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| Jules and Richard leaving after refuelling us on Wednesday morning |
Tuesday
was a sort of jobs day. We had to pop
into Aylesbury in the morning; Karen dropped me and Buddy at the vets outside
of town while she went in to get a few things.
As I
mentioned the other day, Buddy has passed his second titre test, so I needed to
get his passport stamped accordingly; we then walked into town to meet up with
Karen. On the way I saw my first small
tortoiseshell of the year, but it never settled long enough to get a good view
or picture. Looking at my butterfly
pictures whilst writing this blog entry I realise we have no decent pictures of
a small tortoiseshell.
I know I
have some good physical prints from the days when I used to go butterflying
with an SLR camera and macro lens. In
those days you never knew what the pictures were like until the film had been
processed. Many was the roll of film
that was returned with no decent prints produced!
When we
got home the weather was still so good, we sat outside for lunch again and
whiled away an hour or two before getting back down to chores. I booked our tunnel crossing for four weeks’
time and arranged a place to stay in Auxerre while we await the arrival of the
boat at the boatyard. Karen carried on
arranging our new shelves – she has now filled one with food jars that used to
be hard to get to at the back of a cupboard.
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| Shelves stocked but the wine rack getting low – fortunately that’s not the only wine store on the boat |
A couple
of people asked how Karen used a boathook to loop a line over a bollard – we
were practising when we went to get water on Monday. The answer, thanks to Mike & Aileen’s
suggestion, was to by an attachment called a dock-a-reni. This neatly fits to the boathook so that the
rope is held in two places and then easily detaches itself as the boathook is
pulled away and the loop is pulled tight.
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| The black hook about 18” from the end is the dock-a-reni |
Talking
about Mike & Aileen, we had one of our regular chats with them and they
were pleased to announce that the river levels are nice and low where we are
heading for in France. They have thoughtfully
been keeping an eye on them for us as this time last year many were in flood
and it would have been mad to put a narrowboat in the water in those conditions. The guys at the boatyard we are starting from
told us that the yard itself was flooded to the extent that a low loader wouldn’t
be able to get in anyway – the highest they had ever known it there.
Miranda
came to visit us for the morning on Wednesday and Jules & Richard turned up
on their fuel boats while she was here and topped up our diesel and coal. We had a bit of a chat and it transpired that
over the years Jules has spent quite a bit of time helping steer her cousin’s hotel
boats in France and Belgium. She was
obviously well clued up with the difference in cruising between the UK and the
mainland.
We dropped
Miranda off at her mother’s house in Wendover and then called in to see Ann
before returning to Marsworth. We hadn’t
seen Dorothy for nearly a year, and it was good to see her looking well and she
was particularly pleased to be able to wish us bon voyage. She and Miranda’s father spent many months
touring Europe in their caravan with Miranda and her younger sister Gilly, so
she understood the excitement of foreign travel.
Over yet
another alfresco lunch we decided to have a cruise in the afternoon as the
weather was still so warm. As we set off,
we saw our first peacock of the year; another one of the five British
butterflies that overwinter as adults.
Now we have seen brimstones (an amazing number), commas, a small
tortoiseshell and this peacock we only have the red admiral to see. Other
butterflies are known to overwinter as adults, but they are not yet classified
as British residents as they normally migrate from Europe and Africa such as
the clouded yellows and painted ladies. Whether you believe in global warming
or not it does seem our climate has changed enough recently so that some
specimens are able to survive our winters.
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| A peacock taken by Karen in 2015 |
We headed
down the remaining locks at Marsworth towards Cheddington.
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| Tee-shirt weather all afternoon |
The wider
beam boat in the picture above was built at the same boatyard as our boat and its
registration number is only six greater than ours so it must be a similar age.
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| Buddy getting a cuddle |
This week
has certainly brought out the blossom on the trees and also the remaining daffs
on the boat!
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| Showing off our daffs going down the last lock of the day, Seabrook 34 |
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| Our mooring at Ivinghoe on Wednesday night |
Just after
we moored up, we had a call from Simon at the boatyard in Migennes to confirm the
details for when the boat arrives. One
thing he pointed out was that the locks on the Yonne (the river where the yard
is) are not opening until the Friday after we arrive. We had obviously misunderstood the wording on
the French waterways (VNF) site that gives details of when each river and canal
reopens after any winter shutdown. He did confirm that the canal de Bourgogne,
which heads off from the river a couple of hundred metres upstream of the yard,
opens on the Monday before we arrive. There
is a basin at the start of the canal that he suggested we stay in until the
Friday, but it did mean going through a lock to get off the river. That lock is part of the Yonne system so he
suggested he contacted the lock keepers to make sure they would be around to let
us in early.
We haven’t
yet decided whether we would head south down the Yonne or south down the canal
so staying in the basin for a couple of days would help us decide. As Karen pointed out we will need a couple of
days to sort the boat out after the move, restock the fridge and freezer and
get food for a week or so.
Our little
cruise on Wednesday saw us cover nearly three miles down five locks.
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