Kerr Barging Blogs

While we were working on ANJA in the boatyard, we noticed a fellow "George" working very hard on his wooden boat. We learned that it was one of the original Lifeboats on the Mauritania. Indeed, it is very likely that it is the onbly one left. The Mauritania was launched as a fast, luxury liner in 1938 but as soon as the war started, it was comandeered and converted into a Troopship in Sydney Australia! So, the boat next to us had been to Australia. Indeed, it went many places as the Mauritania did over 543,000km just during the war. Not only that, this lifeboat has never been in the water!

 The Mauritania's Life Boat

The coincidences increased when Penny remembered that her father had travelled on the Mauritania towards the end of the war in Europe.

Penny's father John Cunliffe served as a Navigator in the Royal Australian Air Force during World War 11. He joined in April 1941 and in September left for Edmonton Canada for  training with the British Empire Air Training scheme. From there he was stationed in Dorval, near Montreal with RAF Transport Command, ferrying planes built in the North America to Britain. Of course, he had then to return to North America for the next delivery and that meant running the gauntlet of the German Navy in the Atlantic. On one such trip, in July 1942,  he travelled on the Queen Mary and as he was an officer, was placed in charge of one of the machine guns on the boat deck. On another trip on the Empress of Scotland in January 1943 he was in charge of Submarine and Aircraft lookouts.

John was fortunate to be crew on a delivery flight from the USA to Australia in September 1942. He revisited his young wife Julie, last seen a year before, and to meet his baby daughter Annette, born in May 1942.  

In February 1944 John was posted in England to  575 Squadron stationed at Broadwell near Oxford. From here he took part in D Day and the subsequent months of flying into Europe, particularly Northern France and Belgium. On D day and in the weeks following he made many trips across the Channel, towing gliders and also dropping parachutists and supplies, ferrying back the wounded. For one brief period in late September 1944 he was stationed in Brussels, before returning to England in October to be repatriated to Australia.

On his final trip from England home to Australia, John travelled on the Mauritania, departing from Liverpool on November 2nd 1944 and arriving about November 7th in New York. He then had a substantial wait until travelling by train from New York to San Francisco starting   on December 2nd, boarding the Lurline at San Francisco (reached by train from New York) on December 13th, arriving in Brisbane on January 16th. Had he been able to get an earlier boat he would perhaps have been home in time to spend Christmas for the first time with his wife and his 2 1/2  year old daughter Annette Penny's older sister).

Best Regards,

Penny and Dave

We have been pressing on fast since Joigny. Firstly we went to Sens and the following day, aster a fast run, reached Montereau at the junction of the Yonne and Seine Rivers. Since then, we have travelled 96km in two days and reached the Southern part of Paris, several days ahead of schedule. We have even managed to finish varnishing the mast and the rustproofing under the floor! We quite enjoy the Seine and have been able to "tag along" with a commercial barge and therefore experience very little delay at the locks.

 Montereau at the junction of the Yonne and Seine Rivers

We have been travelling more slowly on the Seine this year because it is not in flood. However that is also more relaxing as well.

Next, we will have a long day transiting Paris and staying on the North side at the end of the day. We will then be in the area where the Impressionists painted.

 The difficult tank (circular with red button in middle)

You will recall we were disappointed to find that we could not use the electric water heater to also heat water from waste heat produced by the engine. Well, we had further problems with it because it started to leak and the element developed a fault. So, I (David) emptied it and isolated it from our hot water system. I then decided to try and remove the tank and actually succeeded in finally removing it. It is 17 years old. Rather than buy a new element and put it back, we have decided to buy a new one which will also let us connect up the engine to it for "free" hot water. The main challenge is finding an address where it can be delivered as we are moving rapidly further away towards the North.

We also had a problem with the Bowthruster batteries which have rapidly died. They are seven years old and we have ordered replacements which we should receive in a couple of days. The Bowthruster is a "nice to have" rather than a "must have" item.

Penny teaches the carpet "Who is the Boss" between the Seine and railway line

View of Yonne/Joigny from ANJA

Penny returned after a good week in Guernsey visiting Liz and new son Noah. Liz got out of hospital for the last few days of the visit and continues to improve.

While she was away, David put in a further 60hrs work on things like re-varnishing the front of the wheelhouse, sanding and varnishing the mast, making repairs to the port topsides and repainting red and the rubbing strake black.

Upon Penny's return, we were back into the chores including provisioning, buying plants and herbs,

One disappointment was our electric hot water unit, which has provision for connecting to the engine. We had bought the special hoses and parts but discovered that the fittings inside the tank were rusted/corroded and therefore useless for what we intended. We looked at removing the tank but it appeared too hard as a wall and bath had been installed after the tank with no obvious way to remove the tank. Simon (who owns the boat yard) came and looked and decided it was a lot of work and probablty too difficult. This meant that we still had the diesel fired boiler and could use the electric heater in the few places we stay that have electricity provided. It would have been nice to use all that extra engine heat which otherwise just goes into the canal. Ah well, not a big problem. The same as previous years but no step forward.

