Sun 14 May - hose fitting, Pete/Judy, ginguette, H2O flags, burning bush

When I filled the water tank yesterday, I accidentally left the thread adaptor on the tap on the pontoon. When I went to retrieve it this morning, I found it had gone. Since several hire boats near the tap had also disappeared, I blamed them for its theft. However, when Rita was talking to port capitain Alain this morning, she learned that he had taken the fitting and added it to his collection, because many hire boats also leave port without their adaptors. So I've learned my lessons; never leave the adaptor connected, and don't automatically blame the hire boats.

During the morning we got a call from Judy Lynne and Peter Vizzard, and so we invited them to lunch on Kanumbra. We had a good time catching up, although the conversation eventually moved towards their woes with H2O over some repairs that were needed on their boat in order to pass the survey for older boats for insurance purposes. Like many others, they were having trouble with H2O in terms of potentially unnecessary repairs, and with actually getting them to finish the jobs they said would be done. But until all this work is finished, they will be going nowhere on their boat.

During the late afternoon, Rita felt the need to go for a ride on her bike, but it was too windy for me. So she went alone, but we later met at the Ginguette for an evening drink.

Over the past day or so, I have been looking at the H2O flags around the port and noticing how tatty they look, which does not give a good first impression for the port. Someone must have been tuning into my thought waves, because this evening I noticed that Roy (ex-capitain) had startded to replace the old flags with new ones. Sure makes a difference!

To end the day, Auxonne turned on its normal sunset display, but this one reminded me of the old biblical story about the burning bush.

Mon 15 May - drain, Iveco, battery, booster, Dijon, SJDL, cafe, 2024 festival?

Sometimes it's nice just to have a small victory. Since we have been on the boat this year, I had noticed that the water in the bathroom sink was going down the plughole very slowly. I wondered if there was a blockage in the pipes leading to the grey water pump in the engine room. But before getting down into the bowels of the boat, I thought I'd just check the "catch-all" bowl in the u-bend under the sink. So I took if off but it seemed relatively clean and empty. However, when I tried to release some water from tbe sink, it came through very slowly. So the problem was between the plughole and the u-bend. After much probing with various implements, I dislodged a disgusting ball of accumulated soap scum, hair and other detrius from the pipe, and the sink now empties perfectly. Job done!

On our road-trip north to Maastricht, we didn't have the services of the fridge in the van, and had made do with the portable electric cooler that we had bought. But Iveco now had the replacement part they needed and said that they could get the fridge fixed and installed today if we brought the van to Dijon this morning. Finally progress was being made. But one should never count the chickens before they hatch. Because when I went to start the van to take it to Dijon, it wouldn't start, as the starter battery was flat again. And the booster that I had bought to start the van in such emergencies had lost charge while we were away, and didn't have enough grunt to kick-start the engine. Since the starter battery was secondhand when we got it in Switzerland last year, we figured it might be wise to replace it with a new battery before we begin our next big road-trip. So while I was charging the booster on the boat's shore power connection, Rita rang Silvain to see if he could install a new starter battery today as well as the fridge; he agreed to this but said he probably couldn't get it all done today. So after the booster was fully charged, we managed to start the van and head off to Dijon in the van and the Scenic. Silvain had found a replacement battery, and said we could pick up the van tomorrow morning.

On the way home, we stopped at St Jean de Losne (for a reason I can no longer remember!), and saw that Cochon Noir (Black Pig) was in port. Since we had not caught up with Clive (the Big Tosser from the 2018 Barge Festival in Moissac) for some time, we went down the steps to talk with him. He seemed much improved after his health problems of the past couple of years. As we reminisced about the Moissac Barge Festivals, someone (not us!) suggested that we should consider organising another such Festival. We said we would think about it.

And we did think about it as we sat in a little cafe at the port, but could not come to any conclusion. But I did like a little sign that they had displayed in the kinky cafe, which translates as "Excuse the mess, but here we live!". Having been on several barges which are as neat as a pin, we have wondered how people can relax in such a pristine environment. I think I will produce such a sign, and hang it at the entrance to Kanumbra!

After we returned to the boat that evening and I was scanning the internet, I found an old photo that I also thought I would reproduce as a canvas print to display on the boat, because it seems to capture a lot of the history of barging in this part of the world.