Warm and sunny. Mike had left Olly to dress yesterday’s welds after fixing the last of the fuel tank leaks but he went too deep and it was leaking again so he had to re-weld that then there were more welding jobs to do on our boat. He added a loop underneath the bow fender to try and pull it down into shape. Once I got the power back, I carried on wire-brushing round the bows and down the port side. Anne wanted a job to do so volunteered to get the rest of the mussels off the bottom of our boat. They had mussels down the sides of theirs but none underneath. Olly started brushing the sides on Snail. By late afternoon we were getting very tired. I was more than half way down the port side. We washed and changed and both went to sleep. Lit the BBQs and sat out chatting until late, listening for bats using Olly’s bat detector and watching for satellites.
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Wednesday 1st June 2011 Péronnes. Working on the dry dock.
Sunny and hot. Old clothes on and out to start work on the rubbing down – except we hadn’t got any wire brushes. Mike thought we had, but couldn’t find any (found them after we’d nearly finished – they were in the box with the electric drills!). He went to get some from the Brico in Tournai. I got on with the usual chores and defrosted the ‘fridge. I managed to get all the food back in the ‘fridge just before he returned. Made a start on the wire-brushing, Mike doing the gunwales to waterline and I did below waterline. He did all around the back then went to investigate the leaky fuel tank in Snail’s bows. He and Olly decided to take off part of the top of the rubbing band around the bows and find the leak, which was behind it, as their tank is situated on their boat in the place where we have our gas locker - right in the point of the bow. After lunch Mike carried on working on Snail’s bow with Olly, pressure testing it and continuing to find more leaks. I carried on with the cleaning off. I finished around 5.30 p.m. as I’d done to the end of the trolley. Mike and Olly carried on working, finding the holes in the edge of Snail’s fuel tank.
Friday, 10 June 2011
Tuesday 31st May 2011 Péronnes.
Rain in the night, grey skies and damp until later afternoon. We need to get paint on as soon as the sides have been brushed so we gave up on the idea of starting the wire brushing. Olly soldiered on with the pressure washer. Our surveyor, M. Lemaire, arrived and did his hull thickness checks and chatted with Mike about the rest of the services. He came on board and I made coffee and we talked. He told us that there were lots of new regulations coming in and it seems that some people have only read the new rules – there is another document, which must be read in conjunction with the new rules, which gives a time schedule as most of them will be phased in gradually, plus a thing like having two doors to an engine room applies only to engine rooms over 35m2! He asked how long we would be on the dock so Mike told him about a week to ten days depending on the weather. He said he would be in touch. When Olly finished Mike packed the pressure washer up and Anne went with him to take it back to the hire shop, visit the Brico and do some shopping in Carrefour. Mike couldn’t get any wire cup brushes as the Brico didn’t sell them.
Monday 30th May 2011 Péronnes. Hauling out!
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| Ready to be hauled out at Peronnes Photo by Anne and Olly |
Sunny until mid-afternoon, clouds came over and later it rained, but we had none of the thunderstorms which the forecast had threatened. We were up bright and early to get the chores done and the ropes sorted out ready for hauling out. The Snails came across and moored on the other side of the trolley - nearest the lake when we get on to dry land. Fiddled with the ropes until we were in the right place when we shoved on the uprights with boat shafts, one at each end; the Snails did likewise. Marjorie arrived and asked if we were ready, she said she wasn’t and would be back in a minute after she had started the engine up. Someone must have waylaid her as it was nearly half an hour before she came back. Then, when we were part way up the slope, the motor cut off. Janinne was on the motor and Marjorie was keeping an eye on the trolley and us. Anne said she was a bit concerned about the fore end of Snail fouling on the next trolley so Marjorie lined it up by eye and said it was OK, it would miss. Turned out that Janinne had stopped the motor as the shaft coupling was coming loose. Mike climbed down and started tidying up, moving the metal stands that were close to the sterns of the boats, etc. We trundled up on to the flat then she had to stop it again while they repaired the coupling again. Mike decided to go and get the pressure washer from Laxom, the hire shop in Tournai, as it was after eleven a.m. After the motor had restarted and we were in our final resting place, I got the ladder off and connected the electricity cable up – it didn’t work so Mike had to sort it out on his return. Anne found a thick wooden wedge when we went foraging for wedges. We needed a large one under the port bow but Snail was flat on the trolley. Both boats were listing towards one another. When Mike got back we set up the pressure washer. The boatyard’s water hose was leaky as a colander (people keep driving over it) but the washer worked OK. Mike started off down the starboard side of our boat. I cleared up around the boat shifting loads of discarded rubbish left by previous boaters, then I went round with the secateurs to clip back the brambles. Mike finished down the one side of our boat and handed over to Olly so he could do the first side on Snail while Mike’s arms had a rest and he did other jobs. Olly wasn’t happy with the pressure washer, as it didn’t seem to be fetching the green stuff off Snail as easily as it did ours. Mike tried scraping the dried green weed off the starboard side of Snail with assistance from Anne. Olly got almost to the end of their port side then Mike had the pressure washer to our port side. M. Lemaire phoned to say he would be round to do our survey the following day. I crawled back on board with aches and pains from clambering up and down the ladder. After stowing the pressure washer back in the boot, Mike gave Olly the car keys in case he wanted to start early next morning, as the jet washing machine has to be returned around lunchtime.
Sunday 29th May 2011 Pommeroeul - Péronnes. 21kms 1 lock
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| Arriving at Peronnes Photo by Anne and Olly |
Grey start, very windy, sunny later. Set off at ten, untied from the mole and turned left on the Nimy-Blaton-Péronnes canal heading back to Péronnes. I made a cuppa and some toast then got the Kindle out and read some more of Pillars of the Earth. Very quiet, nothing else moving but us. Chilly, so I made us a cup of soup to warm us up when we were about 6 kms from Péronnes lock 1. Not long after we’d passed a group of moored cruisers by the Pont de Gaulle, they all set off and followed us, four of them overtaking before the lock. We followed them into the chamber and noted there was another behind us. The keeper waited for the fifth, a British cruiser, which tied on the lock wall opposite WS. The keeper let the lock down very, very slowly, just what we need when we’re rushing to get tied up and get the satellite on to watch the Monaco Grand Prix. It was 1.35 p.m. as we left the chamber; all the cruisers steamed off down to Péronnes lock 2. We turned right into the large and went on to the trolley and tied to its posts, with some difficulty as the wind was blowing hard. Olly brought WS round and on to the trolley converted to lift cruisers and moored under the crane so they could get off with Woody. I started getting the dish up and Mike finished it off. The race had already started. Mike settled down to watch it (as did Olly next door) with his PC on to get the stats via the Internet. The high wind was causing waves making boat was bang against the brackets holding the uprights in place on the trolley. After the race I gave Mike a hand to sink tyres to stop the boat bashing against the trolley.
Saturday 28th May 2011 Pommeroeul.
Sunny and warmer with a gusty wind. Went shopping in Bernissart by car. Found the former GB supermarket, now a Carrefour Market but still on GB layout. We were back before midday. After lunch Mike watched the first bit of the F1 GP qualis in Monaco then decided to record the rest and go and move the car to the boatyard at Peronne. Gave him a hand with the bike, easy as the roof is level with the concrete walkway along the mole.
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
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