Given my early night yesterday, I was surprised that I slept through till 0600h this morning. No sign yet of jetlag, but I guess tiredness can even override jetlag! Soon after breakfast, I read an email from H2O about their report on the de-winterising of the boat, including a list of "problems" that their staff had located. As usual, they seem to have discovered "problems" that I had already told them about (e.g. disconnecting the generator and bowthruster batteries over winter), and a couple of others which were either obvious or easily fixable (which they hadn't fixed). Given how many hours they supposedly spent on the job and the price they charged, I would have expected better. But then I say this every year!

So I first headed for the galley and lifted the floor-door down to the bilge, and saw all the water in the bilge that Rita had told me about. This is often a problem after winter, with condensation forming on the inside of the hull and then running down into the bilge. But this time, there seemed to be more water than usual. So out came the trusty Kartcher wet-dry vacuum, to suck the water out of the bilge, and empty it down the kitchen sink. After 20 repetitions of suck-lift-empty (about 300 litres in total) the galley bilge was relatively dry. So I left that area for a while to see if more water returned before calling the job done.

In the meantime, I went out to the back deck, and started cleaning the bimini which has been providing shelter from the weather for the rear doors over winter. This year I was using a new cleaner/degreaser (Carolin), which did a good job. Now you may wonder why I should mention such a detail in this blog, but remember that I am writing this for my benefit/usage as well as your reading pleasure! Already this year I have referred back to the blogs of previous years on several occasions to recover some detail about some procedure on the boat. Now, next year when I've forgotten the name of this product, I can come back to this page to retrieve it. I show it's effectiveness at right (and yes, I know I've used similar photos in the past, but there's nothing which gives quite such immediate satisfaction as seeing something clean up like this, while singing Neil Diamond songs!).

I returned to the galley and did a bit more vacuuming, since I noticed that more water had appeared while I was cleaning the bimini. One thing I had noticed when vacuuming the water out of the galley bilge was that it was quite soapy and foamy, so I think this is more than condensation issues. Maybe there is a leak in the shower plumbing?

I then took the Kartcher and headed for the engine room, where there was also water in the bilge. This time, I removed about 8 Kartchers full of soapy water, but unlike the galley there was no easy way to dispose of it. So I had to carry the water up the steps out of the engine room, and then down the steps to the galley to empty it in the sink. Having vacuumed all the water, I noticed that the lid of the grey water pump container looked particularly greasy. So I undid the lid, after sliding the container out from under a nearby steel beam supporting the main engine, and found it full of greasy, soapy water. Having encountered this problem several years ago (and having referred to my blog once more) I jiggled my hand around in the water and found the float switch, which was under the water when it should have been on top of the water. This sometimes happens when the switch gets covered in congealed soap, which jams its normal operations. So I manually lifted it up and down a couple of times to loosen the congealed soap, and I could hear it starting and stopping the pump motor. So I used the Kartcher to empy the container of the remaining water and soap scum, and then got Rita to go to the bathroom and turn on the sink tap, which drains into the grey water pump along with the shower, to fill the grey water tank as it would in normal operation. When it almost reached the top, the float switch swung into operation and the water was pumped out till near emptiness. Problem solved! And this was the cause of the soapy water in the galley bilge, which had flowed through from the engine room bilge. So no need to go crawling through bilge-space to find a problem under the shower. Phew! Now that the galley and engine room bilges were mainly free of water, I used some baby napkins to absorb any remaining moisture on the bilge floors. It's amazing how much these nappies can absorb. Having worked up a sweat with all the vacuuming and hauling of water during the morning, I was pleased to be able to have a shower on the boat, without having to worry about filling the bilges with soapy water.

During the afternoon, I had an online chat with Phil Tyson on barge Effie (currently down south again). After swapping war stories about H2O, we agreed that their behaviour sometimes was either incompetency or dishonesty, or maybe a bit of both.

In looking through the blog this morning, I realised that I had not replaced the windscreen wiper that went on the blink towards the end of our cruising last year. I had found a replacement online, but did not have time to get it delivered and installed before we left to go home. So today I ordered one online, and hope we can get it installed before we have to do any barging in the rain.