We have also added tiling in the main bedroom, a hot water tap in the bathroom sink and a number of other improvements.

A big "Thank You" to Christian who lent tools, gave piping and offered suggestions on the best places to buy a number of items.

Over all, we accomplished around 29 of the 35 items on the list and some of them grew larger once we started them. We can perform most of the remaining items as we go down the river.

Finally, Friday arrived- our scheduled date for craning into the water. We had left our good friends Christian and Chantal at Les Chouettes and they gave us a beautiful send-off meal (including pigeons from their pigeon house) plus a package containing their fresh eggs, our favourite cheese (Epoisses) and biscuits). This was so that we would not starve!

 Pigeons at Les Chouettes

Simon was shortstaffed as it was the day between Liberation Day and the weekend. So David had to fill-in as a worker to hold the boat parallel to the crane and then the quay as it was lowered. There were two of us to hold the 36 tonne boat in the strong breeze but all went well.

We travelled a couple of Km to Laroche St Cydroine so we could wash down the boat completely (after it spent six months over winter in the boat yard) and for Penny to place the Geraniums and herbs into their proper pots. She also did a lot of further work preparing under the floor for rustproofing and painting. 

Late Saturday afternoon, we went through a couple of locks and about 8Km to the pleasant town of Joigny. We have been here many times before, but it is always pleasant and scenic. We had a fantastic meal at "Paris Nice" restaurant which had been recommended by Christian and Chantal. It was very reasonably priced and the food was excellent. Penny even had Kangaroo and Duck and there were 23 desserts on the menu.

 Kangaroo and Duck at "Paris Nice"

Tomorrow, Monday, we head off to Sens which is 30km and six locks away.

Franco-Portugese Mass at St Thibault

Well, tonight I learned how to eat Moules (small black shellfish) the "French Way". "Moules et Frites" is a common dish in many parts of France and also Wallonia- the French speaking part of Belgium. Thank you Chantal et Christian and especially to Chantal for cooking so beautifully. I will pass on the eating knowledge to Penelope next week.

Today was all "inside work" on Anja because it was cold, nasty and wet outside. The Meteo prediction is for fine weather with almost zero chance of rain for the weekend so I hope to make good progress on outdoor activities which include a lot of sanding and painting.

In other good news, daughter Liz is back home from hospital in Guernsey and "mumpenny" is helping her and Noah as well as having lots of Noah cuddles.

All the best,

Dave

Well, it is certainly time for a BLOG update!

We arrived in France eight days ago. We had a good flight to Singapore and boarded the next 'plane to Paris. We roared down the runway, but about halfway down, the pilot put the engines into reverse and hit the brakes.

There was a problem with two of the engines which showed overheating. We were deplaned and put into a large area normally reserved for four Airbus 380s. There was plenty of room and they supplied free food and drinks plus updates every 15 minutes. It turned out that the engine temperature sensors had been damaged by insects.

We took off again 3hrs30mins late and Christian Collet kindly phoned Europcar Joigny to tell them we would be late.

We had a good trip on the trains from Paris to Joigny where our rental car awaited. Then it was on to the Chambre d'Hote “Les Chouettes” where our friends Chantal and Christian greeted us warmly.

We did several days work on Anja before Penny headed off on a planned one week visit to Liz and new son Noah in Guernsey. The visit had been planned many months before but proved to be very timely because Liz developed a large embolism in the leg and was hospitalised as a result. So, Penny's visit has not been as originally envisaged but certainly very helpful as she also had had problems with a pulmonary embolism after the birth of our daughter number three. So, Penny is very experienced in these matters. A good time for mum/grandma to be around.

The day before Penny left, we had a pleasant and relaxing day. This included a trip to a “vide grenier” which literally means “empty attic”. It was in the local village of Saint Georges and there were 350 stalls set up along several streets which had been closed for the annual event. We bought children's' clothes, books and toys for Noah plus Grace and Mary who are visiting us later in the year. Sorry James, none of these French things are for you but we will make up for it when we return to Australia. We had a very pleasant lunch in a local restaurant, complete with a very accomplished singer who accompanied himself on guitar and piano.

Penny left for Guernsey on Monday morning and gets back next Monday. We got up at 4am ready to drive to the railway station (which is 30mins away). We were astonished to receive a text message from Christian at 4.10 saying “your coffee is ready”. Christian and Chantal were fully dressed downstairs with breakfast prepared as well as a “travel package” for Penny to take on the trains/metro/ferry to Guernsey! What an unexpected surprise and at 4.15am in the morning. I ended up having two breakfasts that morning.

Hopefully Liz will get out of hospital tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I have been working on the boat 9-10hrs per day. There are 37 things on the list and I have completed seven. So, thirty more to complete in the next week. I have started many of the 30. Whereas the weather has been very mild with pleasant temperatures, there have been rain showers every day. This makes painting and varnishing difficult. We understand that the rain came with us and that there had been almost no rain for the month before. Here is one of the jobs- sanding and varnishing the front of the wheelhouse.

Best Regards,
Dave (and Penny in absentia).