Kerr Barging Blogs

....but the Yonne River is not ready!

We were supposed to be craned into the river yesterday but the river is still closed, at a high level and with a very fast current. The main problem is the huge amount of water coming from the Armancon River which enters the Yonne just a few hundred metres upstream of where we are in the boatyard. A heavy storm 60 hours ago raised the Armancon level significantly and it is only now back to the level of a few days ago.

The new plan is to go into the river on Monday evening or Tuesday morning.

The week has gone well with paint touchup, provisioning, some varnishing and generally unpacking and cleaning things complete. We have worked very hard and been tired each night, which has been quite good for sleeping and overcoming jet-lag.

After some small hiccups, the rewound stator for the big alternator/welder is installed and working and the second (spare) back of the alternator also modified and tested. So now the big generator-welder alternator should run much cooler giving it a longer life.

The tiles are back in place in the bathroom after the problem with the pipe join freezing in winter and we are having discussions with Simon about the winterising to ensure it does not happen again because the problem created many hours of extra and unnecessary work.

We have the flowers and herbs for 2016 and Penny has potted them. They are sitting under the boat until just before we are launched.We have had our last sleep at "Les Chouettes" and said "Au revoir" for now to our dear friends Chantal and Christian. They have sold Les Chouettes and are retiring from running the Chambre d'hote (B&B). So, this was our 6^th and final stay at their beautiful house in the country. They have bought an apartment in Auxerre and will have a less busy time there.

Penny is travelling to Paris on Monday to collect her sister and return to the boat. This will be a challenge because of the ongoing train strike. About 2/3^rds of the services are cancelled each day. Fortunately, a law passed in 2007 ensures that some essential trains must run each day and we have access to the revised timetables the night before. This makes things somewhat simpler but they will have an interesting time on very crowded trains.

Best Regards,

Dave and Penny

To those who are subscribed by email: My apologies as the notification emails have not ben going out for the previous two blogs. Hopefully now fixed.

Regards,

Dave

Hi All,

Things are going well and the water has left the boatyard and returned to the river which is now 4cm below the top of the quay. So, it has about another metre to drop.Five lanes of the Periphique under water- 24hrs before the peak!

Afternoon tea today was a penguin. Perhaps the boulangerie thought that penguins would be appropriate for the very wet weather? It was delicious!

We experienced a hiccup when we recommissioned the water system. Somehow, water was left in a section of the hot water pipe when Simon did the winterising last year. The water had frozen (perhaps several times) during winter and damaged a pipe fitting. So, we needed to remove a section of the tiling and another panel and repair the problem which was behind the wall of the shower. There was very little space in which to work but it is now done. Tomorrow the tiles will go back and we will reseal them. Fortunately, we made it possible to do this in 2011 when there was a problem with pipes freezing in a section of unused pipe which was blocked off and impossible to drain. After that, we need to clean about about 50litres of water which have gone into the hull. Fortunately it is not salt water which would cause a rust problem.

Best Regards,

Dave and Penny

 

Hi Everyone,

We are now in France, after a few challenges along the way. We had expected delays once we reached France because of the National strike. People are protesting about new work laws. These are certainly detailed laws because the document outlining them exceeds 850 pages.

Our first surprise was after we reached Singapore. Our flight which was due to depart about 90mins after our arrival was already delayed almost 9hrs until the following morning. Singapore Airlines booked us a room in town and sent us there in a taxi. Upon arrival at the hotel, we contacted Christian who kindly notified the rental car people that we were delayed until the following day. We also managed to find a hotel room near Gare de Lyon. We would have preferred Bercy, but many/most hotels were booked out.

We did manage to get a few hours sleep and headed back  to the airport by chartered bus the next morning. All went well until just before departure, when a passenger became ill and had to depart the 'plane for medical reasons and they had to find his baggage and remove it. Another 30 mins gone!

After that, there were no further incidents and we reached CDG airport without problems. We managed to catch a RER train to Gare du Nord and it was PACKED. Just like commuter trains in Tokyo where you sleep standing up because everyone is jammed in so tightly. Gare du Nord was also incredibly busy and a helpful SNCF guy told us where our next train was to depart from. In fact we needed two more trains because trains were not going their usual routes nor their usual platforms and 2 in every 3 scheduled trains were cancelled.

Finally we reached the hotel and had our first meal in France for this year. This was at a nearby cafe and we had a three course meal with wine, bread and water all for 18 euros each. Excellent! Then at the hotel we checked what trains were actually running to Joigny the next day. There were very few trains indeed. However, we did spot something very strange. Normally we go from Bercy which was 1.2kms walk from the hotel and has the fast trains. Gare de Lyon 200metres away normally has the slow all-stations trains. But we spotted a unique express train from Gare de Lyon with one stop before Joigny. It was terminating at Laroche Migennes, the next stop. This was good news if it really existed.

Next morning, we visited the River Seine which had broken its banks. The railway line and 5 lane Periphique road were under water. Nothing could fit under the bridges becaue of the water height. The Seine is at its highest for 30 years and also, it is very late in the year for such flooding.

Next we went to Gare de Lyon. Sure enough, the "Ghost Train" was listed. Fantastic! But, when we tried to buy a ticket from the machine, it would not let us becauser every train was cancelled and the "Ghost Train" was not listed. So, we went to the ticket office. There a young lady tried all combinations and also could not book a ticket. Finally, we got one from the counter, but they had to use a different train, later in the day, from a different station in order to print tickets! But the train came and our tickets worked (inspectors were not in any case checking them). There was a 30min delay in a suburb while Police removed protestors from the railway track.

We saw many submerged villages along the way and the Seine was very wide in places. Moret sur Loing looked particularly bad and it is interesting we were there and had a peaceful time last year. Now, where we had been, was a raging and wide torrent.

We have done some work on the boat (in the flooded boatyard) and caught up with Christian and Chantal who had lots of good and interesting news about changes in their lives.

Photos are coming but we are tired and this will suffice for the moment.

Best Regards,

Hello everyone and welcome to our Blog for 2016.We are starting a little later this year, but should depart from here on the 1^st of June and arrive in France the day after.

We will spend about a week getting things ready before heading off North.

Our new French credit cards have arrived and been activated already. Our titres de sejour (long term visas) are also waiting for us at the Prefecture. Hooray!

Apart from cleaning, painting and provisiooning, the main task this year is to fit and test a new alternator assembly for the generator/welder. The alternator part can get quite hot (due to the design) so I (David) have re-designed it and have high hopes it will work fine and should give the unit a longer life.

More when we get there. You can see where we are going  from the front page of our website

Best Regards,

David and Penny