At the end of a long, busy day, we took an after-dinner walk up the river to visit a local resident's garden enclosure, where Rita has his approval to dump the contents of our little compost bin into his big compost bin (for his garden). It's interesting to see how his garden changes over the seasons, and already much of his garden is springing to life in Spring (especially the spring onions - sorry for the Dad Joke). Along the river, I got a good shot on the setting sun with a sunset candle reflecting in the water (this one's for you, V).

I suspect jet lag is kicking in, because this morning I was awake at 0300h and couldn't get back to sleep. So I figured I may as well get up and do something. So around 0500h I got out of bed, and left Rita sleeping peacefully, while I went up to the wheelhouse. there I checked my emails, did my morning Wordle and Duolingo exercises, then a bit on this blog. By that time the sun was beginning to rise, but I was now on a roll and continued work on analysing the Permanent Sampling Plot data that I had measured on our Kanumbra plantation trees last week. Given the good rains of the past year, many of the trees have experienced a 10% increase in diameter over the past 12 months.

Around noon we drove over the Dole to go to lunch with Peter Vizzard and Judy Lynne, some old-time barging friends. We had a good meal at a Chinese Buffet restaurant and lots of catching up with each other's past year, including a long talk about pyrolysis and BioChar, given that Peter and Judy have a past history in treegrowing.

After lunch, Rita and I went for a stroll through the Dole gardens and along the Tanneurs Canal which runs past many cafes and restaurants, where many people were sitting outside enjoying the Springtime sunshine. The red poppies in some of the gardens were enormous!

After we got back to the boat, I noticed that the port swans had undergone a change in personality in the six months since we left Auxonne. Whereas previously they were somewhat timid, except when asking for food, and happy to just swim round in the water, now they were out of the water and sitting in the sun on the walk path that surrounds the port. They were undeterred when people approached them and took photos, and were even not fazed when dogs on a leash walked past with their owners, Quite a change of personality in such a short time.

In the late afternoon, I had to refresh my batteries, so I had an hour's nap, then got up for dinner and did some reading before finally going to bed around 2300h. I hoped that my 20 hour day (minus the nap) would be enough to allow me to sleep through the night.

I succeeded in sleeping through the night, but was still so sleepy in the morning that I couldn't be bothered getting out of bed for sunrise, so I took a photo of it through the porthole window, then turned over and went back to sleep.

When we did get up, it was bright and sunny so Rita and I got started on erecting the bimini over the rear deck, with some help from Captain John. John has been cleaning the deck on Pontoon A for the past week, so we helped him along by letting him borrow our Karcher pressure washer. Later in the morning, John returned the favour by giving us a bottle of Vodka that one of the the hire boat renters had giving him as thanks for his welcome to the port (but John is a non-drinker), and also gave us an shore-power adaptor which allows us to plug a normal extension lead into the bourne (John has a stockpile of such gadgets from visiting boaters who leave things connected to the pontoon when they leave port).

During the morning, I was looking for something in the blog from a few years ago, but I couldn't remember which year it might have been. So after some unsuccessful guesses, I thought how it would be nice to have a search function incorporated into the blog website. So I did a bit of research and found that, since I started using Everweb to build this website, they have introduced a Search widget (which I had not noticed before). So, now I have inserted a Search button on the front page when I (or anyone else) can search for a specific word (or words). It immediatley became useful, and I quickly found several references to what I was looking for.

During the afternoon, triggered by yesterday's conversation with Peter Vizzard, I started work again on the BioFACT model (BioChar From Agroforestry Coppiced Trees), with which I am investigating the economic and financial feasibility of installing a Pyrolyzer at the Kanumbra plantation. So far, it has been very useful and has helped my understanding of the interactions between the various design parameters. The model already examines the costs and benefits over the 10-year lifetime of the pyrolyzer. I am now adding a module which uses the profits from the operations to invest in land and the establishment of new plantations in the region, to make the operations fully circular and sustainable where all feedstock is coming from our own trees over a rolling 10-year time horizon.

