Today saw our first day of barging for the year, as we headed West for about 10 days. Just a short cruise, as we have to get back for our Prefecture interview on the 18th, and I also have to do some work with Nico at La Maison on the 14-15th, while the tenants are away on holidays.

We made a 0930h start, just ahead of Daisy who came up from the Tarn a couple of minutes after we pulled out of our mooring.

As we headed out of Moissac, we passed by La Maison and got the first chance of a photo since the rendering of the facade was done last year. Looking pretty different from what it was when we bought in 2012, especially on top of the garage!.

                                 Before (2012)                                                                           After (2018)

Daisy declined to come in behind us at the first lock, so that put about 15-20 minutes between us for the rest of the day. We noted that there was a new cafe at Ecluse 28, and so Rita took the opportunity to give them some Fêtes information sheets that they could share with patrons.

As we approached Valance d’Agen, we noticed that the pergola in the garden of our favourite house in this area now had a healthy amount of roses growing over it. We wondered what it would look like when we next see it after we return from “up North”.

It was all smooth sailing to Golfech, where we had planned to stop to Kartcher (pressure-wash) the boat using their shore power supply. We had no sooner started on the cabin roof when we were joined by Nicki and Ian Williams on Daisy. We explained what we were doing, and they just moored upwind from us to make sure they didn’t get any spray (and associated paint chip debris). Later in the day we were also joined by Dilligaf. They didn’t object to us continuing with the cleaning, but as soon as they plugged in their shore power line, it tripped the breaker and the Kartcher stopped. We collectively figured that the sudden surge to charge their batteries had overloaded the port circuit. So Ian and Rita cycled up to the Mairie to pay our mooring fees and to notify them of the power failure. A little while later, I noticed the Kartcher start again, but then die almost immediately. After we still had no power after 30 minutes, we rang the Mairie and they said that someone had been out to reset the breaker, but that it must have tripped again (probably because Dilligaf had forgotten to turn off their battery charger).

A few minutes later, after Daisy and Dilligaf had disconnected, three Mairie cars arrived to reset the switch! This they successfully did, and left the cabinet unlocked for the night in case we needed to reset the breaker again. Daisy and Dilligaf turned off A/C and other high-power accessories, then reconnected, and all went OK for the rest of the night.

We declined to re-start the Kartcher (just in case) and so we ended up with a half-clean boat, but at least we had a clean wheelhouse roof and bimini. The new plastic covering for the wheelhouse worked a treat over winter, keeping the underlying wooden roof nice and dry, and providing a very easy-to-clean roof in summer.

Soon after we got everything back on deck, having decided to stop cleaning, we noticed that the sky was darkening, and this was soon followed by thunder and high winds. One lightning strike just to the north of us was bright, loud and very immediate, with sight and sound being almost simultaneous.

Soon the wind and thunder was replaced by heavy rain. So the drinks that we had been invited to on the rear deck of Dilligaf was cancelled, as everyone battened down the hatches and waited out the storm which lasted for about 2 hours. Rita and I ended up dining out on the cheese platter that we had prepared to take to drinks!