Come take a ride through a lock with us

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/add87prt4ioblyi/AACPA1SEAUKr-I2gpuHxWoIoa

When one door closes, another one opens.

All of our cruising seasons have been great, and I feel guilty for not writing for almost 2 years, especially since we've had such great guests, and I have all of these blog posts running around in my head.  I'll just try to get back to them sometime later but want to start up again with this retrospective. So I've said it, now the guilt is off my chest, on with blogging.

Life without pets has been a real adjustment for us, but we have taken the opportunity to try something new, and get our kitty/dog fix at the same time.  Last year we joined Mind my House, an online service that seeks to match pet/house sitters with people needing pet/house sitters.  We were lucky in all our years with pets to have some great people come stay at our houses while we were away rather than put our furry friends in the kennel.  We'd come home to our dog or our cats who were happy to see us but totally unstressed.  So in November, we spent three weeks sitting for two beautiful cats in Switzerland.  We fell instantly in love with them, and living in a vineyard near Lake Geneva with views of the mountains was spectacular.  The local region had its annual wine tasting festival the weekend we arrived, complete with tourist train and shuttle buses (good idea to get everyone tasting off the roads). We had a bus stop just below our balcony, and we were living in the middle of one of the wineries in the tour!

After the first week where we stayed in most of the time just to make sure the cats were getting used to us, we had some lovely short day trips to Nyon and Basel.

The last week, friends Scott and Katinka on Eendracht visited for a day, staying in a nearby spa hotel. We celebrated our November birthdays (Tink and Deb) at dinner in a restaurant famous for its Malakoffs, and took a day trip to Montreux, home of the famous music festival.

The kitties were a joy to sit - Leeloo snuggled up to both of us immediately - Granit took some time but became a lap cat after a few days.  Randy is the master cat masseuse and they both fell under his spell. I am simply the cat whisperer, at their beck and call.  We're looking forward to going back again.

Over the Christmas holidays, we headed down to Spain by car, where we sat with two fun, big dogs, in a lovely house on a ridge below the village of Canillas de Aceituno, in the hills to the east of Malaga.  On our way down, we spent two great nights at a nearby Bed and Breakfast Inn, Casa Agradable, above the village of Arenas.  Hans and Anneloes are fantastic owners/hosts and we enjoyed two evenings in front of a roaring fire with them.  They are quite knowledgeable about the flora, fauna, history and cuisine of the area, and provided us with a great guide of suggested sites to see in the Axarquia region.  The inn sits high on a ridge with 360 degree views of the mountains, and valleys sweeping down to the Mediterranean.  We'd love to go back, stay at Casa Agradable, and hike in the surrounding mountains sometime soon.

Rafa and Osi were delightful big companions.  Their daily morning and evening walk routines were a hoot!  We would go out with one tennis ball each - toss them in opposite directions, and the hike began.  We were in a mountainous rural spot, so we all had a good workout going up and down the hills a couple of times a day.  The boys would chase the balls until Osi decided it was time for him to get both of them in his mouth.  Playtime ended and the walk began in earnest.  Once we were back at the house, our mornings consisted of trying to get the tennis balls back from the dogs.  If Rafa dropped his ball, Osi picked it up, chewing two tennis balls at a time - squeak squeak - slobber slobber - Rafa sitting on his cushion, pouting, pretending that he didn't care.  The only way we could get the balls back was to stuff their Kong treat-dispensing chew toys with a treat, and even then, it took a quick lunge to get those slobbery tennis balls away from them.

We spent a quiet Christmas Eve listening to the bells and bleats of the local goat herd as the shepherds and their dogs moved them around the mountainsides back down to a pasture nearby.  On Christmas it was nice enough to grill. We took a short trip to Malaga and to the beautiful village recommended by Hans and Anneloes, Frigiliana, and then our canine holiday was over.  Not the last pet sitting assignment for us!

Dry Dock Days

We spent 8 days in the dry dock at Atelier Fluvial.  Our survey was excellent – she still maintains her strong, thick 105 year old steel hull.  We had a new bow thruster installed, a new grease pump for the shaft, and two fresh coats of bottom paint, so she’s good to go for another 5 years.  Life in a shipyard up on blocks is interesting, to say the least.  

At 7 a.m. we were awakened to the dulsid tones of welding, sand blasting, and all sorts of shipyard sounds.  Over the weekend, we were able to get a third coat of blacking from the red down to over the waterline, so after all of the painting we did last fall, we are done – at least on the exterior.  We’ll spend some time this summer freshening up the interior paint, but that’s easy.

We were surprised while in the dry dock by friends Bob and Lynn on Tracker – we met them in 2010 when we were heading in to the same dry dock for the survey when we purchased the boat.  Déjà vu!  

Floating again, street being moved so we can back out

All 23 meters almost out

They were on hand to fend us off as we backed out of the dry dock, through the lock out onto the Saone River, and Lynn took some great pictures. 

We also got to spend some great time hanging around the shipyard with David and Evelyn on L’Escapade, which happens to be our sister ship – both of our ships were converted in the same shipyard in Holland, right next to each other.  L’Escapade entered the dry dock for her appointment a few days after we left.

I have to admit I had a teary-eyed moment as I looked up from the floor of the dry dock at Alouette’s “ample bottom.”  

I thanked her for keeping us safe all these years, and wondered if I will see her from the bottom up again.  Five years until the next haul out, who knows what life will bring.

Entering the Saone River

Roanne to Fragnes

We slipped our lines on a beautiful sunny April day this year, this time with crew on board, heading  for our 5 year dry dock haul out in St. Jean de Losne.  During our March trip to Budapest, I started to have a little pain in my left knee – perhaps it was walking 12 miles per day on cobblestones – and after seeing the doctor in Roanne, and being advised to stay off my feet for 2 weeks, we realized we needed some help moving the boat.  Good friends Simon and Mae of Joie de Vivre came to the rescue and offered to crew for us for as long as we needed to get the boat up the Canal Roanne a Digoin, across the Canal du Centre, and up the River Saone to the Atelier Fluvial dry dock.  So off we went. Driving the barge into the first lock is always a bit nerve-wracking for me, but Randy maneuvered the boat in perfectly, Simon and Mae handled the lines perfectly, and I was reminded for the first of many times to sit down and get off my knee.

This was the earliest we’ve left port, and we were rewarded by beautiful rural scenery – flowering trees and shrubs, wisteria, huge fields of yellow rapeseed (canola oil), newborn Charolaise calves and baby lambs.  

The days flew by, we were able to spend time in some of our favorite stops along the canals, and before we knew it, we were in Fragnes.  Along the way, Mae and I managed to get in a little therapeutic shoe shopping at my favorite store in Paray Le Monial – the window decorations at this store are always creative and a delight to see, not to mention the shoes!

Mae's, no heels for me right now!

We all cooked and enjoyed some great meals along the way. 

Cuisse de Canard with Lentils

Simon introduced us to the magic of Epoisses burgers.

When it was time for Simon and Mae to go home, we were  really sad to see them leave.  Actually, we delivered them to Scott and Katinka on Eendracht, who paid us a handsome ransom.  Seriously, come back soon Simon and Mae!!