I was up early to watch the AFL game between the Hawks and St Kilda, but despite having taken out a subscription to Watch AFL as part of my overseas Hawthorn Membership (where I can watch games live while overseas), it was not working, because I had failed to activate it in time, and now the voucher had lapsed. So I sent an email to Hawthorn FC to rectify the situation, and just followed the scores on my phone. Hawthorn led from start to finish and, despite a couple of late goals by St Kilda, they held on to win in a low-scoring match, 58-53. Two wins in a row!

Having put the house batteries on the C7 charger last night, I was pleased to see that the fridges were now getting enough voltage to be able to run, so at least the food wouldn't all go off. We waited for 0900h and then headed down to St Jean de Losne to try to get some help with the Mastervolt problem. When we got there, the Capitainerie office was closed, even though the sign said it was open. We waited around for a sign of life for a while, and were about to give up when someone from H2O walked up and opened the office. It wasn't Vasili (he must not work on weekends) but he seemed to be familar with the problem, as he completed our sentences as we described the symptoms to him. However, in the end all he could say was that we would have to call Florence on Monday morning and ask for an appointment! Not a great outcome, but what else could we do? So we hopped in the car and headed home, just as I realised that I had missed watching the NRL top-of-the-table contest between Cronulla Sharks and the Storm (probabaly just as well as the Sharks ran out winners 25-18 againt an injury-depleted Storm).

Since we could not even get an appointment with H2O sorted out before Monday, I asked a friend in port if he could have a look at our Mastervolt charger, just in case it was something simple that we had missed. He said he would be happy to have a look, but could not guarantee anything. So he gathered a few tools and headed downstairs into the engine room. As I watched on, he switched things on and off on the control panel, then measured a few voltages and the current flowing through a few cables. One could tell, as he mumbled a few things to himself, that his mind was hard at work diagnosing the problem(s). He then opened up the Mastervolt cabinet, and played with some wires, and then removed two wires from their clips. The charger started immediately! He looked as surprised as me (but I'm sure he wasn't). I asked him what he had just done, and with a cheeky grin he said "I can't tell you that, or I'd be out of a job!". We laughed for a little while, and then he explained that the two wires were sensor cables that connected to the batteries and informed the charger if there was a problem with the batteries. If such a problem was detected, then the charger would shut down to avoid the charger being damaged by the faulty batteries. He then said "Watch what happens when I reconnect them", and we were both surprised this time when the charger continued to run! He pulled them off again, and put them back on, and the charger continued to run. At that point, he said "Let's not tempt fate", and left them connected. He explained that sometimes such a procedure has the same effect as resetting a computer. The temporary problem is forgotten and the system goes back to functioning as it should.

I was extemely happy to have the charger working again, all within about 20 minutes. We were still unsure whether the batteries would recover from their 15% charge status, and accept the charging that the Mastervolt was offering. But we were happy that we wouldn't have to have the whole Mastervolt system replaced, like last time with H2O.

That evening, we had drinks with friends aboard Polaris, and they all said that having tech-savvy people in port was a godsend, especially on weekends when no one else was available. As we chatted, we could hear a TV in the background, and noticed that our hostess was disappearing at regular intervals downstairs. It turned out she was checking on the progress of Eurovision. So as the night wore on, we took our leave and let her pay more focussed attention to it. As it turned out, maybe we should have stayed, because the Swiss contestant took out first prize!

As we were walking back to our boat in the dark, we came across the swans sitting by the side of the path. Like during the day, they seemed to be totally friendly and happily posed for a photo. But as one of them started to curl their wings upwards, we moved on, as I had read somewhere that that was a warning sign.

When we got home, I checked my computer for emails etc, and was pleased to see that following Jack Holder's win in the opening round of the Speedway Grand Prix a couple of weeks ago, fellow Aussie Jason Doyle had taken out the second round tonight in Poland, putting Australians number 1 and 2 in the title race for 2024

The power went off on Pontoon A overnight, and was still off this this morning. Initially I thought it was just a continuation of by batteries/charger problem, but when I saw others walking along the pontoon with puzzled looks on their faces, I realised it was a problem for everyone. So I called John to let him know, and the power was back on in 10 minutes. During the morning I put the tent back over the dogbox, after given all the white elastic cords and the black straps a good wash to get rid of their winter grunge. I then cleaned all the side railings and the cabin sides and the boat was starting to look respectable again.

