Day: 15 May 2018

It rained all night, and was still raining this morning, however, there was nothing for it but to set off, so we did.  With the strong following wind the boat steers like a cow – at the first sign of inattention it heads for one of the grassy banks.  There seems to be no neutral setting and requires constant correction.
The rain collects on the windscreen – there is a wiper, but it is high in the middle, whereas the steering station is low on the right.  A basic design flaw that has been uncorrected since the boat was made in 1984.  Vic crawls out the narrow ledge with paper towel every now and then to wipe it off. All the good jobs.
We arrived at the first lock at 9, just when they should start work.  After a while with no action we wandered into the lock keeper’s office to rouse the young female lock keeper (and her lovely cat).  She helped Vic get all of the ropes done and got us through the lock, warning us that there would be no help at the next one, as it was a triple (actually 2 + 1, with a small gap) and the lock keeper was in a high cage where he could see all three.  Vic was able to handle that effectively.  She gets all of the good jobs – standing in the rain handling gooey ropes, whereas I am relegated to the dry interior to shout insructions.
We arrived at the next lock just at noon – the lock keeper’s lunch hour (and a half).  There was already another larger boat waiting, so they went in first (after lunch), and we tucked into the other side of the lock.  Again Vic, in the rain, did a great job.
The other boat got a fair bit ahead of us and had to wait for us to catch up at the next one, to lock through together.  They didn’t make that mistake again.
By this time the weather was beginning to take its toll.  I might as well enjoy it, because I don’t think I will be on the canal again. Not with this wife anyway, or so I am told.
And that kind of day continued, and brought us to Trebes.  This is the home port for ‘le boat’, the biggest rental group in the area.  There must be 50 or more rental boats taking up all of the mooring and more.  All of them behemoths of  50 feet or more.  Some of them are so large it takes three women to handle the ropes, and at least three men to stand on the fly bridge and shout instructions.  I would hate to handle one, although the bow thruster would be appreciated.
We found a spot to moor on the end of the row (actually, probably off the end), in a patch of grass owned by a swan that was very reluctant to vacate.  It only moved when Vic threatened to wrap a rope around it.

We were at a narrowing in the canal that gave is a front seat to the comedy acts to follow.  Two of the bigger boats following us tried to moor in a spot far too small, even with bow thrusters.  One ended up crossways with much forehead slapping by the skipper on account of the actions of the female crew ashore.  The main problem was the three boats wanting to go the other way.  The front one had a French Valkerie figurehead shouting “Back up”, not realizing that ‘back up’ is ambiguous when you are crosswise in a canal.
We wandered up the street looking for lunch and encountered a guy loitering in front of a resturant.  When Vic asked him if he was open he said “No, but, would you like coffee?”  So we went in, and he gave us a free espresso.  Vic asked about a supermarket where we could buy tea, and he indicated one km, and gave us 4 teabags in cling wrap.  He complained that the weather was really bad for his tourist trade, so we went back there for dinner, when he was open.
We found that the tourist info shop next door appears to have free (or at least unsecured) wifi.
And the boat heater doesn’t work.  I have been playing with it all afternoon. It starts up, sputters and dies.  No use calling the rental company. What are they going to do?  Finally got it going at the end of the day to dry out Vic’s shoes.
Better weather tomorrow?

Today again when we awoke the sky was heavily overcast, and it was windy and rainy.  The boat was not to be ready until 3, so we stayed in the warmth of the hotel as long as we could.  The boat man allowed is to park our luggage in his garage, so we trundle it over during a lull between rain storms.  

We bought cheap umbrellas (should have gotten them on day one in Rome) and they promptly turned inside out and broke.  With nothing to do we had lunch and sat in the resturant as long as we could.  There were no museums near – all that stuff is up at the castle.  Finally, at 3 we went to get the boat, but first there is the French paperwork.  And to pay for the supplemental things we had ordered.
“Is there toilet paper on the boat?”
“No, madame, but we can sell you a cleaning kit that includes two rolls of toilet paper.”
“Does the towel kit we ordered include tea towels?”
“No madame but we can rent you some for 2€.”

We finally were introduced to our boat, “Baby Herman”.  It is a cross between a camper and a boat, retaining the favorable characteristics of neither.  It is also nearing it’s best before date.  It has that delightful mouldy smell of a wet boat.
The English speaking lady ran us through the general operation of the appliances, and pretty well nothing worked.  She then called on her non-English speaking handyman to fix things.  We got a new battery and a  new butane bottle, and that made most things work.

Then the handyman took us out to show us how to drive, and how to make a u – turn in a 30 foot canal with a 25 foot boat –  but in French.  The boat is short, wide, flat bottomed, and has high windage.  In short, it steers like a cow.
When back tied up, he abandoned us.  We sat in the boat, two cold, forlorn miserable people.

Oh well….. Off to store to buy supplies for dinner and breakfast at least.  We decided to spend the night tied up here – the weather is still stinky, and might be better tomorrow for our first locking through (or first in 30 years since we did the Rideau).
The little butane heater takes a bit of the chill off, and maybe even dries the air out a bit.  It is 9C out there with rain and a wind, putting the wind chill at 4C.  They say that last year here at this time it was 30C.  We sure picked a rotten year.