden”. Andrew has spent over 30 years on the canals of the Netherlands and France so what he doesn’t seem to know about canal barges, these waterways and the best places to visit etc plus so many points about the culture seems not worth knowing. Rita who had spent many years working in Dutch television has also a wealth of knowledge about Europe in general.

We spent a lovely evening sitting out under the trees with a bottle of wine plus dutch cheese and other niblets listening and hopefully learning so much from this lovely couple and then we were later joined by a French couple who just arrived to stay for a couple of days also. It was amazing to listen to Andrew and Rita talking in French then English and then Dutch if the need arose. They were able to keep up with all the ‘talk’ answering our many questions and offering comments as we tried to follow the French folk who didn’t speak English. It was amazing to witness and again emphasised how lazy us Kiwis are when it comes to being able to talk or understand any foreign languages. So far we haven’t had a need to speak Maori so will continue with our French lessons in the hope that we can at least become fluent enough to be understood one day.

Yesterday, we heard the hoot of a barge horn and looked up to see “Empress” pulling in to say hello. This lovely barge is owned by Stan and Betsy Golland who originate from Florida are the couple we met up with in Nevers some 3 weeks ago and spent some very pleasant time with at the local Asian restaurant and so we caught up on their news and again learned more about the canals that they had travelled on and places they had visited. In return, we were able to tell them about a larger town some 12 kms from here called Bourbon Lancy which Rhonda and I visited on the scooter.

It is a Thermal Spa town built up on some hill tops and dates back to the 14th century with so much history and interesting spots to see and must be a popular weekend or holiday stopover as there must have been 30 odd hotels ranging from No Star to 5 Star standard. We were fascinated and are determined to return one day and actually stop up in one of those hotels for a couple of days so we can really soak up the features.

Well this blog has got to be pretty long, so I do apologise but as we have been away from a good email service centre this blog has just sat waiting to be sent so I have kept adding to it. Hope it is not too much to take in.

Rhonda's Comment: OK Dad where are we off to now?

Finally, I am now able to advise that at last we have a proper mail address so if you want you can post to us at:

K W and R G Blakie
MV ‘Somewhere’
c/- H2O Port de Plaisance
21170 Saint-Jean de Losne
France

We will have this postal address until March 2010 and any mail from home is always good mail.

Locks - 215

Klms - 1033