In the afternoon, we drove up to Besain to pick up the campervan. But on trying to start it we found the battery to be flat. We tried several alternative like the small lithiun emergency starter battery, and jump starting it from the Scenic, but no luck. So we had no alternative but to connect the Bosch C7 charger (where would we be without three of these) and leave it to charge overnight.

The good part of this situation was that we got to stay and have dinner with Sarah and Alban and the boys, and then slept overnight at Besain.

We woke early next morning, along with everyone else, and went up to the shed to collect the van. But when we got there, is was still not charged. It was at this time that we realised that the secong-hand battery we bought in Switzerland a couple of years ago had probably reached the end of its life. So we did a bit of Googling to find the replacement brand and size (Bosch S5 95A), and found that the Peugeot garage in nearby Champagnole has some in stock. So we put the old battery in the back of the Scenic and drove up to Champagnole, and swapped a dead battery (and a bit of money) for a live battery. Actually when we rang them at 1000h, they said they actually had none in stock, but we could order one and it would  be there by 1400h the same day. So we took their word, and went up at 1400h, and it was there! Nice service. We brought the new battery back to Besain, fitted it to the van in the shed, and it started first time.

I drove the van back to Auxonne, while Rita stayed for another night with Sarah. But when I got there, I realsed that the keys to the wheelhouse were with Rita. No worries, I'll just get the set of keys I left over winter with the Capitainerie. But when John went to get them, they weren't there. Luckily he realised that he must have given the wrong set of Piper Barge keys to someone else earlier in the day, so he called them and they brought the keys across.

When I got inside, I was pleased (and surprised) to see that the house batteries had reached 86% on a very slow charge. Which was just as well, as I'd had enough battery dramas for the day. Later in the evening, a storm front moved in from the east, but it never really reached Auxonne, after dumping most of its rain on Besain.

By next morning, the house batteries were up to 92%. It seems like all I hear about these days is batteries: house batteries, van battieries, and then I heard a podcast online about community batteries by Tristan Edin, a renowned renewable energy expert in Australia. And he was saying, much more convincingly than me, that most "community battery" schemes had little to do with communities, with most of the benefits going to network distributors and retailers, many of them in Victoria being overseas-owned.

Rita arrived home in the late-morning and we then dashed across to St Jean de Losne to have lunch with Peter and Judy in a cute little restaurant just out of town. We introduced them to the concepts behind our pyrolysis project and explained why we were soon going to Moissac to put our house on the market.

After lunch we drove them back to their boat in SJDL, and then drove home in rain that was just starting, but which then just went all through the night.

After overnight rain, the showers started to clear during the morning. I finally sorted out the Watch AFL subscriotion with Hawthorn FC, and was able to belatedly watch the Hawks victory over the Saints. Nothing like a victory served cold. Then it was down into the engine room to start draining the bilge of the water accumulated in the past few months. Since the water I was collecting in the Kartcher was a bit soapy, I suspected the shower of being the culprit for the leak, but when I looked under the flooring near the shower, all appeared to be dry, if a little dirty. The mystery continues.

I continued working on the BioFACT model, incorporating the option of looking at the feedstock needs for a multi-rotation pyrolysis project. It seems that it would be possible to use profits from the first 10-year rotation to invest in new plantations, which make the operation self-sufficient for feedstock from the second rotation onwards, without have to buy feedstock from other treegrowers. Given Peter and Judy's interest in the project the other day, I emailed them a copy of the ANZBIG (Australia and NZ BioChar Industry Group) BioChar Manual for Farmers, and some more information about our project and the spreadsheet modelling. I also received an email from Fabiano Ximenes from NSW DPI, saying that he would be willing to participate in the Shaping Murrindindi's Future Farm Forestry Working Group. His expertise with short-rotation forestry could be of great value. In the afternoon, I continued working on documentation of the BioFACT model. It may seem like I am spending a lot of time working on the pyrolysis project (and I am) when I am supposed to be on holiday, but this project will be the only thing that ensures that we'll be able to spend time here at all in the coming years, so it's worth the sacrifice now.

I was happy to see that the boat's house batteries had now recovered to 95%, and hoped that this was a long-term recovery, which would stand up OK when the house batteries were put under load without the assistance of shore-power charging.